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[ The Concept Behind Dynamic Tools ]Synopsis
The Dynamic Tools package is an integrated suite of programs which
add an interactive dimension to your web pages. The focus of the
package is on usability and flexibility. With Dynamic Tools,
professionally-featured web pages can be designed and implemented
within hours. They provide invaluable web-gadgets for both home and
business web pages.
So You Want A Web Site?If you are reading this page, then you're interested in creating your own web site. Whether you're a small business, a family, or an individual, creating a web presence can be intensely rewarding on both commercial and personal levels. Believe the hype, the internet continues to break new ground, and mainly because it's so easy to do!How easy? This depends on what you want, but, given the right tools, a complete novice could produce a professional-looking web page in about the time it takes to paint your living room. In addition, it's cheaper and less messy!
All rooms have doors. For web pages, "virtual" doors exist, and are called "hyperlinks". Unlike conventional rooms, web pages can have as many doors as they like, and these can lead directly to anywhere in the world (just imagine!). Most people think that it is useful, however, to have doors that lead to other rooms in the house!
Enter Dynamic Tools. This package gives you the gadgets you need to take your web site to a new, interactive, dimension. We count your visitors through the door and we give you images that change each time your page is viewed. You may want to talk to your guests; we provide feedback tools. How about guests talking to each other? Just include our discussion forum! How easy are Dynamic Tools to implement? About as easy as putting a TV in the corner of your living room, or plugging in a telephone. We will come and give you a hand, with our step-by-step tutorials. We even provide fully decorated templates; just fix your name on the mailbox.
The first thing to do is to familiarise yourself with your environment. Size up your rooms. Decide what you want, and where you want it. The next thing to do is to set up a testing room. This is a good place to plug in your Dynamic Tools gadgets to see what they can do. To help you do this, we have developed walk through tutorials to get you going as quickly as possible. We suggest that you start with the Guest Counter tutorial, which includes some good background info.
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The right tools? Your web page is the equivalent of
your living room. For paint, substitute the text you want in your web
site. To apply the paint, you will need tools. Tools can be simple
(e.g. a paintbrush) or more complex (e.g. a spray gun), and so with
web authoring. In web terms, a text editor (e.g. Notepad) equals the
paint brush whereas a web authoring package (e.g. Microsoft's
FrontPage) is analogous to the spray gun; faster and easier but less
detailed.
Once the paint is on, you need to hang your pictures
and arrange your ornaments. This is similar to decorating your web
page with images. The tools required here (hammer, nails etc.) are in
the same tool kit as the paintbrushes, and so with the internet. If
you're feeling ambitious, you could even put up shelves, with the web
page equivalents being tables. Once you are happy with one room, you
can move on and decorate all the other rooms of your house. This, of
course is just like building a web site.
So you're sitting in your newly decorated living
room. On the left is the door to the beach, on the right the door to
the ski slope, and behind you the door to the kitchen. You may have
created your dream web site, but it is essentially static, dead. If
you have visitors you can't see them, and nothing changes unless you
manually alter it. There must be more to web-life than this! Read
on...
By now, it should be clear that Dynamic Tools are
invaluable for personal web sites. This is true to an even greater
extent for Businesses. Catalogues, for instance, are great sources of
information, but lack the personal touch. Dynamic Tools provide means
for your customers to email you online. You can also highlight
different products each time a customer accesses your site. Not bad
for a weekend's work, you must admit!
The Guest Counter counts the number of visitor that
come through your front door. You can let everyone see how popular
you are by putting your Guest Counter on display. You can also hide
your Guest Counter so that only you can see it. This is the simplest
Dynamic Tools gadget to set up.
You do not need to have created any web pages before
using your Dynamic Tools gadgets. It is often best to design your web
site around these powerful tools, rather than add them in as an
afterthought. Imagine trying to position your comfy chair before you
know where you're going to put your TV! If you want to plug your
Dynamic Tools gadgets into existing web sites, never mind! You can
always move your furniture around!