Lessons

Introduction

Since early 1995, Grant Communications has launched over 250 corporate web sites, ranging from divisions of Fortune 100 to local manufacturing operations. Pete joined the firm in 1996 as Business Development Manager, and was promoted in January 1999 to the newly-created position of VP Ops.

Through 1996, HotDog HTML editor was the preferred authoring tool. While still code-based, there were help and tutorials associated with the program.

In 1997 through 1998, Adobe's PageMill gained wide popularity and support. One of the first true WYSIWYG editors, it was far simpler to learn and manage with lower technically-proficient staff members within companies. FrontPage 3.0/'97 remained the preferred tool for technical level staffs.

Macromedia launchedDreamweaver 1.0/1.2 in late 1997, but lagged behind the other tolls in supporting simple WYSIWYG table and frames editing. Dreamweaver 2.x launched in mid-1998, doing a much better job in table editing and automated javascript generation. However, it's Behaviors remained buggy. Dreamweaver 3.0 launched mid-1999, and gained enormous popularity almost instantly. Extensions to Dreamweaver now made cults of users. Dreamweaver 4.0 launched 12/99, and in conjunction with it's studio partner Fireworks, allows seamless design. Macromedia also is open platform, allowing ease of use with Adobe's Photoshop and Image Ready software products.