DHE Editor Site Builder - a standards compliant WYSIWYG editor?

[jedisb]

I know that this site is frequented by a lot of purists that don't recommend WYSIWYG software, but I'm simply working on a family site for now and don't have the time to learn HTML at the moment. I do, however, care about standards. That is why I wanted to ask about DHE Editor Site Builder (http://www.hexagora.com/home.htm). It is a WYSIWYG editor for about US$50 that states that it "generates W3C compliant HTML/XHTML code." :eek: From what I've read, no WYSIWYG tool generates fully compliant code, but the site claims that it is a "Dynamic Multi-Browser Compatibile HTML/XHTML WYSIWYG Editor." Elsewhere on the site it states "This editor now generates full W3C compliant code. The output was tested using XMLSpy 2004 and CSE HTML Validator Lite 6.5."

I've checked the developer's site, which was built with his software and it is valid HTML 4.01 Transitional. A number of the sites that users have submitted in the forums are also compliant.

I just wanted to know if anyone has any experience with this program and has any feedback to give before I plunk down the funds for it. I'm going to check out the trial version as well, but I'd appreciate any feedback.

Thanks in advance! :D

[Fang]

The DHE site is not valid (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//www.hexagora.com/home.htm). There is one that is compliant, the W3C editor Amaya (http://www.w3.org/Amaya/Overview.html), although it is not the easiest to use.
Similar to DHE, but open source: Nvu (http://www.nvu.com/index.html)

[jedisb]

I can explain that. You aren't checking the appropriate url. The page is set up with left and right "border pages" to center the contents. The page home.htm was not generated by DHE. It is simply a wrapper to center the contents on the site using the blank left and right border pages. The appropriate URL to validate would be http://www.hexagora.com/en_home.asp which is valid (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hexagora.com%2Fen_home.asp&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&verbose=1).

[Fang]

The home page is loaded in an invalid frame page, the one I checked
The page you checked was valid, but other pages on the site are invalid. Looks like they tidied up a few of the pages.

[jedisb]

Thanks. I'm asking about this in their forums.

Anyone else here have any experience with this app?

[MstrBob]

Really, standards compliance is a minimal step. The fact that a generator can brag about doing the bare minimum and that makes it special speaks volumes about the web today. In programming, your code has to be valid to work. Plain and simple. That doesn't mean it works well at all, or works the way it was intended, but it will do something. In language, grammar is neccessary to make something correct. Once again, correct grammar doesn't mean something is written well, or conveys the appropriate meaning, but it does convey something. Similarly, correct HTML simple means that the page will be correct.

Semantics is what the page should be bragging about. I don't think this is such a hard thing to accomplish in WYSIWYG editors, I think that there's simple no impetus to do this. For instance, the page is HTML 4.01 Transitional (If you can't get a page to pass as HTML Transitional, then you need some serious relearning of HTML). It has no semantic value for most any of the page. It uses tables for layout. It uses frames to center a page. I'm sorry, but if the homepage of the product can't even be made well, I tend to doubt the product.

One would think that a WYSIWYG editor using all CSS would be easier to make.

[jedisb]

DHE can use CSS or tables

[MstrBob]

DHE can use CSS or tables

Does it then output semantic HTML as well? If it does, then why not? Though I would be sure to validate your pages before using them.

[ray326]

I've downloaded it. I'll post a review later.
{later}
Ok, I've seen all I need to see. This thing is crap. You'd be better off with Frontpage Express. You can't even copy/paste a page into this mess. Do yourself a big favor. Get HTML-kit (http://htmlkit.com) and forget WYSIWYG on the cheap.

[jedisb]

The site says that you can import existing pages. I guess that copy/paste isn't the method for doing that.

I'm also looking at SiteSpinner (http://www.virtualmechanics.com/products/spinner/) as another option. I'm pretty sure copy/paste works in SiteSpinner.