(wave)
Web Authoring Tools: A Review.

Computing & Information Services Department.
compiled by: cwis.admin@unh.edu

Summary.

Given the diversity of tools available, the rate of change in the Web technologies, and the widely varying levels of user needs, it is difficult to identify specific tools as "THE" way to go. We do believe it is useful to identify criteria for selecting tools and to point out some of the more popular tools that are available to meet these criteria. When pushed to make recommendations, we point to the following as general purpose authoring tools:

  • Microsoft Office (97 or 2000).
  • Page Composer in Netscape Communicator.
  • Microsoft FrontPage (97, 98 or 2000).

A more advanced tool with excellent reviews is:

  • Dreamweaver 2.0.

For putting course materials online without the need to learn HTML or an authoring tool, we've selected Blackboard CourseInfo for an extended pilot project on the UNH campus.

Who Says?

This document reflects the views of the NIS staff in CIS/SMOG Group and is based on our ongoing tracking of the technology, hands-on use, teaching, and consulting with UNHINFO contributors and others. At this time no Web authoring software ("tool") has gone through the formal process to become a CIS supported product.

Context.

We favor the term "Web authoring" rather than "Web development" to refer to the tools write and maintain Web pages, from single pages to sets of pages for an office or topic. Web development is a broader topic -- including servers, log analysis, programming and scripting languages, databases, and much more -- parts of the infrastructure that may be needed to support Web authoring.

Even Web authoring, as a topic, ranges from the extremely simple to the complex and can include:

  • Text editors (e.g., pico, SimpleText, notepad)
  • Word processors (e.g., Word)
  • WYSIWYG HTML editors (e.g., Netscape, FrontPage)
  • Graphics programs (e.g., Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro)
  • Scripting (e.g., JavaScript)
  • Interface to databases (e.g., Access)

On the UNH campus some of the Web authoring tools in use are:

  • Adobe PageMill [APM]
  • Bare Bones Software BBEdit [BBE]
  • Claris Home Page [CHP]
  • Macromedia Dreamweaver [MMD]
  • Microsoft FrontPage [MFP]
  • Microsoft Word97 [MW97]
  • Netscape Page Composer (Netscape Gold in 3.x) [NPC]
  • Sausage Software HotDog [SSH]
  • SoftQuad HoTMetaL [SQH]
This does not try to list all the basic text editors (Pico, Simpletext, Notepad) that can be used, but which do not have special HTML features. Nor does it list special conversion filters, style guides, standards, advice, and myriad other kinds of related information that go into Web authoring.

There are also alternatives that may not be apparent, that we are looking at, in particular the use of templates (Web forms to fill in) that will get someone immediately started with a basic Web page that they can then edit by other means (above). We are working on this as part of the "Simple Start" for use of instructional technologies:
    http://www.unh.edu/NIS/SimpleStart/
There is also the potential to include customized Web pages for students in the development of a student information system. Consider, for example what UCLA is doing:
    http://my.ucla.edu/

Criteria for Choosing.

This is just a self-assessment list, a reminder of the criteria that may be used in making a decision, with no automated feedback.

• Learn HTML or hide HTML?
text editors.
WYSIWYG HTML editors.
WYSIWYG graphical development.

• Is cost a significant issue?
low (free).
medium (under $100).
high (over $100).

• Does it matter if it runs under both Windows and Macintosh?
Windows.
Macintosh.
both.

• What is the scale of your needs (quantity of material and frequency of changes)?
occasional document.
personal Web page(s).
dept/org/project Web pages.
course Web pages.

• What features do you need to include?
plain text, minimal graphics.
advanced graphics.
sound.
video.

Bottom Line.

You probably don't have a lot of time to read evaluations and experiment, so this is what we recommend:

Netcape's Page Composer.

Try Netscape Page Composer, which is bundled as part of the Netscape Communicator package (i.e., version 4 of Netscape). In version 3 of Netscape the editor is essentially the same, but only included in the packages labeled as Netscape Gold. Composer is free and available for both Windows and Macintosh systems. Composer is good for one or a few pages of moderate complexity. It assumes you know the elements to include in your page, but avoids the need to know the HTML tagging syntax. If you choose Help Contents from the Communicator Help menu, there is information on use of Composer.

Microsoft's Office97.

Word, Excel, Powerpoint, all have the ability to save your documents as HTML. This is especially useful as a way to turn occasional documents into Web pages, but it can be used for more ambitious projects as well.

Microsoft's FrontPage98.

FrontPage allows creation and updating of both individual pages and whole sets of pages in a sophisticated fashion. As with any complex tool, there is a learning curve involved if you expect to use it with facility and power.

Meta lists of tools.

The following hyperlinks are to extensive collections of information about Web authoring tools:

[an error occurred while processing this directive]