There is much
software for designing web pages. In the olden
days designing web pages meant that one had to
learn HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) in order
to build any webpage. Today however, with the
advancement of emerging technologies one does
not need to know html. There is loads of software
that work on the basis of WYSIWYG (what you see
is what you get). To name a few software’s
that are used today to make webpage’s are
Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe, Corell, HotMetl etc.
In this paper we will describe the four software’s
mentioned above and then proceed further to compare
them.
Microsoft FrontPage
Microsoft FrontPage comes with the office suite.
It is a webpage authoring tool that helps to build
professional looking websites with ease. Many
professionals use this software because of its
ease to use and without the botheration of learning
HTML. The software has many tools to help one
to build a site that would integrate with al the
modern day technologies such as Flash, Java scripts
and applets. In order to use this software and
have it run on your network or on a web server,
the sever has to have the FrontPage extensions
installed on it. The code that is generated by
the program is created in a clear and simple manner.
After making a webpage one can even look back
at the code and learn how to write the code. The
software is designed by Microsoft and has a fairly
easy to understand look. It does not take one
much time to understand how to build webpage’s
in FrontPage if the user has a good understanding
of how to use Microsoft Word & Excel. FrontPage
should be fairly easy for them to understand and
implement. Having the above mentioned qualities
means that this is software that is built for
the average user in mind. Some of the advantages
of using Microsoft Front Page are described below.
• There are many templates that come bundled
up with this software. The templates allow the
user to modify the text and use it to suit the
user best.
• It has a project service that allows more
than one user to design different webpage’s
by using the shared component services
• Applying themes is the easiest once the
theme is selected the theme is automatically applied
to all the other webpage’s with just the
click of the mouse.
Some of the Cons that are associated with this
software is that it is very confusing and frustrating
for a beginner. The software does not allow all
its functions to be used if you don’t have
the professional versions of both Office and Windows.
If you already have the professional versions
of those two programs, it is an inexpensive, but
very powerful web building tool, despite the ongoing
debated opinions about it.
The software requires that the user has Microsoft
Windows 98, 98 Second Edition, 2000 Professional,
Me, or NT 4.0 with SP6 or later (requires Internet
Explorer 4.01 with SP2 or later)
ADOBE
This is a high end software that is a meant for
high end users. This is not an easy to use application
but rather a complex one. The program enables
the user to develop high end graphics for their
site. There are several different products that
are produced from Adobe products such as Acrobat
Reader, Photoshop, GoLive, etc.
Adobe GoLive is a web authoring tool that designs
webpage’s with a professional touch. The
environment of GoLive is very much like the object
oriented programming language called “Visual
Basic” it has an option panel with controls
to put in textboxes, background, pictures, themes,
tables etc. You can also edit HTML from the design
view or write the code directly. One can also
check their own code by using the tool GoLive
source code editor. The features supported in
this product is very large, it has cascading style
sheets, easy to use DHTML, Java Scripts, XML Support.
It also comes with a movie editor for Quick Time.
One can even choose to program for certain types
of browser, the application will only allow you
to add elements that are supported by that browser.
There is also a frame palette which allows you
to put in your webpage pre-coded frames. There
are about twenty odd frames that you can choose
from and have it implemented in your site. GoLive
has the option of drop and drag option, some of
the options on that palette include Basic HTML,
Forms, Custom Tags, Site Extras, Site Tags etc.
You can add your code in the source view, but
as in other HTML editors it does not change your
code. It has provided the user with the facility
of “Check syntax” button that checks
the syntax of the code that has been written by
the user.
Some of the negative point in GoLive is that the
application requires most of the RAM and Processor
amongst all the editors. If running more than
one instance of Adobe products it would be of
no surprise that one would exhaust its hardware
resources. This seems to be the problem with all
Adobe products. But once the product is mastered
there is nothing like it. The requirement for
this software is Windows 95/98/NT, 32/64 MB RAM.
The street price for this product is around 300
US Dollars.
HOTMETAL
This product is made by SoftQuad. SoftQuad in
comparison with the other software’s around
has seemed to have stuck with the “Tags
on View” approach to WYSIWYG editing. This
innovative feature allows you to edit tag attributes
directly, without having to deal with Html source.
People who like to edit source code directly HotMetal
has the answer of making life easy. It has a color
coded notepad style interface with some more formatting
options.
One of the advantages of using the editor is
that itself is a true WYSIWYG mode. Unlike FrontPage
it allows you to do the formatting relatively
quickly. It is also very accurate in its deception
of the end results, but this somehow can bring
problems when working with tables. It also runs
into errors in both the WYSIWYG mode and the “Tags
on” mode when you try and edit some existing
pages that contained JavaScript.
The interface in itself is pretty cluttered unless
you change the display settings of your monitor
adapter to 1280x1024. When an image cannot be
found it will show the “confederate flag”.
It has a huge collections of site template archives.
This is divided into three sections business,
intranet and personal. Each of these options has
loads of templates that allow you to select the
information that you need. There is an option
called the SiteManager which also provide you
with some basic page layout options and with some
themes. It also has a lot of tools that can add
spice to ones page. Tools such as Button Maker
which allows for interactive buttons, a Calendar
builder which allows you to create a calendar
for any month of any year, DHTML utilities such
as cookies and personal hit counters, and eight
pre-made Cascading Style Sheets. HoTMetaL comes
bundled with a number of useful helper programs.
These include WS_FTP Pro, Ulead's PhotoImpact
(SE), a web server, Microsoft Internet Explorer
5.0, and Netscape Communicator 4.61.
Overall, HoTMetaL Pro 6.0 isn't an awful HTML
editor. Some people love it, some people hate
it; there are very few people in the middle. For
some, the bundled web server may even justify
the $129 price tag ($69 if you currently own a
major web editing software package!). HoTMetaL
is really the only true WYSIWYG/source editor
combo on the market, and, consequently, sacrifices
features in both areas. If you are new to the
scene, I'd recommend something more along the
lines of FrontPage.
In comparison with the above mentioned software’s
one cannot really compare them to each other as
all of them have advantages and disadvantages.
Yes they do differ from person to person and the
type of user using the application. For people
who are using it to create small webpage’s
or their personal ones and want to give it a professional
touch then I would say FrontPage is the best for
them. Whereas the concern for Adobe comes in big
corporations should use them as they would have
the people qualified enough to handle a software
such as that and as well as the machines to support
them as well. As far as HotMetal is that should
be used by people who are learning HTML as it
color codes your codes as soon as you type in
the code.
CUTEHTML
CuteHTML is an editor with a couple gimmicks to
make it easier to create html code. For example
it lets you add bold, italic, underline, anchor,
image, font and comment tags to your html code.
Just the tags, what you do with them are up to
you. It is supposed to let you add JavaScripts
too, but only if you made some before, because
CuteHTML's author did not pack any with the program.
The interface is quite intuitive. Your source
code is on the right, a window with your folders
on the left. Overall it looks very much like a
stripped down HomeSite. It lacks the good stuff,
like a decent ASCII chart or table, good source
code highlighting, support other file extensions
and a lot more.
CuteHTML is okay for those who don't like Notepad
and want a little more, without having to spend
any money, but $30 should not be too much to pay
for Ultra Edit 32 or Textpad.
CuteHTML isn't the most productive program one
can get to produce HTML code. However, for those
on an extremely tight budget, it isn't so bad.
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