[WEB4LIB] managing websites and maintaining standards

[Dan Lester]

Friday, November 17, 2000, 11:36:13 AM, you wrote:

SR> While this theoretical discussion of browsers and usability has been
SR> interesting, I'd like to hear from those who manage organizational websites
SR> as to how they cope with these issues in the real world.  One of my side
SR> tasks is to manage the website for the Montana Library Association.

I do the same for the Idaho Library Association,
www.idaholibraries.org  It is nothing exciting, and at present is
pretty basic.  The "content editor" and I are working on a redesign
over the holidays.  That won't be anything drastic, but should improve
the utility and appearance. It will use CSS instead of FP2K themes.

SR>  This
SR> means I receive materials from many different sources in many different
SR> formats: Word, Word Perfect and text docs, html and pdf files, PowerPoint
SR> presentations, etc.  I see my task as  integrating these materials into our
SR> website so that they're accessible, navigable and consistent in appearance
SR> and usability.

I do the same thing.  The website contains HTML only, except for PDFs
of our now-deceased print publication.  (The website is going to take
over the content of said publication and integrate it more fully into
the site, thus the redesign is vital)

SR>   They must work with the browsers most likely to be used by
SR> the state's public, school, academic and special librarians: MSIE & Netscape
SR> 4+.

We don't design for those specifically, though they are indeed the
most used browsers here, too. As you'll note, the site is pretty
basic.

SR> This fairly daunting task has been made even more challenging by the fact
SR> that the state has decided that FrontPage is the html editor of choice.

The ILA site is done in FrontPage, though content sent via other
software is cleaned up first.  Most things come as Word documents,
which are saved as HTML in Word2000.  Then I run the Microsoft Office
HTML Filter 2.0 over them to eliminate the XML, the assorted cruft and
grunge, and so forth.  Then I edit in FrontPage2000 as necessary,
using either or both of the WYSIWYG and HTML views.

Occasionally I work on an ILA page with ColdFusion Studio 4.5 (i.e.,
HomeSite 4.5 with the CF goodies added in), but the things on the site
are basic and simple enough to rarely need that. It is almost
completely a text-based site, and most of that doesn't require fancy
formatting.

SR>   My
SR> question to others in similar positions is how do you make these things work
SR> while remaining compliant with standards without converting everything to
SR> text and/or manually stripping and inserting code?

The filter does that.

SR>   I've discovered that
SR> FrontPage's html view doesn't really let you write your own html, it will
SR> override and change your code.

That was a real problem in 97 and 98, but hasn't been much of one at
all in 2000.  In fact, can't remember any times it was a problem.

SR>  And conflicts between the formatting in Word
SR> and FrontPage have rendered large sections of text unreadable in Netscape.
SR> Any practical advice or ideas would be appreciated.

The cleanup program cited will take care of essentially all of that.

cheers

dan

-- 
Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com
3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
www.riverofdata.com  www.postcard.org  www.gailndan.com