Web Development Vs. Traditional Office Documents

In some respects, creating web documents is very different from creating other types of business documents like Excel worksheets or Word documents because of the nature of the World Wide Web.  With Word documents, for instance, usually the final goal is a static, printed output.  However, with web documents, the final product is what appears on the screen.  It can be colorful, animated, and interactive.  

Also, with other types of office documents, the whole package is contained in a singular file that can be copied to any location and still work correctly (provided you have the correct software).  On the other hand, web pages consist of a group of files including the page itself and any images you choose to display on the page.  For instance, on the page you are reading now, the picture near the top that says "part 1" is a separate image file.  So are all of the buttons on the left.  (In fact, the buttons on the left are actually two files - one for when your mouse is over the image and one for when it is not.)  Finally, another file contains the text that you are reading now as well as "pointers" that tell the page where the images are supposed to be and where the browser can find those images.  (Still ANOTHER file contains the advertisements that you see at the top of each page!  But, this file is out of my control.)

When you are working with Word (for example), you simply insert (embed) the clip art or image and this image becomes part of the singular file that is your Word document.  When you are working with web pages, you link the images to the page.  Because of this, you have to be very careful about where your images are being stored in relation to where your page is being stored. 

We'll get into this more later...

Another major difference between working with traditional office documents and working with web pages is in regards to software and platform. 

 The software that is used to view a web page is called a web browser.  While there are tons of web browsers on the market, the two "big names" in the field are Netscape Navigator and MS Internet Explorer.  Unfortunately for web developers everywhere, each browser displays even simple pages slightly differently.  Each also has functions that the other cannot do.  For example, if you are viewing this page in a Netscape browser,

this text will be blinking,

but if you are using Internet Explorer, it will not be blinking.  

Similarly, if you are viewing this page in Internet Explorer (version 4 and up),

this text will be moving back and forth

but if you are using Netscape Navigator, it will not be moving at all.

The other factor to consider is platform.  The word "platform" refers to the type of computer (or, more accurately, operating system) that the person viewing your web page is using.  Windows-based systems do not display the same colors that Macintosh based systems do, nor do either of them use the same fonts (typeface styles).  

For example, for this page I had to tell the browser to use the Ariel font (a standard font installed on Windows systems).  If the Ariel font is not available, the browser will display the page in Helvetica (which is the Macintosh equivalent of Ariel).

As you can see, there are MANY more factors to consider in web development than with traditional documents.

©2000 Harry Knight

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