Moignard, Stephen --- "Using the Web" [1997] LawIJV 10; (1997) 71(1) The Law Institute Journal 24

• Using the Web
• Setting up a Web page or site
• Pricing correction

Using the Web

by STEPHEN MOIGNARD

The time has come to cover suitable tools and products for lawyers entering the World Wide Web. Many firms and individuals have already taken the plunge. Some are already making money from it. At the simplest level, you can build your own Web page and have it up and running within a week for as little as $100 and five hours work. This is assuming you have absolutely no Web experience but can drive a PC adequately well.

Each month I will con¬centrate on books, software programs and hardware tools that stand out from the crowd.

Setting up a Web page or site

There is a chapter on resources and a comprehensive index.

This book is a good starting point for those with little or no Web design experience. The language is user friendly and any technical jargon comes with clear explanations. With loads of graphical and flowchart-style explanations, this book is a great overall "appetiser" for newcomers to Web authoring.

Waters details the basic steps involved in Web publishing in a logical format. Clear

guidelines cover everything from targeting your audience to common problems and how to overcome them.

While this book covers the nuts and bolts information for publishing on-line (from browser choice to test driving your page before upload), it would not be sophisticated enough for experienced pub¬lishers. However, it does contain some useful hints.

There is a comprehensive index and an explanatory note for each chapter in the introduction.

Microsoft Publisher, available from most software retailers for $119. Although the codes that make Web pages are easy to write in any word processor, products such as Microsoft Publisher let you see your Web page as you build it. You can place graphics, change fonts and add java elements that work as you design your pages. To test your menus you can jump from link to link - as a user will - and see your page as it will look in your selected browser.

Microsoft Publisher is essentially a desk-top publishing program. It is designed to let you build professional page layouts on paper. The Web publishing elements of Publisher have been added through the use of templates and wizards that guide you through the Web building process. All in all, the effect is very slick - as one expects from a Microsoft product.

An absolute raft of these sorts of prod¬ucts (HTML Editors) has been released over the past eighteen months. Some of the better known products include Net¬scape Gold and HotDog. Of all the HTML Editors that I have seen and used, Micro-soft Publisher offers the most advanced graphics features. It hides the complexities of HTML from the user almost completely, making it ideal for beginners. The only problem with this approach is that it has the tendency to create very large graphics files, which can be impractical for users accessing your page. Because the user is so insulated from the realities of Web page design, these problems are unlikely to be addressed.

Another issue with Publisher is its in-ability to use frames (multiple screen areas on a Website, each containing separate forms). While the frame forms can be created in Publisher, they cannot be viewed or tested within the product. On the other hand, Publisher provides the best visual HTML table support I have seen allowing you to build complex, flexibly-formatted paper-like Web pages with no effort.

I like to use Publisher to prototype a page design before building the final page in straight HTML. It is a very good starting point for anyone considering putting together their own Web pages, but don't expect to be able to avoid the need to work on your page in HTML mode at some time.

Corel Web.Graphics Suite, most retailers, $369.

Corel Corporation is the maker of the world's leading drawing package, Corel-Draw 6.0. It recently purchased Word-Perfect from Novell, and has moved into Web software in a big way. This group of packages is the most comprehensive graphical solution for Web pages available. It contains Web-oriented versions of the leading CorelDraw product, an excellent HTML Editor called Web.Designer, a word processing document conversion tool call¬ed Web.Transit, stacks of Web optimised clip art, an animation tool and a virtual reality program. Every program has a large number of features and is a leader or close to it in its field. I can highly recommend the Graphics Suite as a total solution for the graphical look and feel of your Website.

The underlying logic is another matter - the Graphics Suite contains nothing to help you create Web programs or funct¬ionality. But many Websites do not require any programming. To work out whether you will need the functionality of scripts, java etc., see the Web books reviewed in this column.

Beware of two bugs in the HTML Editor. Firstly, it tends to leave a lot of unused tags in your files if a document is edited often. This can cause the document to crash when loaded. Secondly, there is a bug in relation to <FRAMESET> tags in forms, which means that you cannot use the product for editing Web pages that define frames.

Apart from these problems in the HTML Editor (and no HTML Editor is perfect), the Corel.Graphics Suite is essential. It has more than you will ever need, and lots that you will find essential from day one.

HP Scanjet 4P, Hewlett Packard, [phone].

If you are serious about starting a Website, you will need to consider buying a colour scanner. The Internet is full of clip art images and graphics that people have seen before, and your own scanned images can add a new dimension to your on-line appearance. For instance, photo-graphs of staff members can be added to their bio pages. Photographs of the building or the lobby can be added to the opening page. Your logo can be added without being rebuilt in a graphics package like CorelDraw.

You don't need anything fancy as your scans do not have to be high resolution for the Internet - just 72 dots per inch. You want something reliable, compatible, easy to set up and use. The HP Scanjet 4P meets all these requirements nicely. It is automatically recognised by Windows 95 which makes it simple to set up and it comes with easy to use scanning software, which also allows easy optical character recognition.

In fact, I found the optical character recognition to be by far the most valuable feature - apart from the Internet graphics. I could scan typed documents and have 100 percent correct Word for Windows files without any typing. A great use for this OCR scanner is building research files. Cases and articles can be scanned into a research directory, and then keyword searched with text retrieval software such as Isys. This can provide an additional source of ideas and angles to those provided by CD-ROM and on-line services.

Typing in an existing document is a frustrating task. Having access to a scan¬ner at these times is a great relief - and a productivity increase for the firm. It is much quicker to scan than to type large documents. However, this is only true if the scanning software is used efficiently. There are lots of fun adjustments and set¬tings to play with - without good procedures in place, a scanner, like any other "cool" technology, can become a time waster rather than a productivity im¬prover.

For about $650, the HP Scanjet 4P is a good brand name product that has no glaring deficiencies. It is likely to give you at least two to three years of troublefree use, and will not be outdated by other technology advances.

Pricing correction

Aunty Abha's High Court Judgments, Aunty Abha's Electronic Publishing [phone].

Contrary to my advice in the September Journal, Aunty Abha's High Court Judg¬ments costs only $45 per year for an annual subscription with quarterly up-dates if you purchase any other Aunty Abha products. Also, for $790 per year you can receive a stand alone subscription with quarterly updates to Aunty Abha's:

Victorian Acts and Regulations

Commonwealth Acts and Regulations

New South Wales Acts and Regulations

Queensland Acts and Regulations.

A site licence subscription to all five products listed for a single server with up to 1000 workstations would cost $2500. Aunty Abha is happy to send you a free copy of all the above products so you can evaluate them for yourself. 

Stephen Moignard is a technology consultant with Law Partners - 0418 554 933 or email s/[e-mail] or [e-mail]