Last modified $Date: 2001/12/08 08:56:09 $ - this needs work, like making it accessible (long descriptions for the images).

The Proposed Authoring Tool Categories

Note: For the purposes of these techniques, authoring tools may fall into one or more of the following categories. For example, an HTML authoring tool that allows the user to create JavaScripts will fall under two categories, Markup Editing Tools and Programming Tools. A SMIL editor that includes a text-only view of the markup and a preview mode would be considered both a Markup Editing Tool and a Multimedia Creation Tool. 

1. Markup Editing Tools: Tools that assist authors to produce markup documents. These include text-based and WYSIWYG markup editors for HTML, XHTML, SMIL, etc. and word processors that save as markup formats.
2. Multimedia Creation Tools: Tools that assist authors to create multimedia Web content without allowing access to the raw markup or code of the output format. These include multimedia production tools outputting SMIL or Quicktime as well as image editors, video editors, sounds editors, etc.
3. Content Management Tools: Tools that assist authors to create and organize specific types of Web content without the author having control over the markup or programming implementation. Good examples include courseware in which the author is prompted to enter various information which is then displayed in a format determined by the tool. Note: If the tool allows the author to control the markup that is actaully used to implement the higher-order content, then that functionality would be considered to be a Markup Editing Tool.
4. Programming Tools: Tools for creating all kinds of Web Applications, including Java applets, Flash, server and client-side scripts, etc.Also includes tools that assist authors to create markup languages (i.e. XML) and tools that assist authors to create user interfaces (i.e. UIML?).
5. Conversion Tools: Tools for converting content automatically from one form to another - for example from a word-processing document format or spreadsheet format to XHTML.

I have included some combinations from the different icon sets for comparison

ATAG 3.2 Help the author create structured content and separate information from its presentation. [Relative Priority] (Checkpoint 3.2)

Set 1: Help the author create structured content and separate information from its presentation. Because this ATAG checkpoint has a relative priority, it is the priority of the relevant WCAG checkpoints that determines the level of conformance of the tool to the ATAG checkpoint:

Set 2: (WCAG 1.1 - 1.5) Covered by ATAG 3.1.

Set 3: , , , ((WCAG 2.1, P1) Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color.

Set 4: , , , Ensure that something very useful happens when you are checking how good icons are

Set 5: , , , , Ensure that something very useful happens when you are checking how good icons are

Set 1s: (WCAG 7.5, P2) Until user agents provide the ability to stop auto-redirect, do not use markup to redirect pages automatically. Instead, configure the server to perform redirects.

Set 4s: , , , There are various techniques for implementing things in authoring tools, and they really are a good diea to make sure that the Web actually works for everyone.

• Where regions are not easily defined, ask the author to provide information that can be used to generate a form-based input method and explains how the coordinates input will be used. For example, for a geographic map the input might be used to lookup latitude and longitude of a point and then give information about that point.

(WCAG 14.1, P1) Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content.

• Provide readability ratings for text.
• Provide a thesaurus function
• Provide a grammar-checking function