HTML editors

When Web site development tools appeared on the market in 1995, Web site creation was best left to programmers. Most Web authors wrote their own HTML code and the first development tools made it easier to write and edit code. About a year later, as the Web began to gain popularity, less-experienced Web developers demanded something a little less daunting. As a result WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) - a concept that originated in desktop publishing tools - came to the web.

Since, then, little else has changed. Web tools have kept up with advances in technology, but the basic concepts have stayed the same. Many professional Web programmers still write in code, which explains why there's still code-only HTML editors like Sausage Software's Hotdog. To be useful, this kind of editor should format your code so it's easier to read. It should also have lots of shortcuts to reduce the amount of typing required, syntax checking to spot mistakes, and as much help as possible on HTML.

There are also packages that are code-based but have a WYSIWYG editing mode tacked on, such as Allaire Homesite. The largest category, however, is tools that offer pure WYSIWYG interface and protect you from coding complexities, such as Frontpage and Dreamweaver. However, almost all of these WYSIWYG editing tools still allow you to edit code manually if you choose.

Either way, a good WYSIWYG web tool is one hat lets you keep things as simple or complex as you like - whether you're putting text and pictures on a page or adding mouseover effects and layers.

In this report I have reviewed X number of major low-end and mid-range Web tools, appropriate for developing personal and small business sites. While they could also be used to develop frontenders to larger, database-driven sites, in this report I have steered clear of database integration tools. In order to test Web developers I have attempted to use a commercial demonstrations version and full versions to build a pages, based around this assignment. This included the use of frames, tables, images and if possible layers and mouseover effects. I have also examined the features offered in each package supported and their ease of use. I then examined the output code and checked how well it appeared in two browsers: Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

HotDog Pro 5.5 - Sausage Software

Hotdog was one of the first web editors to hit the market. Hotdaog has resisted the tempatation to go WYSIWYG and its developers have focused on improving ways it can assist the web developer in writing their own HTML code.

Consquently, so if you are not well versed in HTML this is not the editor for them. User need a good knowledge about tages and where to put them, because HotDog will put them anywahere the users places them.

Alot of thought has gone into the designing of the interface so that it is easy to use. It's three pane interface consists of an HTML editing window, a preview windoe and a resource manager panel. You can add or remove 'resources' such as the Web Site Manager, HTML property sheet, multine clipboard and macro editor, and they appear as tabs witin the resource manager.

Building the test pages with Hotdog took longer than I expected. The interface may be well-deigned by I pesonally found it difficult to use starting from scatch.

Sauage Software - http://www.sausage.com.au/

Homesite 4.0 - Allaire

As well as being sold as a standalone product, Allaire Homesite comes package with Macromedia Dreamwaever and NetObjects Fusion.

One of the aspects which makes HotDog so good is is sticks to its core competencies. Similar to Hotdog, Homesite is a very good HTML editor for those users who want to edit their own code. However Homesite's WYSIWYG editr mode seems to have been tacked on at the last minute and would be of little help to unexperienced HTML coders.

Homesite's interface is very similar to HotDog's, although it can't be customised to the same extent. If you're coding manually, Homesite has some terrific features. When the user start to type in a tag, it pops up to list of options. It also remembers to put in quotation marks and closing tags for you, checks syntax of the tags and warns the user if there are any errors.

Using Homesite, in my opinion provided very little support and apart from the features mentioned above I generally found it to be disappointing.

Allaire http://www.allaier.com/

Microsoft Frontpage

Frontpage has a mixed repuation in the market place. Coders tend to hate it with a passion, but it has a large crowd of supporters who enjoy its simple graphical interface and ineroperability with other Miscrosoft Officer products.

One of the reasons for the problems that coders have with Frontpage is because of the pretty horrible code. The code works better in Internet Explorer browsers better than Netscape Navigator browsers but the differences are minimal. Where the code issues were a worry was in the extra size it generated on a comparison page created on both Frontpage and Dreamweaver. - the test page created under Frontpage was approximately 35% larger than the same page created with Dreamweaver.

The flip side of this is that Frontpage is filled with features and it automates them as much as possible. Frontpage handles standard HTML elements with little problems and does this through a very familiar standard Officer interface.

Frontpage is a good editor for anyone who doesn't care much about background details. Considering its price it is one of the best HTML editors.

Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com.au/

Macromedia Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver is, in my opinion, the best HTML editor on the market. Nothing tested could rival Dreameaver for its sheer power and versality. On the other hand, Dreamweaver does not have many pre-praed elements, so it requires the editor to do more work to make pages attractive than you would in Frontpage.

In Dreamweaver it has objects that you can drage from palettes to the web page and a series of palettes to adjust the settings of the objects that you are working on. The properties panel is very user friensly and comprehensive source that provides a central function in the creation of the pages. There are also other palettees to adjust frames, layers, behaviours and more. However you end up having quite a few palettes open at the same time, but they are very powerful because they allow you to adjust mutliple objects, frames, layers or behaviours at the same time.

Dreamweaver's colour selection tools are, in my opinion very well designed. A large palette of colours pops up from the central control palette, and you can drag colours to the object you want to adjust. Ther's also an eyedroper tool to match colours from graphics or other parts of the page.

Macromedia http://www.macromedia.com/

Conclusion

In choosing the best editor, it is hard to go past Dreamweaver. It does it all and does it better than any of the editors I reviewed. It was the only package to include a wide range of features while producing clean, easily editable code.