Thanks Marty,
Great tutorials! Loved the one on still image aspect ratios because it will affect the current project. Could you suggest some web authoring software? I started to learn HTML several years ago but I was never competent. I'd like something that the students could tinker with so I need something user friendly for them, yet complex enough to really work.

Hi Debbie,

For starters, I recommend you take a peek at http://lissaexplains.com/. It's a site to help kids learn html.

My personal opinion on authoring is "keep it simple". I would start them with the most basic principles and pages, by hand-coding using TextPad.

Teaching kids web-authoring using wysiwyg apps is sorta like teaching kids math by giving them calculators. That may be an extreme analogy but you get my point... start them on the basics, just like one-plus-one and then times-tables. Basic html is *so* basic any kid can get it, and make pages easily.


HTH, MPH

Tips:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html

RE: HTML authoring, for the basic approach there's Arachnophilia; freeware that's pretty decent. Dreamweaver's probably the easiest IMO, though not cheap. Easier yet is Pagemill, though Adobe hasn't kept it current for a few years now, & it's cheap.

Front Page fits in between. Goes for $100 or less on sale. The biggest thing I'd worry about with Front Page is a lot of the stuff it does for you automatically requires Microsoft software on your web server - if you're using your school's or districts web servers you'd want to check for compatibility first, make sure that's not a problem. Of course I may be worrying for nothing there, just remember from the folks I've worked with they preferred MACs or Linux & were anti MS.

RE: video formats etc., You'd want to go Real or Winmedia, reserving Quicktime for use only if that was what the people running your web server required - Quicktime can do a decent job, but to do a good job you need the Sorensen Pro stuff and that'll add a couple hundred dollars cost. Also, most people already have Winmedia Player & Real - can't say that for Q/time.

Something else to look into with your web server folks would be setting up streaming capabilities if they didn't have it already. Web video can work simply by putting the files online, but being able to host streaming video is nice, does make a difference. As you added video it should help you maintain the sort of feel that might make it easier to wrangle grant money in the future, pointing to what's already done, or bundled with other projects using the streaming web hosting.

If it is something you and the web gurus look into, Real has released their Helix software, both producer & server, to the open source community meaning the only cost would be the time involved setting it up.

"Could you suggest some web authoring software?"

I respectfully disagree with martyh regarding Frontpage. I've used FP since 96, and I have seen this pgm grow up. FP2002 is very mature and easy to use. However you do have to know some html to really be happy with FP. I find that the wysiwyg is super easy and effective for about 80% of what you do in FP. The other 20% requires you to view FP's html and tweak. This is extremely easy to do in FP. Just buy a html for dummies book and your set. Buying a FP2002 "dummies" book is really important because there are alot of fancy stuff in FP that is really designed to work in Internet Explorer. These books highlight the incompatibilities with Netscape. However with FP it is easy to use cascading style sheets and java so I don't use the propiretary FP tricks anyway.

If your site is on a Linux box you won't be able to use the database connectivity found in FP. For SQL database you would have to use msSQL and from what I've heard if you want SQL go Linux and mysql.

As far as Tech Cred. goes Frontpage is not cool. Dreamweaver is cool. However I have been meeting some real high end pros that admit using FP for writing HTML. As one guy told me "I can write html by hand no problem but I use FP2002 because time is money. why hand code tables?". My feeling is FP is not for use with complex database backends, but for fine for standard websites.

I'm currently building my site with Frontpage for the promotion and customer education part and then I use a e-commerce platform host for my web store. It's the best of both worlds.

good luck
jack

Hi Marty

You sound like a Linux purist - no offense intended - just remembering what it was like back in the olden days when there were 2 or 3 HTML editors that were pretty rough, Hotdog led the pack, and you had to write all the cool stuff in Notepad. Also remember what I went through figuring out and setting up what's now called slices, but then I also remember when the internet was text based. OUCH!

Anyway, IMO of course, you can't get the feel that lends credibility to your non-techy visiters unless you at least meet their expectations, at least staying at the level of the free templates and stuff folks get from their ISPs. And if it's a growing site, then style sheets are almost a gotta have, along with the software tools to maintain it, keep it fresh.

Bt that's all for what it's worth... Also FWIW, you might want to check out Arachnophilia yourself.

Actually, I'm not a purist, I'm lazy and cheap... ;-)


I am all for using great tools, but not without understanding fundamentals. I don't mean to be dogmatic, but rather practical.

Kids and adults alike understand better when information is offered at a pace they can digest without being overwhelmed. That's why I try to be simple and basic in the vegas-tutorials. You can help more people faster with basic information they can build on.

Students cannot always afford to have their own copies of dreamweaver or whatever, and they don't need them. I'd rather teach them to be self-reliant, than give them incentives to find cracks on the net.

Here's an analogy: Not everybody can be an Ansel Adams, and Ansel Adams could not make such beautiful work with inferior equipment... but do you know how many underpriviledged kids don't even have family photos, let alone photos they have taken themselves? When you give those kids disposable cameras and let them exercise their creativity, the portion of them that IS Ansel Adams has the opportunity to be inspired; with a tool that is within their reach again. Those with inspiration will seek the next level of artistry.

Yes there are good authoring apps for beginners, but with textpad and a freeware image-editing app anyone can make a fine *effective* website, at school, home or the public library.

Remember, Shakespeare only had ink, paper and a handful of feathers...


my .02+


mph

I agree William. For me writing HTML from scratch would be like sawing firewood by hand when you have a chain saw.
Hand saw -less noise more intimate slow as heck.
Chain saw- noisy but fast as heck so you have options to do more with your time.

FrontPage 2002 will allow you to write and add raw HTML without corruption.
It will also release your creativity without taxing your leftbrain.
Some kids enjoy Code and some kids will never enjoy Code writing.
So FP. or others will allow the student to decide.
I agree it is a good idea to learn the basics, but after that it is better to have choices.

Talking about using calculators to learn math, I can remember using slide rules in high school. Calculators hadn't even been invented yet! LOL

Hey!

I took a college coarse in using a slide rule! I *Remember* the first scientific calculators, & the first one I could afford (still a few hundred $) when Sharp entered the market.

But then again I used to be able to read keypunch. I am NOT anxious to go back, no matter what I scream at the PC when it misbehaves!

mike

Debbie,

For a quick start at putting a video on a web page, you can use Microsoft Word. You probably have that and can try it. Create a new document. Under save as.. chose .htm. Now Word will go into web page mode. Lay out your document including background colors and graphics. Go to the view toolbars and make sure that the web tool bar is on. You will see a little video camera on the tool bar. That is to insert a video. If you have rendered your video to quicktime or an mpg, you can use that tool to draw the video onto your page. Give it a try and read the help file a little.

Is it the most elegant web authoring tool; NO. But for quick page with tables etc it can show you what you can do.

Good luck,

Keith Kolbo
www.kolbokorp.com