# Presentation: 476023

## Designing and Building Web Based Information Systems: Software

- Mark Rodekohr
- Energy Information Administration
- June 1997

## Some Software Rules of Thumb

- Everyone will have their favorite which works for them
- Cost of acquisition and maintenance is a issue - compromises must be made
- Off the shelf is almost always better than custom software because of cost and the ability to use the experience of a wide variety of users
- A good example of the problems associated with custom software are the EIA legacy computer systems
- A good example of what not to do is the U.S. Department of State which continues to use a Wang based system not used by anyone else in the world.

## Types of Software Needed for Web Development

- Text/Table Generation (in a browser readable format like HTML)
- Text Editor
- Graphics Generation
- Web Site Management

## Text/Table Generation

- The availability of web viewable text/table generation software is almost overwhelming
- We use the Microsoft Internet assistants for Word, Access, Excel and PowerPoint
- Corel’s Office Suite is not bad but its barista generation technology leaves something to be desired
- Microsoft Front Page is also useful especially if you have their server software installed (this makes site management easier)

## Microsoft Assistants

- These are free downloads and install easily into Office 95.  They are included in Office 97.
- Once installed you simply create a Word (or import WordPerfect into Word), Excel, Access or PowerPoint presentation
- Then save the subject document, table, presentation etc... in the .htm format under file - save as.
- Sometimes it is necessary to go in with a text editor as a last step and change some of the HTML code.

## Microsoft Assistants

- Advantages
- Well integrated with other Microsoft products
- Will make most conversions almost seamless
- Cost effective, larger user community

- Disadvantages
- Sometimes code gets added even when you did not want it (especially fonts)
- Formatting can be difficult (true of almost all HTML)

## Corel Office Suite

- Advantages
- Works well with other Wordperfect products a well integrated system
- Most conversions are automatic

- Disadvantages
- Barista technology requires Java enabled browser and converts much of a document to bitmap format which is not very useful to many users
- Office Suite does not have the market share it once had

## Adobe’s Distiller

- Advantages
- Produces a very good reproduction of a printed document
- The least expensive to produce - it literally takes minutes
- Can use as an input any postscript print file
- With some work and additional software a search capability can be added

- Disadvantages
- Requires users to download and install a reader which is beyond many users skills
- Resulting documents cannot be cut and pasted easily
- File sizes can be large
- Many users do not like having to install and use the reader

## Text Editors

- Most are free or shareware
- Windows notepad works but is somewhat limited
- PFE short for Professional Editor works very well
- GREP is good in that it can search through the all the files in a directory and make global edits, very useful for a large web site

## Image Production Software: Paint Shop Pro

- Advantages
- Fairly inexpensive
- Excellent screen capture, color reduction and other special filters
- Good for making transparent gif images

- Disadvantages
- Does not do a good job of making complex images

## Image Production Software: Adobe’s Photoshop

- Advantages
- Very popular among high end users
- Many features can do just about everything

- Disadvantages
- Difficult to use requires much training
- Relatively expensive

## Image Production Software: Corel Draw

- Advantages
- Mid price and complexity range
- Huge amounts of clip are available to users
- Large user community

- Disadvantages
- All art looks like it was created in Corel
- Does take some time and training to use

## Image Production Software: Microsoft Image Maker

- Advantages
- Comes free with Microsoft Frontpage
- Easy to use requires little if any training

- Disadvantages
- Somewhat limited features and art come with the package
- Not as many features as Photoshop but good for simple web sites (you never want to use to much art in any event)

## Web Management Software

- Microsoft Front Page - relatively inexpensive, good features (when server side software is installed), somewhat time consuming to use.
- Web Analyzer - inexpensive, easy to use checks links are performs other quality control functions in a very automated fashion

## Search Software

- Very necessary for large web sites.
- EIA uses the Verity engine which is somewhat difficult to install but easy to maintain
- The state of the art is not all that good