Appendix C

What's on the CD?

by Oran J. Sands

 

CONTENTS

The CD-ROM found in the back of this book has been carefully prepared and researched so you'll have a variety of tools and examples to assist you in enhancing your web pages. The entire CD has been linked with HTML web pages so that it can be accessed via your favorite browser (there's even a browser included, in case you need one). You'll find that the web pages have links to the software programs on the disk, the graphics files and examples, and actual web sites on the World Wide Web (you'll need an Internet connection to use these).

Starting Up

Starting up the CD is simple. From within your browser, load the file LOADME.htm. The first page will lead you to the next pages; there, you can choose what you'd like to see next. There is a "back" button at the bottom of every page that returns you to the selections page.

Many of the programs you'll see on the CD are beta versions (they are works in progress; functional, but not all of the bugs are worked out or all the features active yet). We offer them so you can sample what their technology has to offer; if you're still interested, you can download the latest version from the Web. But first, cut your Internet connect charges by using the version on our CD.
 

 

Note

Many of the programs on the CD are shareware (offered free for a period of time so that you can evaluate them). If you want to use a program further, you can register with the software company, pay a fee, and receive a fully working version (and possibly other perks). Please respect the efforts of the software authors who have toiled over a hot monitor late into the night to bring you quality programs at a reasonable price.

 

Some of the Best Tools

The following sections describe a few of the excellent programs that you may be interested in.

Hotdog HTML Editor

We've included Hotdog for one simple reason: it's one of the best and easiest tools for creating and managing web pages. The program you'll find on the CD is the standard version, which is upgradable to the professional version (click the link to Sausage Software for more information). It's solid and reliable, and will serve you for years to come. If you upgrade to the professional version, you'll not need another HTML editor for quite a while.

PaintShop Pro

There are a lot of shareware programs available for manipulating graphics, but there are few for creating them from scratch. PaintShop Pro is a fully featured paint program that also excels at image manipulation, making it the program of choice for creating your web page graphics. Registering the shareware version will get you even more capability.

MapThis!

Those lovely image maps you see on other web pages are quite difficult to control unless you have a program such as MapThis! It's an excellent utility for setting up the links from different areas of your image.

WebForms

The creation of a web-page form can be a daunting task without a program such as WebForms, which makes it simple and easy.

Java Development Kit

This is a must-have if you decide to get involved with Java programming. It includes the Java applet viewer. Both Mac and Windows versions can be found on the CD.

Netscape Plugins

You'll find a directory full of the latest Netscape plugins, many of which are mentioned throughout this book. If you're going to set up your pages to use plugin features, you'll need these to see whether your page works for your visitors!

Movies, Buttons, Bars, and Other Pretty Things

We have plenty of sample graphics for you to add to your web pages and several links where you can find even more. Check out the great collection of digital movie clips we've licensed exclusively for this CD.

But Wait, That's Not All!

For those of you who want to know what else is available, we've put a lot of other software on the CD:

World Wide Web Browsers and Utilities

HTML Editors and Utilities

Multimedia Editors and Viewers

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