Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians

by Eric H. Schnell

HTML Authoring Tools

   In the past most  Web documents needed to be handcrafted in plain ASCII text using a simple text editor.  The availability of inexpensive  WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) programs make it much simpler to create new documents.   WYSIWYG editors allow the author to edited documents displayed as they would appear in a browser.

   Most major desktop processing packages, such as Adobe's PageMaker 7 and Microsoft's Word 2002,  include the capability to save and convert files into HTML.  These programs allow authors to save files as Web documents and reduce dependence on having to hand code using HTML.   However, since these programs are still not perfect, the HTML documents created often need to be fine tuned with hand editing. 

   With the evolution of HTML towards a richer structure (including tables) and a number of additional formats (graphics, objects, multimedia, style sheets, etc), more sophisticated editing tools are needed.  One such tool is Amaya. Amaya will not only a browser but also an editor for HTML documents with both functions integrated seamlessly. Amaya has been designed as the next generation of client software that integrates all aspects of the Web and that still remains user friendly.  

For More Information:

Lists of HTML writing tools:

Lists of HTML filters and converters:

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Page Updated: December 11, 2001