[WEB4LIB] Re: Column on HTML Editors

[Andrew Mutch]

Beth,

I don't think most people on the list "hate" FrontPage.  As I noted in my post,
many of our librarians and the township staff have the same needs as your
librarians to be able to create pages quickly without having to know HTML.  I
think most of the criticisms of FP come from the following:

1. Previous versions were "aggressive" about altering code to fit what FP
thought the code should look like.  Plus, the code that it would  create wasn't
always standards-compliant.  A lot of people developed a negative attitude
about FP and some people still hold that attitude about FP2000 although it is
much better behaved in this department.

2. People recognize the limitations of FP as a web editor and web management
tool.  For those who like to hand code, FP isn't the best editor for this
task.  I use it for much of my hand-coding but it is not as good as some of the
products designed for creating HTML code directly.

3. While it doesn't have to cost an arm-and-a-leg to acquire, it still costs
money to purchase.  Many of us like to go the "free" route first.  Also, many
people don't want to deal with the security issues raised by using the
FrontPage server extensions on their web servers, which are necessary to be
installed to take full advantage of some of the FP features that staff always
seem to gravitate towards.

Also, while I can understand the time constraints of validating code, I think
there are people on this list who can articulate the importance of making some
effort to do that.  I know that many of our pages wouldn't validate and it is
an issue that concerns me.  What's more important to me is that whatever web
editors we use, they should work with us and not against us to create code that
is consistent with standards. From what I've seen in Microsoft, complying with
standards is not always at the top of their list of priorities.

I would love to see future versions of FP that:

1. Create HTML code consistent with current HTML/XML specs.

2. Fully-support CSS and allow staff to access it in a user-friendly way so
that staff could use CSS for both content and presentation.

3. Support page validation in a way that would allow staff to correct
validation errors easily.  This would be greatly simplified if it generates
good code in the first place.

I think these kinds of enhancements would allow your staff to continue to
create their pages with a minimum of hassle while ensuring that those pages
would allow full accessability.

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician
Waterford Township Public Library
Waterford, MI

Beth Mazin wrote:

> OK, I'm going to be honest here and get slammed but here goes ...
>
> We use FrontPage2000. No one is forcing us to. We're just using it. It's
> bundled with the Office2000 Professional Suite/Academic which costs us $55
> -- can't beat that.  At that price, it's on everyone's desktop.  We're a
> small to medium sized public library (about 30 FTEs) that is trying to
> produce a web site with a lot of info -- if the page displays OK in
> Netscape and IE, that's what we care about... if the coding is kludgy, so
> be it. I try not to look at the code unless something is wrong with the
> display; then I'll look at the code, figure out what's wrong and change it.
> Please don't go to my site and look at the code and tell me it sucks -- I'm
> sure it does.  But I just don't have the time or personality to hand code
> everything, or use a validator, or spend time looking for missing end
> tags.  I prefer to spend what time I have putting up good content that is
> decently organized, clearly presented,  and useful to my patrons.
>
> With this devil-may-care, cheap attitude we are preparing to have several
> of our librarians take over parts of the page, so we can put up even more
> content.  It will be easy to teach the librarians FrontPage.  FrontPage
> site management features are impressive and intuitive.  The built in
> components (form handlers, date stamp, search, reports) are great for
> novices.  I know most we4libbers hate FrontPage, but it meets our needs and
> I would recommend it highly to smaller libraries that need an inexpensive
> and relatively easy way to maintain a web site and create web pages.
>
> Beth Mazin
> Assistant Director
> Memorial Hall Library
> Elm Square
> Andover, MA  01810
> p. 978-623-8401 x33
> f.  978-623-8407
> bmazin at mhl.org
> www.mhl.org