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Subject:Re: Web Authoring Tool From:"Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- QUODATA -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 17 Feb 1999 08:34:51 -0500
Hallo:
I understand you are looking for a web authoring tool to create manuals for
the web. I know of a couple of ways to do that. One is to make HTML help.
Tools such as WebWorks Publisher, which works with FrameMaker and RoboHelp,
which works with MS Word, will create the HTML help. I suppose the HTML help
could be called manuals on the web. Another alternative is to use
FrameMaker's HTML converter, though it is crude and I'd shy away from it, if
I were you. Then, you could create an Adobe Acrobat PDF file from
FrameMaker. This is my preferred way of creating an on-line book. Finally,
you could use Corel Ventura to create an on-line HTML book using a Java
applet called Barista. The user needs to be able to run the applet to use
the book, but aside from that the Barista HTML seems to work pretty well.
So, do you really need an HTML authoring tool to make a manual for the web?
Well, you can use Notepad, in Windows, to edit HTML that is created by
FrameMaker, WebWorks Publisher, or RoboHTML. Other than that, I'd expect
creating HTML help to be the quickest way to get an existing book into the
HTML format. Certainly, there are several web authoring tools that would let
you create web-site-like books. These would let you create a unique look and
feel to your documentation, versus the typical on-line HTML help. Consider
MS FrontPage, SoftQuad's HoTMetaL Pro, and Macromedia's Dreamweaver as HTML
authoring tools for the PC. There are many other such tools.
My choice for on-line distribution of manuals is the Adobe Acrobat PDF
format. If I were to create HTML manuals, I'd probably use the HTML help
format for uniformity and speed of creation. Only if the manual needed to be
particularly creative, artistic, and unique would I consider a ground-up
HTML/Javascript approach using an HTML authoring package.
Good luck.
Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com
>>>From: Daruwala Rohina-ind295
>>>[mailto:Rohina_Daruwala-ind295 -at- EMAIL -dot- MOT -dot- COM]
>>>Subject: Web Authoring Tool
>>>
>>>I need a little help on making a decision as to which Web
>>>Authoring Tool is
>>>the best to use/has good features. We are currently using
>>>FrameMaker 5.5 on
>>>UNIX for our documentation. I save the files as HTML and put
>>>it on the web
>>>using FrontPage and a wee bit of Javascripting. (A very
>>>painful process I
>>>might add!!) Now I have been told that we may need to use a
>>>Web Authoring
>>>Tool itself to create our manuals for the web.
>>>
>>>My questions are:
>>>1. Since I am using Frame are there any Web Authoring Tools
>>>specifically for that? (Web Works publisher??? Or something!??)
>>>2. What are the best Web Authoring Tools available?
>>>3. How good is RoboHTML??
>>>
>>>Regards
>>>Rohina
