Making an Electronic Catalog

[Godfrey Porter <retro -at- UMD -dot- UMICH -dot- EDU>]

Hello Techwr-l'ers:

I am developing a catalog of courses that is intended to be distributed
to our clients on diskette. At this point, I am in the "brainstorming"
stage where I am considering a variety of methods. One that has occurred
to me is doing the whole thing in HTML and then allowing the client to
browse the catalog using his/her copy of Netscape.

The HTML route makes possible the *de rigeur* hypertext links, cross-platform
compatibility, and the catalog's identical look and feel with a proposed
web page version. However, some of our more techno-phobic clients may not be
willing to acquire and configure Netscape in order to view the catalog.
In fact, I need a solution that is no more complicated than plugging in a
diskette and entering the executable file name. Of course, I realize this
probably diminishes the range of platforms the catalog can be used with--
but if I had to pick one, I suppose it would be Windows (3.1, 95, NT).

Do any of you know of "catalog-making" software packages that are capable
of creating stand-alone catalog presentations? (Preferably something
without a seriously steep learning curve as with many multimedia packages...)

Thanks.


===============================
Godfrey Porter
Program Coordinator
Unversity of Michigan-Dearborn
Center for Prof. Development
retro -at- umd -dot- umich -dot- edu
===============================

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