P.G. Daly's Intranet Talk :

"Authoring Tool Standards - Critical?
Or Form Over Function?" By P.G. Daly

In my last column I spoke about the challenges of getting content published to the intranet on a macro scale. That is, some consistent means for all the businesses to publish basic content such as announcements, news, etc.. But what about new authors or PC savvy folks in an MIS Department that want to publish content? Should they be forced into the "old" standards or allowed to branch out and try a new approach?

Let's take a step back: it's necessary to say that the authoring and publishing tools I spoke of in the last column originated from "Intranet Standards and Guidelines" which was published when the Intranet first took its baby steps 2 years ago. And, as I reflect upon the various current authors' degree of success, failure, and inertia over the time period since, I find myself questioning again; what are the best tools for the various content-publishing scenarios in my company? What level of skill do people who publish and maintain content on the intranet really need? Do we really need a single standard tool? Sometimes I think a standard is critical, and sometimes I feel I'm wasting steam on form over function.

Obviously, some basic standards need to be adhered to, or in this day and age of insanely rapid growth on "Internet time", a webmaster could find herself with anarchy on her hands in less time than it takes to go on a week's vacation. However, I am starting to believe, at least when it comes to web authoring tools for basic HTML pages, that personal preference and comfort is more important than a standard. Overall, the tools of today versus just several years ago offer far more sophistication in terms of a WYSIWYG interface cleaner code generation. So why not give users several to choose from rather than force them into a standard, a "shoe," that might not fit?

One thing I have learned about these tools though is that WYSIWYG or not, authors really need to have a foundational knowledge of HTML. At the very least a comfortable conceptual knowledge of how an HTML page works. I say this based on experiencing calls from flustered (and trained!) authors asking: what are these little tags on the page (in the "Tags on View" of HotMetal Pro)? What are these little bracket things? I have found that even authors who are normally fairly comfortable with the tool get extremely intimidated the minute an error message related to HTML occurs (such as with a built-in validator).

My biggest concern with making the standards more lax and allowing users several web-authoring tools to choose from is support. Even if users attend formal training on a tool, what happens when they run into application-specific trouble or have feature specific questions? Certainly one webmaster who is also  application developer, server administrator, internal consultant, and all around "web go-to" person for more than a half-dozen businesses cannot also try to support numerous authors on numerous tools, at least not to a great level of detail.

In an ideal world I'd love to manage content with a tool such as RNCI's PublishNOW or HTML Transit Central or a comparable product. This would remove the learning curve of authors having to learn an application and build a foundational concept of HTML before they can publish content. Of course, I'm sure even these tools have their own set of technical and user issues.

I plan on giving some new authors, particularly those who are already PC savvy an opportunity to try new authoring tools. I'll be interested to see if this increases confidence and thus increases meaningful content without significantly increasing support issues. My prediction is a resounding maybe, but I'm not expecting an overwhelming shift by the winds of change.

I'll share any insights I gain from this move, but meanwhile, I'd love to hear from others out there. What types of tools and processes do you use to publish content in your organization? What have been some of the successes and pitfalls you've discovered? As always, I appreciate your thoughts at paulag@enter.net .

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The Author

P.G. Daly is Webmaster for the intranet of a large durable goods manufacturing company. In addition, P.G. writes for several online publications and does freelance web design and consulting. P.G. welcomes your feedback at paulag@enter.net .