Free webpage authoring options

Remember creating basic webpages by writing simple “tags” in HTML using Notepad? Remember Claris Homepage? Webpage authoring software programs have come a long way since the mid-1990s when the World-Wide Web was starting to take off, just as web standards have evolved by leaps and bounds. While more advanced (and expensive) WYSIWYG (”What You See Is What You Get”) webpage authoring programs are available, several free and cross-platform programs remain available which can be utilized in school courses for students studying the basics of webpage design.

Remember Netscape Composer? Netscape may be a distant memory, but Composer lives on (along with the Mozilla browser) as SeaMonkey. (Official website) While it does not support many of today’s more advanced webpage features like CSS, Composer is still a good starting environment for basic webpage authoring.

Another free webpage editor to consider for educational use, more advanced in some ways than SeaMonkey, is KompoZer. (Official website) KompoZer includes support for more recent web standards. According to the English WikiPedia:

KompoZer complies with the W3C’s web standards. By default, pages are created in accordance to HTML 4.01 Transitional and use CSS for styling, but the user can change the settings and choose between: Strict and transitional DTD’s, HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, CSS styling or the old font based styling.

Kompozer is an active “fork” of the open source webpage editing program Nvu.

The English WikiPedia includes an updated list of WYSIWYG webpage editors, including these free options as well as commercial offerings. The Wikipedia article “Comparison of HTML editors” includes a color-coded table of features including commercial prices.

Are you or others at your school still teaching webpage authoring with Microsoft Frontpage? If so, it’s time to ditch it. Frontpage was discontinued in 2003 by Microsoft and has been replaced by by Microsoft Expression Web and Sharepoint Designer.

In addition to providing students with basic HTML skills, I think it’s essential today to introduce them to the wide variety of web content management systems which form the backbone of the most dynamic websites on the Internet today. WikiPedia’s listing of CMS options is a great resource on this topic. The options under free and open source PHP alternatives is pretty amazing. There are so many choices, you may be unsure where to start. I’d suggest Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal as entry points into this list.

What are you or other educators in your school using to “teach” webpage authoring and design skills to students these days? Perhaps a better question might be, what tools are YOUR STUDENTS AND YOUR OWN KIDS using to author and create webpages on their own time, after school? Have you provided a venue at school for them to share their knowledge and skills with others? In many cases, their knowledge and experiences with webpage authoring may far outdistance many classroom teachers in your building. Our schools need to be places where different types of expertise from all kinds of learners are welcomed and valued. If you don’t have a way for your students to share their knowledge and skills on topics like webpage authoring, make a suggestion to your student government representatives that they find a way to facilitate this type of knowledge sharing on a regular basis.

[Flickr Creative Commons Image from jef safi]

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