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Once the esoteric toy of a small group of computer boffins, the once little-understood web browser has become a standard piece of software bundled on almost all new PC's. Icons for programs such as Netscape Navigator, and Internet Explorer are becoming as common as Word and Excel. Today, users are finding their easy-to-use web browsers are becoming their main tool used for viewing the planet's information resources.
A little known fact is that the HTML (hypertext mark-up language) files one reads from the internet using the browser can also be encoded and read from CD ROM - and CD writers are now available for under £300. See DIY CD Article.
Using a technique dubbed WebOnCD, we have found accessing large chunks of data from a local source such as CD actually has some distinct advantages over using the Internet…
Some types of information aren't suitable for placing for the world to see on the Internet. But WebOnCD allows you to distribute large multimedia publications privately to a selected audience using the same methodology for Internet websites.
The HTML used in our experimental WebOnCD publications is very easy to create. It requires no previous programming experience, and no special software. Any simple text editor such as Windows notepad will create HTML, and there are loads of excellent shareware HTML editors available for a very modest sum via the Internet. Furthermore most leading office software will also save data in HTML format.
Arguably the smartest way to use WebOnCD is in conjunction with a web site. Big files that don't need updating very often, such as sound samples, photographs and video clips can live locally on CD, along with the main HTML multimedia publication. Users simply deploy their web browser to read the CD ROM.
Smaller, text-based files containing data such as prices and frequently updated statistics can live on your web site. Simply clicking a linked word or graphic in your CD-based HTML publication automatically connects the user to your website - providing the PC is suitably equipped.
In the corporate sector, companies could produce a catalogue at regular intervals on CD ROM. In the meantime, customers could use the CD to connect to the company's website for latest prices, special offers and on-line ordering.
Alternatively if your business were publishing you could feature small photos or diagrams on your website. Then generate revenue by selling much larger and better quality images, in a multimedia presentation structured identically to your site, on CD ROM.
Naturally, working with a large volume of data requires meticulous attention to file structure - ensuring files are in the correct folders, and that links between files work correctly. However, in our tests we have found that multimedia publications can be completed much more quickly in HTML than using proprietary multimedia authoring tools.
Imaginative use of HTML offers the business usera whole new range of cost-effective publishing possibilities.
