Dreamweaver or Frontpage or Word-converted-to-html - that is the
question, well kind of.  Can anyone tell me which tools they
consider most appropriate for devolved Web content generation.  I'd
appreciate answers that are more specific than "x creates poor
html which then has to be cleaned up".

I am setting up a devolved model for web content generation within
a Dept that manages The University's library/computing services.  I
plan to train about 12 staff who will cover all areas of user service
as well as our departmental Intranet.

As a strong supporter of Dreamweaver I plan to do basic DW
training and provide staff with DW templates, with content linking to
external style sheets.  I also want staff to be able to use Homesite
for lengthy content and to be able to create PDFs where
appropriate.  They would then ftp their pages to a safe Web area
where colleagues could review, before giving the go ahead for me to
install to the live-site.  I will be setting guidelines to ensure
structure and code is amenable to new developments such as the
use of XML and data driven elements, but I am not planning fully-
fledged Web author training, simply giving staff what they need to
achieve the specific job of authoring text and getting it coded in
html.

My theory for this model is that it would reduce the bottleneck for
myself and my colleague who currently do the html coding and
lead to a more relevant, cohesive and uptodate site.  In turn this
should relieve us to get on with a much-needed site redesign and
implementation of data driven elements.

Because it has been suggested that it would be more cost-effective
to get staff to use Frontpage or to convert Word to html, I wonder if
I need to reconsider my plan to use Dreamweaver.  Am I missing
something obvious?

I believe my model may be the deluxe one (as far as static pages
go) and that using basic Dreamweaver would be easier and more
effective in the long run.  I am not very familiar with Frontpage or
whether it can handle templates.

Any comments or advice?

Linda Doyle







Intranet & Training Service Coordinator
University of Salford
Academic Information Services
Training & Documentation Team
Clifford Whitworth Building
University of Salford
Tel. 0161 295 3436
Fax. 0161 295 5888
Http://www.ais.salford.ac.uk