How to Edit the Author Tag in Microsoft Expressions

Credit the author of your Web page in the header.

A meta tag is an HTML tag used in the header section of your Web page to store meta data specific to that page. The browser does not display the tag's contents. The most popular use of meta tags in Web pages is to add a description and keywords so search engines will give the page higher visibility. Other meta tags can transfer information to applications such as search engines, Web servers and Web browsers. One of these tags is "author."

Instructions

1. Open the Web page in Microsoft Expressions by clicking "File" and then "Open" and selecting the file name of the Web page. There are three different ways to view your Web page in Microsoft Expressions: design, split and code. To switch views, click the appropriate tab at the bottom of the Web page. Make sure you are in design view and then right-clithck anywhere on the page and select "Page Properties."

2. Click the "Custom" tab in the dialog box. In the user variables section, click "Add."

3. Type "author" in the "Name:" input field and the name of the author in the "Value:" input field in the User Meta Variable dialog box. Optionally, enter the author's email by inserting a comma after the name, followed by the address. For example, "Joe Smith, [e-mail]."

4. Click "OK" in the User Meta Variable dialog box to close it. Also, click "OK" at the bottom of the Page Properties dialog box to close it.

5. Change to code view by clicking the code tab at the bottom of the page. You should now see the addition of the author tag in the head section of the page. It should look similar to this: <meta name="author" content="Joe Smith"/>

Tips & Warnings

• Use only lowercase text for meta tag information.

• Jerry West of XenCraft recommends not including the author's email address in the author meta tag because it an cause an increase in Spam.

References

• "Web Design: A Beginner's Guide"; Wendy Willard; 2001
• Search Engine Watch: How to Use HTML Meta Tags
• XenCraft: Useful HTML Meta Tags

Resources

• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): The Global Structure of an HTML Document
• Vancouver Webpages: META Builder 2