1. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 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.

2. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 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

3. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 3 Difficulties in selecting a development tool 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.

4. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 4 Types of Web authoring tools 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

5. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 5 1. Text editors e.g.Notepad

6. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 6 2. Specialist HTML editors e.g. HTML assistant

7. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 7 3. Office e.g.Word, after Save As HTML

8. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 8 PowerPoint 2000 - Save as Web page, Publish

9. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 9 PowerPoint2000 – web page

10. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 10 4. Web page editors e.g.Netscape Composer

11. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 11 Notepad after editing in Composer

12. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 12 5. Web site editors e.g. FrontPage 2000

13. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 13

14. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 14 FrontPage navigation view

15. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 15 FrontPage, links view

16. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 16 FrontPage example theme

17. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 17 Summary of FrontPage 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

18. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 18 Dreamweaver 4

19. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 19

20. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 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.

21. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 21 Net objects Fusion, page view

22. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 22 Net objects Fusion, site view

23. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 23 6. CALnet

24. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 24 6. CALnet HTML output

25. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 25 6. Web site generator e.g. Webgen

26. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 26 6. Web site generator e.g. Webgen

27. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 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 Bostocks site) Dynamic sites where web pages are created on the fly from a database. Requires a web server supporting e.g. ASP.

28. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 28 Web site from Visual Basic in Access

29. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 29 The web site generated

30. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 30 8. Acrobat pdf from Word

31. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 31 Acrobat slides from Powerpoint

32. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 32 PowerPoint Handouts as.pdf files

33. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 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, re- using a module template

34. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 34 www.learn.keele automatic menu

35. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 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

36. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 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

37. © Keele university 2003 Web Authoring 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