The recent Mecklermedia Web Developer '96 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago was an exciting three day event held on February 12th through February 14th, 1996. It covered a variety of topics like Web page design, HTML, marketing on the 'Net, future vision and writing for the net. Basic topics as well as more technical ones such as Winsockets were covered. I went to the technical topics and their content varied greatly. Some presenters did not know their subjects and some consultants gave half hour commercials for their books and services. One presenter at a database seminar appeared to not even know what the acronym DBMS meant! (It stands for Data Base Management System.) Some attendees I talked to, during the trade show, liked different seminars than I did, but most agreed that the better presenters were quite good. I saw some very interesting products demonstrated at the trade show portion of this event.

For those of you that did not attend this wonderful event, there are several new books that can help you catch up with some Internet topics. Yes -- books about the electronic media that are well rounded books and really encompass the subject.

Let's start with Web Publishing with Word for Windows. This is a 393 page book that includes sample Web pages along with Microsoft's Internet Assistant for Word for Windows on a diskette which can help you create and publish your own Web pages. The Internet Assistant is a software program that turns the PC version of Word 6 into a Web browser and an HTML editor. The book describes planning and structuring Web pages, how to get them on the Web, along with a firm background about HTML including the more advanced features of HTML. It describes how graphics, tables and hyperlinks can be used to create interactive forms and maps. The book concludes with how to browse the Internet, follow the rules of Net etiquette, and introduces you to FTP and gopher menu servers.

Teach Yourself More Web Publishing with HTML in a Week covers CGI, HTML 3.0 (whenever that's gonna happen) along with tables and forms. For those of you that are technically oriented enough to want to set up your own Web server, there is Web Site Construction Kit for Windows NT. This book shows you a fast method to set up your very OWN Web server and includes advanced CGI tricks, Web site organization, Web site traffic analysis and Web databases. The included CD-ROM includes the EMWAC HTTPS Web server along with other server and client utilities.

Copyright © 1996 Rick Smith All rights reserved.