As there is a profound famine of Palestinian material on the Net, we began to think about ways in which we could train departments in simple HTML markup, just to get things moving. We began with a piece of add-on software called Microsoft Word Internet Assistant 1.0Z (known here as "Word Eye-A"), a translator based on HTML version 1.0 and therefore unable to perform basic functions such as centering text, and began to train any departments that wanted it. I guess newer versions will deal with this. I now refuse to train people on this or any other alleged WYSIWYG software. If you don't know the code, you can't fix it. See the Human Rights Action Project, Academic Freedom First and Continuing Education Department websites for examples from people who learnt the code and did something with it.
Since these first sessions we have begun to develop course materials for training our staff and have experimented with a variety of text editing as opposed to WYSIWYG/translation programmes. We are also targetting people who are of above-average computer literacy first. We use HTML Assistant Pro 2.0, produced by Brooklyn North Software Works, which is excellent. Version 3.0 is out which can do frames, so I have avoided it like the plague. Anyway, Brooklyn North's software has some useful features such as a Background Assistant that lets you see a preview of your background image/colour with the various text and hyperlink colours you have chosen.
Nigel Parry
Birzeit Webmaster
webmaster@birzeit.edu