I have to say this, though some won't like hearing it: > > + compose your HTML by hand > + start with static content (no scripts at first) > + construct your scripts (active content) by hand > > Machine-generated HTML is a horrible mess > and will likely lead to content maintenance pain later. > HTML is just too easy to do. It takes a day to learn, > and *no* special training. Sure, there will need to be practice. > I strongly recommend AGAINST most "authoring tools".
Amen to all that - and the bits I've snipped I'd add that - if one of the goals is to be found via search engines - knowledge of HTML includes knowledge of how engines such as Google treat it. Unfortunately this is really a black art - Google don't explicitly document their algorithms for fear of them being exploited. Joining http://www.webmasterworld.com is highly recommended. Beware - it's a very strictly policed environment, but most of the people on there are web professionals. Cautionary tale - I was helping someone optimise their web page for Google. I'd dumped all the crap and gone for clean HTML - Google prioritises text in the TITLE and METATAG "description" fields, and also weights anything inside H1 tags. We were discussing this in a pub, and the landlord pointed out another customer. He came over and offered a business card - "XYZ Consultants - Web Design Specialists". I asked him what tools he used - DreamWeaver and FrontPage. Then he asked to see what we were looking at - an HTML printout - so I gave it to him. "What's this?", he said.
