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Software Review:
HoTMetaL Pro 4.0

By Scott Clark

I remember when Soft Quad’s HoTMetaL first came out, I thought, "Now here’s a tool that will get me up to speed." I tried it out and promptly found out that a lot of the code I wrote was considered "non-standard" by HoTMetaL, which was then a strict HTML 2.0 compliant HTML editor.

Version 4.0 is now a strict HTML 3.0 compliant HTML editor--it still balks at my use of "unconventional" tags such as VALIGN and HALIGN within a table, for example, but Soft Quad has made some impressive improvements and additions along the way to version 4.0, including the ability to add new tags. Web Developer® put HoTMetaL PRO 4.0 to the test, and we’ll let you know how it performed.

"HoTMetaL PRO makes a virtual powerhouse of a Web development crew"

HoTMetaL PRO is available for Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT, and will run on a 486/33 with 16 MB of RAM, but it takes up about 150 MB of hard drive space for the full installation, which includes:

• HoTMetaL PRO Editor
• HoTMetaL PRO Information Manager
• HoTMetaL PRO Visual Dynamic Keyboard
• Acadia Infuse ScriptBuilder
• Ulead PhotoImpact SE
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• HoTMetaL PRO Power tools, which include:
  • ZBServer Pro
  • StarBase Versions 2.0
  • Aimtech Jamba
  • Vream VRCreator
  • DTL Dataspot

Did I say that this was a full-featured development tool? Well it is; it has an HTML editor, manager, JavaScript development tool, image editor, Web browser, Web server, database publishing tool, Java development tool, VRML creation tool, and version control software! Each of these tools deserves a review of its own, and I have to admit HoTMetaL PRO makes a virtual powerhouse of a Web development crew. However...

When you actually get to the core product, the HoTMetaL PRO editor, you see that some things haven’t changed much. The editor looks practically the same as I remember it from a couple years ago. It is your standard WYSIWYG HTML editor which lets you drag-and-drop Web page elements, and use a standard word-processing type interface. Sounds good, and works well if you use any of the excellent wizards which Soft Quad has included with HoTMetaL PRO. You’ll be able to create framed pages, develop intricate tables and forms, and visually inspect your pages as you create them.

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