Re: is Front Page good for novice?

At 15:48 23/09/99 -0400, Joyce Fetterman wrote:
>A free editor may be a good idea, but I'd steer clear of Composer.  It inserts
>things in the code that a novice won't be able to correct.

I don't think so - if they know next to nothing about computers at this
stage, then confusing them with HTML code won't help matters.

For a beginner, I'd recommend the free editor that comes with their browser
of choice, either Netscape Composer or FrontPage Express - that's just a
starting point.  If they can cope with that, then show them some problems
with their pages.  At this stage there has been no cost to purchase
software!  Either they will decide it's too hard and pay someone, or they
will want to learn.

When they find their pages aren't doing EXACTLY the thing they want, you
introduce them to some HTML tutorials - hopefully they are hooked by this
stage, and the learning curve won't be as steep.  They can then start to
see the problems with the code and make some minor tweaks.  I find the
combination of "instant results" from the WYSIWYG editor combined with
learning from the code produced to be the most efficient way of letting
someone with low computer skills self-learn.

After that, WYSIWYG would most likely be the way to go, but by then they
should have enough experience to know whether or not the big step to
Dreamweaver is worth the expense, or to settle for second best with the
cheaper alternative FP2000.

There is of course the option of an intermediate step using a cheaper
wysiwyg editor - but that is dependent on the person and circumstances
involved.

JMHO :)


Chris Higgs <c.higgs(at)landfood.unimelb.edu.au>
Institute of Land and Food Resources
University of Melbourne
http://www.landfood.unimelb.edu.au

HTML: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA