Issue Number 31 - mid-August 2000

Would you like to create an interactive web site, but don't have the time to go into details? This guide has been written for you. It offers a rapid overview of the process, and presents the HTML code plus screenshots of each stage. There's no time for any of the finer points of web design, but it might appeal to either beginners who are prepared to work slowly, or more advanced users who need a very quick run-through. Judge for yourself at --

http://www.mantex.co.uk.reviews/ayesh.htm

Virginia Woolf - Greatest Works
For some reason, our site gets high search engine ratings when people look for 'Virginia Woolf'. [Perhaps a search engine specialist can explain why?] So we've created a page which offers brief notes on her greatest works. It covers the fiction, letters, and diaries, and we'll be updating it this autumn. You can click through to order the cheap paperback editions of her most popular works. And whilst we're at it, maybe some other expert can explain why her work still seems to be out of copyright - even though the UK law is supposed to have changed in line with the European Union. This brings work back into copyright until 70 years after the author's death. That's how we understand it anyway.

http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/woolf-04.htm

The Exploding Dictionary
The Exploding Dictionary looks up a word and presents the definitions - twice on the same page. The first presentation is clean with no hyperlinked words. The second presentation is heavily hyperlinked; in fact every word in the second presentation is hyperlinked to a definition.

For example, say you looked up the word 'pokey'. The first presentation, at the top of the page, gives you the definition. The second presentation allows you to click on any word in the definition - small, remote, laggard, slang, jail - and so on.

http://projects.ghostwheel.com/dictionary/

'Producing for the Web'
Another web design manual. What makes this one different? Well, the emphasis in Jason Whittaker's approach is on the maintenance and management of a web site. He describes how the Web works, and tells you how to organise pages so that they make a coherent site. But the parts of this book I found most useful were those which introduce some of the more advanced topics such as style sheets and CGI scripts. There are plenty of resources listed, and the book has its own web site - which is now becoming common practice.

http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/whittaker.htm

'The Internet: A Writer's Guide'
Jane Dorner's best-selling guide for writers has an extensive database of Internet resources on its website. It includes advice to would-be writers on publishing their work online, and gives valuable advice on both writing and the commercial side of publication. The book has just been supplemented by the addition of a list of e-Publishers. If you missed our review of Jane's book when it appeared, go to --

http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/dorner-2.htm

Time Capsule
Would you like to know what was happening on the day you were born? Enter your birthdate at this site, and you are given news headlines, who was in office, what celebrities you share your day with, retail prices, average income for the year, Academy Award winners, and sports headlines.

When I checked it out, I learned that Madonna generously shares her birthday with me, and that 'The Wizard of Oz' was a box office hit the year I was born. Gosh! - that dates me, doesn't it.

http://dmarie.com/timecap/

'How to be an Online Tutor'
Newsletter subscriber Seb Schmoller sent us details of another review of Julia Duggelby's manual for all would-be online tutors. It takes a different line to our own article. Would we run it, in the interests of free speech, fair play, and the advance of democratic socialism? Yes, of course. We're nothing if not fair minded. So it's up at --

http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/dugg-2.htm

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