Re: HTML Editor

["Paul Camp" <pjcamp@coastal.edu>]

> Where can I go for help in understanding how to edit HTML pages???

HTML is dead simple -- there really isn't much to it, especially if 
you're not planning to get wrapped up in something like Java right 
away. Go to the Netscape home page for a hypertext tutorial that is 
pretty good as well as links to some other tutorials on the same 
topic. If you prefer a book, I bought Laura Lemay's Teach Yourself 
HTML in 7 Days, mainly to give myself a daily goal, and liked it 
pretty well. To give you an idea how simple-minded it really is, the 
book had to be padded out a bit with non-html stuff to reach 7 full 
days of work. Also check out the Web Masters home page at 
http://gagme.wwa.com/~boba/masters1.html. Has links to nearly 
everything you might possibly want to know as well as places to 
download appropriate software.


> I have no idea what I am doing -- and it would seem that our sysops are
> trying to catch up too. (:-)  
Shouldn't take anybody very long.
 
> Is there an opinion on the list as to which HTML editor is best?  I have a
> free version of HoTMetaL, but I can't see that it will do WYSIWYG. I think
> PageMaker will do this, but I don't want to contribute to Bill's domination
> of the galaxy.  How is Navigator Gold -- would require that I install WIN95
> -- a frightening thought.

Nothing is REALLY WYSIWIG since the appearance of a page is in the 
end determined by which browser interprets the tags. I like Hot Dog 
pretty well as an editor and it has the advantage of supplying you 
with a really pretty clever and innovative set of tips and tricks 
along with the program. You can download a trial version from 
http://www.sausage.com and it doesn't cost very much to register for 
the full version. Navigator Gold does most things you would want to 
do but it does still have a few limitations. Hot Dog, like most of 
these sorts of programs, is menu-driven so you see the HTML text 
directly in the editing window but tags can be inserted pre-made from 
menu or toolbar items if you don't want to bother typing them in or 
don't quite remember which one does what. Hotmetal works much the 
same way but is a LOT pickier and doesn't necessarily support all the 
Microsoft and Netscape extensions. There is also a free add-in for 
Word that you can download from Microsoft but again it has some 
limitations and it hews pretty closely to Mr. Bill's party line.

By the way, WIN 95 really isn't all that bad -- memory management is 
greatly improved over old Windows which is reason enough to get it, I 
think. The only problems I encountered were with support for Novell 
networks because, of course, Microsoft would like you to use NT. But 
those problems were minor and can be avoided altogether by installing 
the Novell client software (which is available free from their 
website). 

> Is there an opinion as to which graphics editor is best?
You need something that will produce interlaced graphics in JPEG and 
GIF formats and, preferably, GIF 89 files as well. Among the el 
cheapo shareware programs, Paint Shop Pro is quite good but you have 
to register it to get all the file formats. If you want to do some of 
those slick image map pictures in which various parts of the picture 
are mapped to various links, you can do it by hand with a text editor 
and a good graphics viewer (the tutorials mentioned above will tell 
you how) but it is much easier with a dedicated image map maker such 
as Map Edit. Another very good one is Map This but it runs only under 
Windows 95. Both of these are freeware. You can obtain them through 
links in the above mentioned Web Masters page or through 
Windows95.com (http://www.windows95.com), a very good resource for 
users of that OS.


> Am I asking the right questions??????
Yes. You also need to ask yourself "Do I need to do CGIinterfacing
or Perl scripts?" Generally speaking, if you want to do interactive 
sorts of things such as forms for your visitors to fill in and get 
responses generated or, god forbid, you plan to SELL stuff then the 
answer to this is question is yes. On the downside, you really don't 
want to do much of this unless you are just overly fond of unix. And 
if that's true, likely you have other problems 8-).

> Cheap is good.
Cheap is always good (except with beer and relatives). Always pull a 
free knob.

I recommend the Hot Dog software. It is really as good as this stuff 
gets and, though it isn't truly WYSIWIG (nothing is with HTML) you 
are linked directly to a browser at all times so you can see what 
your page looks like, and it seems to be the software of choice among 
people who do this sort of stuff for a living (or at least it was 
last week). I could have done without the bone-shaped toolbar though.

Paul J. Camp                   "The Beauty of the Universe
Assistant Professor of Physics  consists not only of unity
Coastal Carolina University     in variety but also of 
Conway, SC   29528              variety in unity.
pjcamp@csd1.coastal.edu             --Umberto Eco
pjcamp@postoffice.worldnet.att.net    The Name of the Rose
(803)349-2227                         
fax: (803)349-2926