[WEB4LIB] Re: Learning curve: HTML or WYSIWYG

[Isabel Danforth]

I really like to use Arachnophilia www.arachnoid.com

It provides the tags, but you do get to see what is happening.  I use it in 
conjunction with Dreamweaver.

Isabel

At 09:08 AM 10/29/2001 -0800, Michelle Rempel wrote:
>Raymond,
>
>Great idea!  Don't exclude one or the other!  Are there any "free" 
>WYSIWYGs that anyone could recommend?  Or any other HTML editors?  I know 
>the one I prefer but if there are any that beginners would appreciate...
>
>Michelle
>
>At 09:56 AM 10/29/01, you wrote:
>>On Mon, Oct 29, 2001 at 08:30:54AM -0800, Michelle Rempel remarked:
>> > Morning!
>> >
>> > I'm likely going to be doing a day session with some of the librarians in
>> > our region on basic web design and HTML.  I'm a purist and prefer to teach
>> > HTML as I think that the difficulty level is less than trying to teach a
>> > WYSIWYG.  Also, the librarians would be better equipped to sort out any
>> > HTML problems later.  Finding a software product that they would all want
>> > to purchase and possibly arranging licensing is a concern as well.
>> >
>> > I've explained my point to my boss, but a more technologically savvy
>> > librarian is asking about WYSIWYGs.  What opinions do you have?  From a
>> > learning and training standpoint, what have you found to be best?  Would a
>> > WYSIWYG encourage librarians to create and update a website more than
>> > HTML?  I should mention that I've done the HTML route before and found 
>> that
>> > most pick up on it quickly.
>>
>> >From a training/learning perspective, you are correct, without
>>question (IMHO of course :)
>>
>>Set them up with Notepad and a web browser, and have them create
>>a simple web page.  This will get the point across that HTML
>>pages are nothing more than ASCII text with markup tags (and
>>this is intentional).  At the end of the session, break out a
>>sample WYSIWYG tool - by now they will have some idea of what
>>such a tool actually does.  This can lead to productive
>>questions/discussion about the relative merits of WYSIWYG vs.
>>Code-based HTML Editors.  Mention HTML-Kit as a (free) example
>>of the latter...  :)
>>
>>My $0.02,
>>Raymond
>