Scott said:
A friend needs to post a calendar on her website showing when she has
classes available, upcoming events, etc.
Is there something out there that provides a very simple way to update a
calendar on a web page so that she can do so without knowing anything
about html, ftp, etc.?
Thanks,
Scott Kelley
At the risk of inviting a world of flame upon my poor, tired self - I'd like
to offer a suggestion. I work at a college and occasionally have an
instructor, staff member, or someone who wants to post some document online
(like your friend's calendar). In these cases, the person doesn't want to
learn HTML; just post some information.
I advise those folks to create the document with Word and "Save as
Webpage." (They could also use OpenOffice, StarOffice, or other such
software - but my users are typically MS folks.) Then they can put that
page on the Web.
I know that these products create horribly mangled HTML and I would not rely
on them myself. However, for someone like you have mentioned perhaps she
would be comfortable using some product like Word or Excel (or their Open
Source counterparts) to create and maintain a calendar. She could then post
her information to the Web for her clients and be happy. Ideally, you could
then persuade her to later learn HTML to get "more power" for her site.
You will have to show her how to post her page to the Web. That would mean a
short lesson covering some FTP program. However, I've found that even my
"slowest" students can learn how to use a product like Winsock FTP to
upload a Web page. In fact, if she is a good friend and all she wants to do
is post a monthly calendar you could offer to do that for her. Just have
her e-mail you her Word document and you could convert it to HTML and
upload it.
Well, there it is. While I am a strong supporter of upholding Web standards,
I also feel like what is most essential is getting information out there
where people can use it; even if that means some folks will rely on
products like Word.
--George
