Content area
Full Text
MarketScape's WebCD Pro Publisher
Smart and Friendly's CD-R 2006 Plus CD Recorder Philips OMNIwriter CD-Rewritable
Since its initial release in September 1996, the most comprehensive tool for creating HTML-formatted CD-ROMs has been WebCD from MarketScape Incorporated of Colorado Springs, Colorado. But that distinction now passes to its newly released successor, WebCD Pro Publisher, which is an even more elegant and powerful solution. WebCD 1.0 was composed of a Viewer and a Packager, but in WebCD Pro Publisher, the Packager component is renamed Publisher, reflecting a more seamless process of retrieval and organization. The Viewer component is powered by a new Hybrid Engine which runs a localhost proxy server for more integrated search and redirect capabilities and a smoother install of auxiliary helpers for the end-user.
Like the Packager in WebCD, the new version's Publisher explores and retrieves the contents of one or more Web sites, and then packages these files with an installable copy of Microsoft Intemet Explorer 4.0 for distribution on CD-ROM. All HTML files are renamed and redirected with relative URLs to the CD-ROM archive-or absolute URLs in the case of links that are meant to be accessed live on the Web. Developers can also add local files to enhance the Web-based content with multimedia or video elements, which are too large for Web delivery.
Other elements of Publisher include the ability of all content retrieved from either the Web or local media to be "bookmarked" simply by being dragged over to the Bookmarks window, for easy access without having to write any HTML. WebCD authors can customize bookmarks as Livelinks by choosing Do Not Retrieve from the options menu. WebCD Publisher allows the author to choose whether or not to index, reference, or redirect any file. Field values can also either be assigned to files or retrieved from HTML meta tags.
WEB DISCOVERED, RETRIEVED, ORGANIZED, CD-ROM BUILT
When starting a new WebCD project, the first action the Publisher performs is to send its spider through the Web site and track all URL references. These are collected in folders for each type of URL: http, gopher, ftp, news, and mailto. The process of discovering every link in a site will put the WebCD author in touch with many...