Scanning and posting documents on the web

After some experimentation, this method is what I would recommend.  Here is the basic idea. You scan each page you want to post, save them as black and white gif files using a certain resolution and cutoff between black and white, and name them 1.gif, 2.gif, 3.gif, etc. You also download three simple .html files which display the .gif files, one for onscreen viewing, one large print version, and, one for printing. All of these files go into one folder, and they are the only files in that folder.

1. In Room 401 at the Macintosh by the windows, create a folder where you will store your web files on the desktop. Give it a name that describes the collection of documents you are about to scan, such as "assignment1". Don't use spaces or special characters in the name, however.  If you are adding this to a web page created with FrontPage, you should first download that web as explained in Using Fetch and FrontPage to edit a web page.  Then you should create a subfolder called something like "assignment1".  Once you have scanned all the documents and downloaded the three .html files (see below), start FrontPage Explorer and proceed as usual.
2. Place the first document on the scanner and press the leftmost button on the scanner. This will launch the scanner software and make a preview of your document.
3. In the title bar of the window in which the preview appears, change some of the options. Change the box reading "Medium" to read "None". This affects how grainy the scanned document will be. Change the box reading 300 to 200 dpi; this is the number of dots per inch. Smaller values produce smaller files, which speeds up downloading. However, it also reduces the quality of the image. You may wish to use 300 for documents with fine detail. Make sure the Output Type is Black & White, by pulling down the Output Type menu. Color images take a lot more storage space.  Finally, if there is no Black and White Threshold dialog box, pull down Tools and select B&W Threshold. In that box, set the threshold to something like 150. Light intensities from 0 to 150 will become black, those from 151 to 255 will be white. I have found that 160 works well for documents written in pencil.
4. Now click the preview of the document. If you are lucky, there will be a dashed line around the text of the document. In any case, drag the sides of the dashed rectangle to enclose your document, but just barely. Don't leave large magins. If you have trouble seeing your document, slide the Black and White threshold to around 200, then back to around 150 later.
5. Now pull down Scan, Save As, and type 1.gif as the filename. Make sure the format is GIF. Also make sure to save the file in the folder meant for this group of documents. The scanner will do a good scan and save the file.
6. On to the next document. If the printed area is exactly the same as for the previous document, you may simply place the new document on the scanner, pull down Scan, Save As, enter the new file name (say, 2.gif), and OK. Otherwise, click the scanner icon on the upper left of the preview window to have the scanner make another preview, crop the image, and then save it. It's slightly slower because you need to wait for the preview.
7. Repeat the previous step until all the documents that go together as a group are scanned.
8. Now for downloading the .html files.  The contents of the files depend on how many images you have scanned.  The following links are to customized versions of index, huge, and printable, one line for each number of documents.  (If you have more than 10, use line 10 and edit the files yourself with a text editor such as BBedit.)  Control click (or right click) each of the three links, choose  download link to disk, and save it with the corresponding filename (index.html, huge.html, or printable.html) in the folder you have created.   If you like, you can edit the files with a simple text editor so the page title is something other than "Scanned document", but this is not necessary.

1. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
2. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
3. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
4. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
5. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
6. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
7. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
8. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
9. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
10. index.html huge.htmlprintable.html
9. If you have added this folder to a FrontPage web, start FrontPage Explorer now and upload the web as usual.  If you are not adding this folder to a FrontPage web, upload the files using Fetch or another FTP program. Log in, get to your public_html directory and any subdirectory you need, for instance, the one for the class you are teaching this semester. You should avoid putting these files in the same place as a FrontPage web. For instance, if your class materials are in public_html/math120, I would recommend putting these files in public_html/m120/assignment1, or something like that. Transfer all the files by pulling down Remote, Put Folders and Files, and specify the folder where you put your things. Add, then Done. Fetch will create this folder and transfer all the files there.
10. Finally, you may wish to add a link to these files from a class web page.

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