RE: Updating pages (What tools should non-developers use?)

At 01:45 PM 08/12/00 -0600, you wrote:
>The only WYSIWYG tool I would recommend is Dreamweaver. I've not seen any
>others that had any type of AI or 'memory' to adequately make changes:
>         ie.) the infamous <BIG><BIG><SMALL>oops</SMALL></<BIG></BIG>
>tags....
>Dreamweaver contains it's own ftp and site management capabilities. Has=
 some
>pretty awesome plug-ins, and supports just about any type of SSI. Also has
>good tutorial and help areas. And, updates are a snap, especially if you
>design a site with a template. But, it's expensive: you pay for getting a
>decent AI.

Right.  You mostly pay for getting a program that writes good code and in=20
that respect Dreamweaver is in a league all its own in WYSIWYG tools.  Its=
=20
site management capabilities are very strong too and version 4 has a more=20
polished UI than ever.  IMO it's not for absolute novices unless they get=20
thorough training and the site is made almost entirely with=20
templates.  Dreamweaver is a professional tool, not a toy like FrontPage=20
and GoLive so to use it to its fullest it's good to have good knowledge of=
=20
HTML and of the limitations of the Web as a medium..

>For non-WYSIWYG HTML editors, I'd have to put a very very strong vote for
>1stPage 2000 (from evrsoft). This is as good as homepage and it's FREE. It
>has excellent help and reference support, and some really nice free scripts
>included. The user has to want to learn some HTML, but it also will insert
>the basic tags, tables, and forms... all the repetitive stuff. The user
>needs to know what to do with them.

Yes, any code based editor is for people who know what they are doing and=20
is probably inappropriate for the purposes of the original poster.  As far=
=20
as 1stPage 2000 goes, I find it a very pale copy of HomeSite that lacks=20
most of its key and most useful features and I wouldn't recommend it over=20
HomeSite for any purposes.  HomeSite is one of the least expensive HTML=20
editors out there and has features that other packages can only dream=20
of.  Maybe Evrsoft will get the job done right in their next version but=20
for the time being it's a very bad HomeSite rip off IMO.  I'm surprised=20
Allaire hasn't sued them yet actually.

>If they can afford it, CorelDraw 10 is a very nice image editing suite.
>Adobe Photoshop is extremely nice but also extremely expensive and with
>version 10, Corel has definitely narrowed the gap. Both programs have a
>substantial learning curve for any meaningful use of the tool.

I think that both programs are overkill in this situation and although=20
Photoshop is a great app, I find that Macromedia Fireworks is much better=20
suited to Web work and is a lot easier to use than either the=20
Photoshop/ImageReady combo or CorelDraw which is a behemoth to install for=
=20
optimizing or creating simple graphics.  Since I got Fireworks 3 (and now=20
4) I almost never touch Photoshop or Illustrator.  Considering that getting=
=20
the Dreamweaver 4 Fireworks 4 Studio package will still cost less than=20
Photoshop alone I think it would be a killer combination.  Fireworks is a=20
much more well rounded graphics creation and optimization package than=20
ImageReady and being a vector based tool with bitmap editing capabilities=20
it is a lot more flexible than PS/IR.

Now about the original's poster's questions, here's my 2 cents:

 >>1. WYSIWYG Editor with templates
Will this produce ugly "invalid" HTML code?
Will this interfere with server-side scripting?
What about publishing? (FTP?)<<

Not if you use Dreamweaver or Dreamweaver UltraDev.  DW has what Macromedia=
=20
calls RoundTrip HTML and RoundTrip Server Markup which basically means it=20
will leave existing code alone.  Furthermore, with Dreamweaver templates,=20
the designer determines which part of the pages are editable and which are=
=20
not so it makes using it pretty much idiot proof.  With good training some=
=20
non-developers could get going quickly at a much lower cost than developing=
=20
a Web based content management system or buying a pre-made one which are=20
usually very expensive.  Publishing in Dreamweaver is easy using the Site=20
window and using the File Check In/Check Out system you can make sure that=
=20
two persons are not editing the same file at the same time.  As for=20
producing valid code, that's not a problem with Dreamweaver either.  You=20
will have to add the Doctype declarations manually but aside from that it=20
produces very solid code, far better than any other WYSIWYG editors and I=20
pretty much tried them all.  I'm a long time hand coder myself (HomeSite)=20
and I'm very particular about code.  If the Dreamweaver templates are valid=
=20
and the people making updates only add text and images the code will remain=
=20
valid without a problem.

 >>2. Browser (via Forms)
But what about text formating?
Wouldn't uploading images be inconvenient?<<

Text formatting would be more complicated to handle than with a dedicated=20
Web editor.  With most server side scripting languages though, it's=20
possible to read in text strings and replace carriage returns with the=20
proper HTML tags.  Any formatting beyond that would get more complex if the=
=20
people making the updates have no knowledge of HTML.  Server side scripting=
=20
languages can read text strings with HTML tags and put them in a page=20
properly but again that's not really for novices.  If you don't need=20
anything more involved than being able to recognize carriage returns and=20
blank lines it may be workable this way but you would probably need to have=
=20
basic formatting done with CSS so that you don't need to use font tags=20
within the text.  Font tags aren't needed anymore anyway since version 3=20
browsers are mostly dead now.  Like I said above though, a solution like=20
this could be pretty complex and costly to develop but might be the easiest=
=20
to manage for the users.  There are server side components that can handle=
=20
uploading images but the image optimizing and creation would need to be=20
done beforehand probably.

There are certainly server side scripts or components that can handle image=
=20
resizing and optimizing but I don't know how costly they are and again,=20
someone would have to program them into your content management system. A=20
little training in Fireworks or another image editing tool might be the=20
easiest thing to do and then users could upload images and edited HTML=20
files using Dreamweaver.  The solution you choose will depend on the budget=
=20
and how fast you need to get this working.  I believe that the=20
Dreamweaver/Fireworks combo might be your best bet.

HTH!

St=E9phane Bergeron

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