Desktop to net with ease.

• Author: Tidd, Ronald R.
• Position: Tax professionals

Most tax professionals are under pressure to establish a Web presence. Networked computers and Web browsers have created a powerful mechanism for communicating in a new and different way. It is a mechanism for career enhancement already being exploited by many tax practitioners (e.g., www.willyancey.com/tax_faculty. htm) and professionals (e.g., www. yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/ Companies/Financial_Services/ Accounting/Firms). Specific classroom Web development tools are highlighted later in this article.

Overview

Whether the goal is to use the Internet to deliver existing information about professional activities or as a tool to reengineer professional processes, a successful Web presence entails a carefully choreographed interaction among:

* The person who prepares and maintains the site content.

* A Website administrator who provides the specialized hardware and software.

* The audience, which must be able to access the content.

Planning and designing a Website, then developing, delivering and maintaining its content, is demanding. It requires access to (and skill with) the necessary hardware and software. This article focuses on the software, with an emphasis on that available for reports, presentations and analyses.

Content Development

The process of developing content no longer requires specialized software skills. The word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and database applications on personal computers can do many of the tasks previously available only through Web page development applicators. Content can now be developed with either the applications in a typical software suite (e.g., Lotus SmartSuite, Corel WordPerfect Suite and Microsoft Office) or with specialized software.

Software Suite Applications

Applications dedicated to Web page development provide many "bells and whistles" However, a viable Web presence can be established without specialized software, using the applications in the popular software suites. The following discussion centers on how to create Web content with the applications in Microsoft's Office 97, which include Word 97, PowerPoint 97 and Excel 97.

There are three important aspects when using these applications for Web development. First, each application uses an Internet assistant (wizard) that aids the user in the process of converting content prepared in those applications to hypertext markup language (HTML). The Internet assistants for each application must be installed from an Office 97 installation CDROM before they can be used; otherwise, the menu choices discussed below will not be available.

Second, while these applications generally produce a less sophisticated and polished Web page than specialized software, they also impose very few additional costs of acquiring new software or skills. The same concepts and commands are used in each application, regardless of whether a final document is prepared in the...