Web Authoring and Editing Tools and other stuff Updated March 31, 2008 Page révisée le 31 mars 2008


[ Go to Canadian Social Research Links Home Page ]

---

See * My Rogers Adventure * page
(an archive of my bumpy beginnings with Rogers)

---

Internet Traffic Report

Balking at the cost of Microsoft Office software?
Give these a try...

Office Productivity Software & Services
(from PC World)

[Comment by Gilles: The first three resources below are free web-based applications, i.e., you can access, edit and share your work files from any computer with Internet access. The last item below, OpenOffice, is a full suite of programs that you download and install on your computer. All OpenOffice programs are Microsoft-compatible - they can create and edit all Microsoft files and save in Microsoft format. ]

Zoho
What makes Zoho the winner is that it doesn’t merely try to copy Microsoft Office functionality. It’s web-based, so you can collaborate with others on your documents, for example. But the functionality of even the base software beats Microsoft’s offering in some areas; for creating HTML and graphics-heavy documents, for instance, it surpasses Word. This is the best and most comprehensive web-based office suite you can find. Included are a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program, and a database builder – and plenty of other productivity applications are being added all the time.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets
Like Zoho, the web-based Google Docs and Spreadsheets lets you work with others as well as create and edit documents and spreadsheets. Its collaboration features are particularly noteworthy, and it uses Google’s search to make finding any document fast.

Num Sum (create and share spreadsheets for all occasions)
While Num Sum includes all of the features you would expect it to have, it’s also a social-networking site where you can share spreadsheets with like-minded others. It’s a great setup for anyone who’s interested in sharing spreadsheets to track home maintenance, a workout schedule, or a Rugby Sevens pool, for example.

Ajax 13
This web suite has more features than competitors like Zoho, including everything from a word processor to a drawing program, a spreadsheet, a presentation app, and even a digital music player.

OpenOffice.org
Not happy with the idea of a web-based office application? Then you want the downloadable OpenOffice.org, the free competitor to Microsoft Office. A complete suite, it provides a word processor, a spreadsheet, a presentation program, a database – and, for übergeeks, a “mathematical function calculator” (if you have to ask what it is, you don’t need it).

Here's what you'll find on this page:

- Some information about my web experience as a surfer and a website author
- Some information about my tools of preference for the type of work I do on my website (pretty simple tools, really, until I bought Macromedia Dreamweaver in the spring of 2001)
- Some links to sites about computers and software that I've picked up over time
- Lower down on the page, a large section of links to Internet and web authoring tools (Click to jump there directly)

My "tech" experience:

I started surfing the net in the fall of 1995 at the office.
By early summer 1996, when I bought my first home PC, I'd accumulated over 1,600 bookmarks on various social research themes and jurisdictions, mostly focusing on social assistance (welfare) in Canada. I started playing around with web authoring tools like Hot Dog and NaviPro (an "old" America Online web authoring program) in the summer and fall of 1996, but it was only in the fall of 1997 that I finally established my presence on the web. I was a dial-up subscriber with Comnet from October 1997 to December 1998 when Rogers cable offered cable Internet in Ottawa, where I live. I've been with Rogers since then. Comnet hosted my site for the first year; then I moved it to XOOM, where I could get more webspace than with Rogers (11megs VS 5 megs). When XOOM started offering unlimited web server space in the summer of 1999, I found that access to my site was slowing down, gradually but noticeably. I moved the site to the Rogers server in September, and Rogers subsequently increased its member server space to 10MB per e-mail account and up to seven e-mail accounts per household. I was generally pleased with access to my pages, especially compared with XOOM. Then there were other times when access to my site on the Rogers server was very slow. Over time, though, I've found Rogers' service to be constantly improving, and I'm pleased with that.

In September 2000, I bit the bullet and registered canadiansocialresearch.net with a domain name service and moved my site to a local web hosting service, CVO.CA.
I made the move ($70 for registering the name for two years and $20/mo. for the web hosting) for a few reasons :
- canadiansocialresearch.net can be picked up more easily by search engines than members.rogers.com/gilseg because it's a top-level domain (some search engines give higher priority to top-level domains); I've noticed a significant increase in traffic to my site since I made the move (averaging 40-50,000+ page views a month in the fall of 2003)...
- a web hosting service offers more support and tools (visitor logs, CGI script, e-mail tools, etc.) than an Internet service provider.
- My new web address is more meaningful - hence easier to remember, I hope
- If I become disenchanted with cvo.ca, I can move my site virtually anywhere I want and visitors won't even know they're seeing my site on a different server - my domain name is my ID wherever I am on the net.
- canadiansocialresearch.net is my way of saying I'm committed to doing this for awhile.
On October 17 (2003), I retired from the federal civil service to work full-time on Canadian Social Research Links.

Patriotism vs Practicality

In the summer of 2004, everything was going along swimmingly when I started noticing a spike in visits to my home page. When I checked the origin of my sudden popularity by analysing my user stats, I discovered that I had a visitor who was hitting the home page of my site every half hour on the hour. From BC Hydro, of all places. I sent the nice folks at BC Hydro an e-mail with screen captures and a long-winded explanation about the unwanted visitor on my site. Well, it turns out that BC Hydro weren't overly concerned about the Trojan Horse or Worm or whatever it was on one of their machines, because this went on for several months. My son Daniel finally convinced me to move my site to a different web hosting service, one that had an "I.P. Deny" feature, i.e., where I could actually block someone with a specific Internet Protocol Address from even accessing my site. I'd originally gone with CVO because they're located in Ottawa, where I live, and I wanted to be a good, patriotic webmaster by buying Canadian, and also to know that the folks who take care of my account are just a short drive from my home.Turns out that CVO.CA is located in Ottawa, but the physical location of my site is somewhere in Florida - something about the company needing an American outlet if they want to do business with Americans. Argh - so much for patriotism.

In the summer of 2004, I opened an account with Total Choice Hosting, and that has proven to be a very good choice indeed --- my "Starter Plan" account costs me $44 (U.S.) per year for 700MB of server space and 20GB of traffic, and Total Choice offers a wide range of "features" and add-ons along with an exceptional member forum. I activated the IP Deny feature and haven't heard from anyone at BC Hydro since then. And what a price! Quite different from my old outfit, CVO.CA, which was charging me $20 (Cd.) per MONTH for 100MB storage and 6GB traffic.

My tools of preference:

For my first year on the web (1996-1997), I was perfectly satisfied with Netscape Navigator Gold (version 3.04) for just about all of my webwork. It was free, and it worked. Problem is - it killed Javascript. When I added some Javascript-based drop-down menus to each page using another program, I quickly realized that I was somehow corrupting the Javascript code by simply opening the file in the Navigator Edit function.  I upgraded to Netscape 4.5 Communicator, and Composer (the Edit function) worked very well with everything, including my drop-down menus. And the price was right : $0.

Early in 2001, I decided it was time to move up in the world. I'm planning on maintaining this site for awhile, so I should use the tools that help me to work more effectively. I consulted with a number of people, then decided to give Dreamweaver 4 a try. It's pricey (~$500 Canadian), but it does help me work more effectively AND it's got tons of features that I haven't even begun to explore yet. DW4 is an excellent site management tool, too - synchronizing the local (hard drive) version of my site with the remote live site is a snap. File management is impressive, as is the search-and-replace feature. Check out this product at the Macromedia site by clicking on the DW4 link above. It does SO much more...

My browser of preference? I started out in '95 with the Netscape browser, and I continued to use it as my default browser until Firefox came out in 2005. I use the latest version of Firefox as my main browser, and I occasionally open Netscape version 7.1 just to make sure my website looks OK in Netscape. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is much more forgiving with HTML coding errors and Javascript quirks, because those errors and quirks are caused by proprietary coding for IE. The bottom line for me is the vulnerability to viruses of the Internet Explorer/Outlook integrated package. I use Microsoft Internet Explorer (v.6) like Netscape, only to ensure that my web pages look OK in Mr. Gates' browser and to open those pages that crash or otherwise mess up the Mozilla engine that powers both Netscape and Firefox. From time to time, I've also used Opera, a browser from Norway.

As for e-mail, I used the Netscape Messenger program (integrated with the Netscape browser) as my only mail from the time I cranked up my first home system wayyyyyy back in '96 until late 2005 when I started using my Rogers/Yahoo mail service as an online e-mail storage system. Internet clients of Rogers are automatically signed up for *Premium* e-mail service from Yahoo which entitles us to 2 GB of free online storage - the same service that anyone can purchase from Yahoo for something ridiculously cheap like $19.95U.S./yr. --- I recommend it!

As for graphics, my site is not cutting-edge stuff. Simple things like buttons, lines, a plethora of icons and a bazillion graphics can be found on the net -- for free. A number of sites even offer custom banners that you can design yourself online (you'll see links to all this stuff below). I use a version of Paint Shop Pro that came packaged with Dreamweaver, but my site isn't graphic-heavy, so I've never tried to learn all of the fancy-shmancy graphics stuff...

Here's what my "physical setup" looks like

Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office Suite

As a rule, I don't promote computer software products on this website.
However, I know that many small non-governmental organizations operate on shoestring budgets and can't afford the latest versions of word processing, presentation and spreadsheet software. Here are two alternatives that are compatible with all Microsoft products.

OpenOffice 1.1 [65.0MB] W98/2k/XP FREE
"OpenOffice is a free, open source alternative to MS Office with a Word-compatible word processor, a complete Excel-compatible spreadsheet program, and a PowerPoint-like presentation software and drawing program. It also allows you to save to a PDF file. In addition, it offers enhanced printing capabilities and options for direct connection with external e-mail software as well as form- letter management to send letters to addresses in a database. Also included are Indexing functions, a layout manager, third- party import filters, HTML export capability and a context-sensitive HTML editor. OpenOffice also includes a variety of graphics tools and manipulation options as well as slideshow support and an option to create "portable" presentations. If you are looking for a free Office suite, take a look at this one - you'll be impressed!"
Source of this review: Lockergnome

OpenOffice Reviews - from OpenOffice.org

..........................................................................................

602PC Suite 4.0 [for the Windows Operating System] - 21.5MB
"For those looking for an alternative to some of the more mainstream computer office suite packages, the free edition of 602PC Suite 4.0 may be worth a look. The package of programs includes a word processor, spreadsheet, photo editor, and a digital photo organizer. Additionally, this application is compatible with MS Office document types, and supports a number of different languages. The program is a bit large (approximately 21.5 MB), so those persons using a dial-up connection will want to keep this in mind. 602PC Suite 4 is compatible with all systems running Windows 98 and higher."

Reviewed by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2003.

Personal note: my wife tried the spreadsheet package, and she found it to be identical to Microsoft Excel. And it's free.

What's My IP Address? - this little javascript program simply opens a popup window with your IP. Sometimes useful when speaking with techies, or just to impress people with your technobabble. This Javascript doesn't work in Internet Explorer, for some reason... (;-)

File Extensions - File extensions are often used to determine the program that created the file. While there is no guarantee users will not rename files and/or associate odd extensions with particular programs, the following are some fairly standard associations.

Un Nouveau Guide Internet (UNGI) - Excellent guide (très exhaustif) au réseau Internet et Netscape
Hints on Using Your Web Browser
Internet Discussion Groups from tile.net
Micromedia's Home Page
Microsoft home page
PaintShop Pro
Search.com- c|net Computer Product Finder
Technocracy/HumHome Page
WebBuddy Home
What is Usenet?
Windows Magazine
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Searching the Internet - from The Internet Scout Project

Yale Web Style Guide
This online web authoring how-to book is a very good starting point for beginners.

NOTE
See the Canadian Social Research Links Reference page for links to my favourite search engines and metasearch services (the ones that perform searches on many engines at once).

See the Canadian Social Research Links Reference page for links to surfing tools (search engines, etc.)

Back to Canadian Social Research Links

Search the Web Search Canadian Social Research Links Only

TIP: How to Search for a Word or Expression on a Single Web Page  Open any web page in your browser, then hold down the Control ("Ctrl") key on your keyboard and type the letter F to open a "Find" window. Type or paste in a key word or expression and hit Enter - your browser will go directly to the first occurrence of that word (or those exact words, as the case may be). To continue searching using the same keyword(s) throughout the rest of the page, keep clicking on the FIND NEXT button. Try it. It's a great time-saver!

E-MAIL

Site created and maintained by : Création et mise à jour :

Gilles Séguin