Amaya, GREAT IDEA, but...

I heard about a new version of this software from a friend and in my quest to find a well functioning website editor for scouting units, I decided to give it a test drive. Amaya is a Web editor used to create and update documents directly on the Web. This is a GREAT idea and here is what I found:

Version Evaluated: Amaya 9.53 (12 December 2006)
Supported Platforms: Linux, Windows and MacOS X PowerPC and Intel
File Size: 5.5 MB
Manufacturer: W3C
Cost: $0, open source

Description: Amaya is an open source software project hosted by W3C. Amaya is a Web editor used to create and update documents directly on the Web. Browsing features are integrated with the editing and remote access features in a uniform environment. It supports HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, XHTML Basic, XHTML 1.1, MathML 2.0, many CSS 2 features, and includes SVG support (transformation, transparency, and SMIL animation). You can display and partially edit XML documents.

Evaluation: The browser was easy on install and open. My experience with this software was not good. It does not work well as a browser. I found the software to be awkward and non-intuitive. It does not work as well as IE or Foxfire. As for editing features, I found them to work fairly well, but the browser portion made the pages display poorly when working with a document.

Summary: This software may have been ten years in the making, but it needs more work before it is ready for primetime.

Scouters avoid this software until a new version is available.

FrontPage is Dead!

A Reasonably Priced Replacement is Needed

Amoung scouters, I have found that many have been using Microsoft Front Page to develop their unit sits. Microsoft announced earlier this year, that they will stop supporting MS FrontPage software. Frontpage has been long critized by professional website developers for bloted code and add-ins that were only available through Frontpage extensions. Microsoft seems to have started over in the development of a product that will compete well with Adobe's Dreamweaver.
Many Website servers for Linux have already started dropping the support for Frontpage extensions. That means the MS navigation, counter and other special features will stop working. You need to remove that code from your scouting website as rapidly as possible.
Amazon is reporting the upgade price of $99.95 to Microsoft Expression Web Designer 1.0. You can download the Beta. Visit Microsofts' Expressions Products page and give it a test drive.

-Happy Scouting

Getting Help With Your Website

Designing a website can be a lonely business for a scouter, especially when thing are not working. Searching the web is often very fruitful, but sometimes you need some help. I have found a forum for Scouts and Scouters that has been very useful: eScouts.org.uk . The UK Scouting community seems in many ways to be far more developed, as it relates to scouting websites support and design. This community is useful, friendly and upholds the best traditions of the scouting brotherhood.

If you have a problem, you sign-up for an account, select the appropriate forum (very important) and post your request. The difference in time zones works to our favor. I usually post between 8-12pm and within 12-24 hours I usually have a response and often several. Many of the Scouters on this site are teens and twenty somethings and are dedicated to scouting and to site design.

I have not found it to be a problem, but you should remember Winston Churchill's quote "We (US & UK) are two peoples seperated by a common language.

--Happy Scouting

CoffeeCup VisualSite Designer

CoffeeCup VisualSite Designer is a WYSIWYG Website Creator.This is an entry level software that automates some advanced features. The CoffeeCup Website lists features for their software.

• Free Support & Free Upgrades for Life
• Over 25,000 Graphics & Photos Included
• 100 DHTML & JavaScripts Included
• Fast & Simple Image and Link Inserting
• Wizards for Frames, Tables, Forms, Fonts & more
• Easy Drag & Drop WYSIWYG Visual Editor
• Full-Featured HTML Code Editor with Quickstart
• Includes CoffeeCup Image Mapper
• Built in SiteMapper Creator
• Includes Over 1000 XP Style Graphics.
  

Observations:

I downloaded the 15 day trial software. I strongly recommend test driving this software before you buy it. The users of this software seem to very loyal. They either absolutely love it or hate it.

The website price is $49. A good price for most Scouters. This software has a unique look and feel. Most website editors are based upon a text editor, this software is based upon a graphics editor.

Good Tutorial for beginners

The files you create are saved in a unique file format. This is a negative for me.

Summary

An interesting concept, in theory, but the software feels very confining. If you use this software, you will needs lots of scouting related graphics. Visit escoutingGraphics and pickup the graphics you need to create your scouting unit website.

--Happy Scouting

Calendar Softare for Scouts

Over the years I have developed more than a few Scouting websites. I have found many units seeking sofware that provides a good scheduling function. I have finally settled on one package. There are a number of new services free and otherwise, so I do not expect this to be end of the story.

PlansCalendar is an excellent choice. This software is open source with browser based management. It also supports multiday events, reoccuring events on multiple calendars.

The software is written in php and you do not have to be a programmer to implement this gem. The documentation is adequate and easy to read.
Scouting websites need a good calendar. If you want something a little more exotic than the standard list of dates. Try this program.

The only real negative I can voice is that only one password and log in is available.

Visit the updates to escouting.net

--Happy Scouting