There is a better way. Assiduous Computimes readers have seen over the last few weeks how to create increasingly complex Web pages with the simplest of tools: a text editor and a knowledge of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
The process isn't rocket science, but it's still likely that many computer users will have turned up their eyes at the sight of the first angle-bracket ( in fact) and filed the whole series in the "too difficult" department. For those readers, and for others who have outgrown the basic lessons and want to create extensive Web sites, there are alternatives to typing away in a text editor.
One way to extend your capabilities is to, well, piggyback on the expertise of others. When you happen on a particularly attractive page on the Web, choose "View Source" in your browser to display the underlying HTML instead of the formatted page. There are all sorts of major and minor techniques to be learned this way, from snazzy tables to the simple trick of enclosing a block of text in and tags to indent it.
To preserve a page for later experimentation, choose File and Save As to copy the page to your computer, making sure that you choose "source" or "HTML" as the format, rather than text. A saved page can be opened from disk in your browser and modified using a text editor.
At its simplest (and least ethical, since it may abuse the copyright of the original author) this means just overwriting the text between the tags with your own text and substituting your images for those mentioned in the "img src=" references. To copy images from the original site (but these should be considered copyright unless the contrary is indicated) right-click on the image and choose "Save Image". If you have not saved accompanying images the saved page will appear with place-holders indicating where the images should appear.
The method above takes much of the pain out of Web-authoring, but it still means dealing with HTML tags. To get away from the tags altogether a more abstract type of Web editor is required. The tags are still used, of course, but they are applied in the background, unseen. To the user, the program behaves just like a wordprocessor or desktop publishing program. Many popular wordprocessors now include an option to save files as HTML. The most widely used suite of business programs, Microsoft Office has "Save As HTML" options for its major components. The Word wordprocessor, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation program and even Access database all include "Save As HTML" options. Two of the most useful programs in assembling a Web site are Word and Excel. The latter allows elaborate tables to be generated from an everyday spreadsheet, with easy options to vary fonts and change the background colours in cells. Defining a group of cells and hitting the "Merge cells" button is certainly the easiest way of creating cells that span rows or columns within a table.
Word has gone through several sometimes painful steps of evolution to the point where Word 97 is now a very useful HTML editor. An extra Web toolbar gives easy access to functions such as including a hyperlink or picture or previewing the page in a browser. The wordprocessor even functions as a crude browser, following links between pages so that the target page of the link can be edited in turn.
The major advantage is that if you are familiar with Word you'll have very little learning to do before turning out Web pages from it. A document like a leaflet or catalogue can be prepared for paper printing in the usual way. When complete a second copy can be saved in HTML format for the Web. Another option is to open a saved HTML file in Word, which now automatically recognises the format and loads the appropriate toolbar.
Among the limitations is the fact that the view of the Web page is not what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Previewing in all the browsers which will access the page is the only way to see exactly what effects are being produced. Not dealing directly with the HTML makes life easier, but also removes some of the finer degrees of control over it. (Although Word lets you switch into a HTML view where you can edit the code directly if you want to.) The ability to whack a paper brochure up on the Web is also responsible for some of the deaddull pages on the Web that take no account of the strengths of the new medium.
Dreamweaver, Macromedia, £249
Macromedia has a very strong presence in multimedia creation on CD-Rom (with Director) and on the Web (with ShockWave) so it is a natural move for it into the newer multimedia features of HTML. Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, allows new control over the style and positioning of elements in a page, plus fun features like having a picture of a dog play a barking sound when the mouse pointer passes over it.
As ever with new HTML features, the first thing on the agenda is the Netscape/Microsoft split. Most DHTML features can be seen only in version 4 browsers and some are available only in the Netscape or Microsoft browser. Dreamweaver can have its behaviour editor - which creates scripts to control elements of your page - switched into various browser modes. It will then show only the tools available for the chosen browser(s). It will also run compatibility checks against a list of browser versions and report tags incompatible with those browsers.
The program's main strength is the fine control it offers over design, with actions, cascading style sheets and layers within a single HTML page. Cascading style sheets allow styles for a page or a whole site to be defined and updated centrally.
There are also tools to help manage a Web site. Given an open Internet connection, the program will mirror a remote site on the local hard disk so that the pages can be edited and re-exported to the Web server. Libraries of items common to many pages can be created. After these are inserted in each page once, they can be updated centrally, with the changes reflected in all pages.
With practically all of these features there is a manual alternative, using just a text editor, but with the complexity of the coding involved even the most diehard HTML fan is likely to get bleary eyed typing after . For those who want to dive in Dreamweaver has its own HTML view, and comes with a more traditional HTML editor (BBEdit for the Mac, HomeSite for Windows).
The range of features and power of Dreamweaver are very impressive, but its interface takes some time to get used to - particularly the floating toolbars, which are inclined to blot out areas of the main window, or each other. There have been reports that the Macintosh version 1.00 is buggy and unduly memory-hungry, but it ran with only minor glitches on a Windows PC with 16MB of RAM.
With its support for the latest in dynamic HTML and ability to check code against multiple browsers up to the latest ones it is one of the most advanced Web-editing tools around. But at £250 it is for the serious Web developer rather than the dabbler.
FrontPage 98, Microsoft, £100
If Dreamweaver takes the pain out of adding the latest features to a set of pages, this program makes creating and managing a whole site just about as easy as possible.
A series of simple choices sets the type of site: personal, corporate, discussion area, etc. Then a theme, covering background textures and button and text style can be chosen from 50 available. Once the choices are complete the site springs into existence fully formed, linked and formatted. The boilerplate text used as placeholders in the new pages can be over-typed with your own information for an instant site.
The really neat thing is that the choice of theme can be reviewed later and all pages updated with a new theme. Among the other strengths of FrontPage is the site overview, showing all pages and the links between them. Relations between pages can be modified simply by dragging pages around in this navigation view.
Links are updated in the background. It will also inspect all hyperlinks and highlight broken ones. Dynamic HTML is also supported, with cascading style sheets, but with fewer multimedia tools than in Dreamweaver.
Even for those with only a faint idea of what they're at, FrontPage provides an easy way into creating colourful and consistent sites. Built-in tools make it equally easy to add a discussion bulletin board, search page or forms that save user input to a file or email it to the Webmaster. In each case the FrontPage route is immeasurably easier than the manual alternative of creating and debugging scripts in something like Perl.
All this sophistication comes at a price. The major precondition is a Web server running the FrontPage extensions. If your PC does not have a server installed FrontPage will install Microsoft's lightweight Personal Web Server and your Internet service provider must have the extensions running for your pages to perform on the Web. As well as the security implications, this means that service providers, whatever Web server they choose to run, will come under huge pressure to provide Microsoft's extensions.
A clear interface and extraordinary ease of use make FrontPage an attractive choice for anyone - HTML-literate or not - managing a site on the Web or on a company Intranet.