Web Publishing: Software Tools

	Division of Information Technology Web Publishing @ SFSU Software
	Minimum Software Requirements \| Choosing an HTML Editor \| Software Tools

Minimum Software Requirements
The minimum software requirements to create a web page is:

An HTML Editor to create the web page and

A File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program to transfer the web page from your computer to your SFSU Internet Account

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Choosing an HTML Editor

There are many commercial and shareware programs that can assist in creating and publishing web pages. Some programs make it easy to type the codes; others offer a WYSIWYG interface that allows you to design your page without ever seeing the codes. Your options include:

Manually code the HTML

Use a commercial or shareware HTML editor or

Use an HTML Converter

Manually code HTML
If you decide to code the HTML manually, we suggest reviewing what is HTML and following a Step-by-Step online HTML course. The main advantage to learning the code is to easily troubleshoot problems. The disadvantage is that it is more technical. For beginners, we recommend using a com mercial or shareware HTML editor or HTML converter instead.

Use a commercial or shareware HTML editor
If you don't want to learn the code, we recommend you use an HTML Editor with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface like Netscape Composer (component of Netscape Navigator 3.0 Gold and Netscape Communicator), FrontPage, PageMill or Claris Homepage. These programs allow you to design your page without ever seeing the codes.

Use an HTML Converter
Many software programs come equipped with a "Save as HTML" or HTML Converter feature. This feature can save you a lot of time because it automatically converts your file into a web page - no coding necessary. An HTML Converter is included in the latest versions of Microsoft Office programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. If your version of Word, Excel or PowerPoint does not include this feature, you can try downloading Internet Assistant software which installs the HTML Converter.

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Software Tools

FTP clients are used to transfer files to your account

Windows 95/98 and Windows NT FTP

Macintosh Fetch 2.1.2

Power Macintosh Fetch 3.0.3

Telnet clients can be used to create and edit your pages online using:

Windows WinQVT

Macintosh NCSA Telnet

WWW browsers are used to view HTML documents

Windows & Macintosh Netscape Communicator

HTML Editors are used to quickly edit and create HTML documents.