HTML Converters
These are used when you have an existing document that you want to change to an HTML format. I downloaded Ant_HTML and Ant_PLUS. This converter can be used with Word and basically gives you some extra toolbars to use in word to make the document into an HTML document.Text Editors
These are regular text editors with some HTML tools added to make it easier to create the code than simply typing each code. I am using one of these, Enhanced HTML 97 to create this document. It is fairly simple to use. I especially like the Quick View feature which gives me a rough idea of what my code will look like without having to start up a browser. At least with this, you can tell if you have your text breaking in the right places and if you have forgotten an ending code.Prompt Driven Editors
These are for real beginners. Basically they ask you questions about what you want in the page and then write the code for you. Their big problem is that they are too limited in the features supported unless you are doing a very simple page. I didn't download it, but I checked out this prompt driven editor,Hayi Generator.HTML Generators
These are the full-featured HTML creators. Most of them are at least somewhat WYSIWYG or can access your browsers so you can see how the page looks. They can be used to do very complex pages and the WYSIWYG ones are good for people who are more concerned with design and less concerned with writing code. They are especially good if you are using a lot of graphics and text together. I use HotDog Pro, found at HOTDOG SOFTWARE if you want to download it. It was easy to learn and is very powerful. It is not WYSIWYG, but you can get it to start your browser and switch back and forth to see how your page is coming along. I also tried to download MICROSOFT FRONTPAGE, but couldn't seem to keep on the line long enough to ever get the whole thing.The site I will be designing for this class will be a school website for the Corporate Landing Middle School. While we have not yet decided exactly what I will be putting on the site, I have looked at other middle school sites and some typical items may be email addresses of staff and faculty, school policies, sports schedules, links to eductional sites recommended by various teachers, links to individual course sites, school news, examples of excellent student work, and special projects. I anticipate that my site will have some or all of these sections. The school policies, sports schedules, school news areas will be mainly textual documents. Links will include the eductional sites the faculty wants shown, the individual course sites, and possibly links to some student sites. Special project and examples of student work may be either text or links to other sites depending on the nature of the individual project. I plan to use the school symbol of the jet as a graphic to unify the pages. Other graphics may be included that indicate the nature of the section (like a football with the football schedule for instance). Thes graphics are not strictly necessary but will enhance the look of the page. Teacher photos would be a nice touch, but I have not yet approached the school with that idea, so it may not fly. Icons will probably be used to sort the educational links into general areas like science or history.
Fast access is extremly important because very few people will stay on a site if it takes too long to download. Also, this site will often be accessed by parents and students at home who will have a wide variety of speeds to their connections. Therefore it is best to design so that those with the slower modems have a reasonable access time, especially to the first page of the site. I will want to test the site design with Netscape, Microsoft Explorer and the America Online Internet interface as these are the most common interfaces used by the home user.
The page will contain a combination of several pages linked to each other and some long pages with internal links. I will have to carefully design the pages to make sure that negotiating through them is as easy as possible and that the user can always get back to the main menu easily. At the current moment, I have no plans to collect data through this page.
One school site that I liked the design of alot was Sutherland Middle School.
To accomplish this web site design I will need to know how to create links to external documents and internal links. I will have to learn how to create or scan graphics. I will have to know how to test my site design in several different browsers. I will have to be able to set colors (especially to use the school colors). I will have to be able to create basic text based pages and to use tables. Probably, the most important skill I will need is the ability to collect information from a wide variety of sources and to manage the design process with the customers to keep the project within the realm of possibility and not so complex that I could never get it finished.