WebAuthor               
Copyright (c) 1995, Joe DeRouen
All rights reserved


WebAuthor 1.0                   
by Joe DeRouen


These days, everyone and their uncle is putting up their own home page
on the World Wide Web.  Not to be left behind, you'll probably want to
join them.  Until now, your best option was to learn Hypertext Markup
Language (commonly known as HTML) and type code into an ASCII word
processor.  All of that has changed with a slew of HTML-specialized
programs. The best of the bunch seems to be Quarterdeck's WebAuthor, an
add-on program for Microsoft's Word for Windows 6.0.

WebAuthor lets you create pages for the Web using the familiar interface
of Word without learning HTML codes.  When you load up the program from
Word's Tools menu, it asks you if you want to create a new HTML file,
import an existing file, or open up a Word document in progress.  If
you've never worked with HTML before, the program is pretty
self-explanatory.  All you really need to know is how to move around in
Word, and you can create a decent Web page.  WebAuthor offers a lot for
the advanced user as well, including the ability to create forms with
radio buttons, complicated inline graphics, and several different font
and list styles.  Best of all, using Word's WYSIWYG (What You See Is
What You Get) option, you can actually see what your web page is going
to look like before putting it online. 

WebAuthor's manual is also a big plus.  It's laid out logically and is
very straightforward and simple to follow.  There's even a glossary in
the back with WWW and HTML terms, something I found to be particulary
helpful and interesting. 

WebAuthor does have a few problems, however.  If you want to use a
pre-existing Word document, you have to export it as an ASCII file and
then import it back into the program.  Also, it won't let you use any of
Word's character styles or paragraph formats.  Other annoying but not
crippling problems include a very slow load up time of HTML files,
certain characters that you can't seem to delete from your document, or
characters appearing as symbol fonts rather than text. 

Quarterdeck does plan a host of upgrades, including, eventually,
integration with it's Mosaic browser and even more compatibility with
Word. Despite it's problems, WebAuthor is a great first effort and a
major step forward in the demystification of HTML.  List Price: $149.95.
Quarterdeck, 800/354-3222, 310/392-9851.