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1 Keele University Stephen Bostock, Staff Development Web Authoring for Teaching Keele 2002. All rights reserved. The copyright in this document is vested in Keele University. The document must not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, or used for manufacturing purposes, except with the prior written permission of Keele University and then only on condition that this notice is included in any such reproduction. Information contained in this document is believed to be accurate at the time of publication, but no liability whatsoever can be accepted by Keele University arising out of any use made of this information. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, Stephen Bostock asserts the moral right to be identified as author of this work. Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 2 Overview Aim: to be able to select appropriate authoring tools in the light of issues for web authoring. Types of web authoring tools FrontPage 2000 and Dreamweaver Three issues Staff time Usability Accessibility Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 Difficulties in selecting a development tool 3 Many tools are available, versions change frequently, and information is usually sales information – independent advice is hard to find. Three categories of criteria are: 1. Functionality – what can it do? Is a development tool suited to the kind of web are you producing? The browsers to be used? 2. What interface does it have for the author? Is HTML knowledge required? 3. Organizational factors and cost. Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 Types of Web authoring tools 4 1. Text editors e.g. Notepad 2. Specialist text editors e.g. htmlasst 3. Office applications 4. Web page editors e.g. Composer 5. Web site editors e.g. FrontPage, NetObjects Fusion, HotMetal, Dreamweaver 6. Web site generators e.g. CALnet, HTMLgen, 7. Database generation, static and dynamic 8. Adobe Acrobat pdf documents Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 5 1. Text editors e.g.Notepad Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 2. Specialist HTML editors e.g. HTML assistant Web Authoring 6 © Keele university 2003 3. Office e.g.Word, after Save As HTML Web Authoring 7 © Keele university 2003 PowerPoint 2000 - Save as Web page, Publish Web Authoring 8 © Keele university 2003 9 PowerPoint2000 – web ‘page’ Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 4. Web page editors e.g.Netscape Composer Web Authoring 10 © Keele university 2003 Notepad after editing in Composer Web Authoring 11 © Keele university 2003 5. Web site editors e.g. FrontPage 2000 12 Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 13 Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 FrontPage navigation view Web Authoring 14 © Keele university 2003 15 FrontPage, links view Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 16 FrontPage example ‘theme’ Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 Summary of FrontPage 17 FrontPage 2000 can be an effective site management tool FrontPage 2000 gives a number of useful views and facilities for web site management by multiple authors Some of these facilities require software extensions (ASP, FrontPage Extensions) to be added to the web server Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 Dreamweaver 4 Web Authoring 18 © Keele university 2003 19 Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 20 Dreamweaver and FrontPage Dreamweaver is harder to learn, requires more knowledge and is somewhat more powerful. Instead of FrontPage Themes Dreamweaver has Template pages and library items. Dreamweaver will not alter your HTML except to correct it, FrontPage does. Dreamweaver does not have ‘FrontPage extensions’ but these require web server software, most easily on MS web servers. Other Macromedia products like Flash integrate well. Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 21 Net objects Fusion, page view Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 22 Net objects Fusion, site view Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 23 6. CALnet Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 24 6. CALnet HTML output Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 25 6. Web site generator e.g. Webgen Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 26 6. Web site generator e.g. Webgen Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 27 7. Database generation - Access Static sites generated by using Access menus (e.g. Criminology Department resource room records) Visual Basic code (e.g. Links pages on Stephen Bostock’s site) Dynamic sites where web pages are created on the fly from a database. Requires a web server supporting e.g. ASP. Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 Web site from Visual Basic in Access Web Authoring 28 © Keele university 2003 The web site generated Web Authoring 29 © Keele university 2003 30 8. Acrobat pdf from Word Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 31 Acrobat slides from Powerpoint Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 32 PowerPoint Handouts as .pdf files Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 33 Issues: Ease of creation and maintenance 1. Drop the original files into the ltr module folder and let the automatic index provide the menu (use long descriptive file names) 2. Hand edit (with Notepad or Composer) individual pages and link them 3. Use FrontPage or similar for a larger web, reusing a module template Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 www.learn.keele automatic menu Web Authoring 34 © Keele university 2003 35 Issues: Usability Can students find and access the information they want? On campus, at home? Careful about linking, descriptive anchors Consistent navigation across a web Version control – period of use, date last edited, web page list, log of updates Short pages, minimise scrolling, no horizontal scrolling No rolling animations Provide alternative file types if there is a problem with one e.g. Acrobat Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 36 Issues: Accessibility SENDA is in force and applies to web information Special pages or one design-for-all? Several sources of standards and guidance but: Keep page layout simple Use Heading levels and lists to structure Pale plain backgrounds, strong text contrast Text alternatives for pictures, animations etc. Works without graphics Text resizing Works without mouse Web Authoring © Keele university 2003 37 References MacKnight C. & Balagopalan S. 1989 An evaluation tool for measuring authoring system performance. Comm. of the ACM 32 (10) 1231-1236 Hunka, S 1989 Design guidelines for CAI authoring systems Educational Technology 29 (11) 12-17 More detail on choosing authoring tools: www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cs/Stephen_Bostock/docs/authass.htm Links on authoring tools: www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cs/Stephen_Bostock/keywords/software.html Accessibility source: http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/cs/Stephen_Bostock/docs/ review_web_accessibility.htm Web Authoring © Keele university 2003