hese days it seems like everyone and his dog has a site on the World Wide Web. So you've probably been thinking about building a site yourself--to publicize your business, offer an online catalog that's always up-to-date, or share your very special knowledge of rodents with the world. Come on, admit it: you've thought about it, haven't you?
Good--the more the merrier. The Web is a place you can speak your mind, show your wife(if you have one), and put in your two cents' worth.
If you want to create your home page yourself, first you'll need to have something to write your HTML stuff.
There's more than one way to speak HTML, and in some cases you don't have
to speak it at all--your software can do it for you.
When I first built my home page, I use emacs on UNIX system. It seems like
you are using the axe of a hundred years ago to build your computer of Pentium
Inside(Remember you first learn C language on Unix, by using "cc"?). A week
later I came to use
HTML.edit
1.7 for Macintosh ( HTML.edit ©1994, 1995 Murray M. Altheim, Equinox
Development) to build my home page. It is a good stuff but the interface
is a little ugly to me.
Some day later I feel a little more comfortable with
HTML Pro
. a nifty little $5 shareware package by Niklas Frykholm. With its dual-window
interface, what
I write in my document immediately reflects in the other window. The only
falut is that only bare-bones HTML 2.0 is supported in version 1.0.8 of HTML
Pro, although a macro menu lets you easily add any codes not supported directly.
It's fast and intuitive, though short on help--there's no real documentation
and no syntax checking.
(Actually I use it now sometimes. I wish somebody can add more code and
syntax checkingin it.)
Now I use
HTML Web Weaver , a $25 package created by Robert C. Best. It has handy
palettes for HTML tags(although the palettes do not include all tags and
the Tags menu is too long; If you want to add a img link you will find out
what I mean.) and offers syntax checking, with helpful error messages when
something goes wrong. It has many of the same features as HotMetal Pro--dialog
boxes that help you build URLs and tables, tags set aside from the text with
special formatting, and an easy way to add tags not initially supported.
(Version 2.5.2 supports most of the Netscape Extensions to HTML 2.0, but
doesn't support tables or background graphics.) On the downside, Web Weaver
has no real wysiwyg interface and seems a bit unpredictable.
The next big thing in Web-page building is exemplified by
Arachnid , a freeware program developed by Robert McBurney at the University
of Iowa. I tried it for sometimes, but obviously it has some bugs. For example
when I open my old HTML file, I can not make any edition on it.
Another big stuff is PageMill, from
Ceneca Software (415/842-6810, info@ceneca.com). I heard that these programs
let authors build Web pages as they would create print documents in a page-layout
program--by clicking and dragging the elements of the page into position
on a pasteboard, with no worry about the coding being done behind the scenes.
It boasts graphical interfaces for building forms, inserting images, and
adding other elements of Web pages. One sad thing is that there is no free
PageMill for you to download. I have tried the demo version and it works
great! I think even your dog can built his home page with PageMill, but obviously
you have to pay the site severice for him. (Mmm!!!)
Now what I am using is NaviPress1.1. It boasts graphical interfaces for building Web pages. You see your Web page, and you change your Web page by directly write text, and a picture, or add a link. One thing I should mention is that it support HTML3.0!! The only problem is that it is a little slow (Notice that I use PowrMac 7100/80, and I have to wait after I input every sencence). In general this is the best HTML editor as far as I know, althoug it also has some bugs.
We click and go, follow where the word of mouth leads us, search out the
loner with a prehistoric text file gussied up with a couple of scanned GIFs.
There will always be room for that, and thus there will always be room for
democracy.
Let it bloom.
Let us know what you think.