HTML Authoring Tools for Windows
by David Fiedler
This review takes a look at five commercial HTML authoring and editing packages available for Windows users. What these products have in common is their attempt to raise Web page creation from a black art to application status: something easy enough for end users to operate by themselves, yet powerful enough that experienced page designers will not hesitate to use it.
Some of them succeed very well at this; and what's surprising is how well it can be done, sometimes at prices approaching shareware levels. Even those of us who write our Web pages with an ASCII text editor (hopefully in combination with an HTML validation program) can benefit from the simplicity of WYSIWYG Web page creation. In the end, of course, the most important feature is how much time and effort a product saves you; if a particular feature of one product makes you much more productive, it's worth getting for that alone.
All these products share certain basic features to one degree or another: on-screen editing and markup; inline graphics display; easy links to URLs and image files; and support for the HTML 2.0 standard and common 3.0/Netscape extensions. NaviPress and FrontPage Explorer help you organize your Web pages and links graphically (automatically drawing lines between connected pages) and logically (automatically managing the files in directories for you). HoTMetaL Pro and Spider can update all your local links to point to a network address you specify; this can save a great deal of time when it's time to publish your pages.
The Products
All products were tested on a Toshiba 400 CDT multimedia notebook computer with Pentium 75 processor and 16 MB of RAM running Windows 95 (tuned to a fare-thee-well with Quarterdeck's QEMM 8 and MagnaRAM).
HTML testing was done with files available at the HTML Test Pattern site (http://www.uark.edu/~wrg), including the IETF HTML 2.0 and 3.0 pages, the HTML 3.0 table page, the Netscape tags page, and the "Fonts, Text, and Typesetting" page (which has some HTML errors itself).
Navipress 1.1
Though we're looking at NaviPress as a standalone Web page editor, it can also be used as part of NaviSoft's client/server/service bureau publishing system. NaviPress can be used to publish your pages to a NaviServer-equipped machine--including one of those belonging to NaviSoft itself, if you don't want to deal with the problems of managing your own server--running Unix or Windows NT. Server extensions also allow easy form links to a database running on the server.
HotMeTaL Pro 2.0
HoTMetaL Pro is a cross between a "true" raw HTML editor and a WYSIWYG-style application. It attempts to display page elements more or less the way they'd be seen in a browser, while displaying HTML tags as marker icons. These markers can only be edited when doing so keeps the document formatted as valid HTML, although the methods of editing them vary depending on context.
HoTMetaL Pro is targeted at serious users; it's described in the manual as "a professional SGML editor." With that in mind, it has a wealth of features, such as a pop-up menu for inserting special and international characters, a structured outline view (ideal for keeping track of longer HTML documents), and even a thesaurus.
FrontPage 1.0a
Vermeer Technologies, the developers of FrontPage, were purchased by Microsoft just before press time; FrontPage is now part of Microsoft's Office group of products. The FrontPage package includes the editor, a personal Web server with Vermeer's proprietary extensions, and a Web page Explorer that works in conjunction with the server to graphically display connections between pages. The server can be used to test your finished Web pages "live" by pointing a browser at it, or to actually serve pages to the Web.
Microsoft is planning to release a Macintosh version of FrontPage, as well as developer kits for their WebWizard and WebBot enhancements. They also promise that FrontPage 1.1 will support tables as well as Internet Explorer extensions.
WebAuthor 2.0
After using Microsoft Internet Assistant for Word--an almost embarrassing, though free, add-on package which converts Word documents to HTML and permits editing--I was sure that no other add-on would be worthwhile. Happily, Quarterdeck proved me wrong. WebAuthor is not only more stable than Internet Assistant, but it's easy to use and powerful to boot, letting you move documents at will between Word and HTML formats. However, WebAuthor doesn't let you browse the Web or even link to a browser.
Spider 1.1
InContext, like SoftQuad, is based in Canada and also publishes an SGML editor. That--and the fact that their products are both rigorous in their enforcement of HTML standards--is where the resemblance stops. InContext Spider is a well-designed program that directly supports Netscape and even Microsoft Internet Explorer extensions (like marquee scrolling). It's relatively easy to use, but requires some attention to document structure.
Documentation
NaviPress comes with a 240-page User's Guide, which includes a bit (a very small bit) about HTML itself, as well as a decent level of step-by-step detail on how to use NaviPress to create, edit, and publish Web pages. It also includes some good tips on style, and there's also an entire chapter on using the database functions of NaviServer for searching and forms. In places where the guide doesn't go into great detail, it tends to give you pointers to the online manual and even more current pages on the Web. This seems to be a good compromise between making the guide a daunting 500 pages and leaving the information out entirely. The guide is clear enough, though it's definitely not at the proverbial 12th-grade reading level (sample: "We recommend that you eschew extensions to HTML").
HoTMetaL Pro's manual is all business. In 160 pages, it manages to combine technical details, examples, and good writing for a generally excellent guide to the product. A few screen shots wouldn't hurt, though.
The writers who worked on FrontPage's manual apparently were convinced that their product was so good, there wasn't much need for detail in the book. There's no troubleshooting section, so presumably nobody ever has problems with the product either. There is an online manual, but in a product as complex as this one--a server, with extensions, link viewer, and editor--people need more printed reference material than is available in this 88-page "opus." It's all step-by-step, with few explanations, but nicely designed. It would be a decent manual for a shareware product, but it's pitiful for a $700 package.
Spider's package came with a totally inadequate product guide of only 16 pages. While the product literature promised that there was a "real" user's manual included, the diskette-based online manual was the only other one I could find in the box. I checked another sealed package from InContext that was shipped to the other side of the country and that one had the same contents. Foo!
WebAuthor's manual is a sleek but adequate 96 pages. It's clearly written for non-technical users, and goes into plenty of detail in places where a beginning user might be confused. Nowhere, however, do they explain the important task of how to get your finished HTML files onto a Web server.
Some of WebAuthor's operations are constrained by its status as an add-on. For example, you're shown a number of completely different ways to open a file, depending on whether it's a Word document, an HTML file that was converted, or an HTML file downloaded from the Web.
Usability and Features
NaviPress was extremely intuitive. In fact, I misplaced the manual for weeks and never missed it. Even things that you wouldn't want to do "by hand", such as creating tables, were a snap. Tables, by the way, adjust themselves on the screen to fit what you're typing, which looks way cool. Similarly, making a form was as simple as picking buttons and scroll areas from a little menu. The view of the pages themselves is extremely close to that of Netscape Navigator's, so much so that you might only have to make a last pass through all your pages with Netscape, just to make sure things looked right before going "live".
HoTMetaL Pro never loses sight of strict rules checking, to the point where it will sometimes refuse to load or fully tag a document. If it can't properly validate a document, it will display the contents as raw HTML, effectively acting as a text editor until the offending HTML is corrected. In this vein, it also shows when a tag you're about to apply is an HTML extension; a great benefit when you're trying to keep things "legal".
FrontPage's interface is as straightforward and intuitive as any good word processor's. Everything is logically laid out and there are no surprises when attempting to mark up text. The toolbars--which resemble Microsoft Word's quite strikingly--are even dynamic: imagemapping icons only light up when you're working with an image, for instance. I especially liked the comprehensive dialog boxes that prompt you through virtually anything FrontPage can do, while still allowing "power users" to work rapidly.
One of FrontPage's main attractions is its "WebBots" feature. Designed to enable page designers to work easily without having to become CGI experts, the "bots" (short for robots) work as clients with FrontPage extensions to the server. Another Microsoft plan to take over the world? Hardly, as the extensions are freely available at http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/download/#In_addition for CERN, NCSA, Apache, and WebSite servers.
In any case, the bots automate what might otherwise be fairly tricky tasks. You can display certain pages or images at designated times; create a table of contents of your Web pages; create a form to search your pages for user-supplied text; let users "register" themselves to your site; save results from a form, and several others. Using bots is fairly straightforward, and the manual takes you through it step by step.
Spider's separate Content (word processor style) and Logical (structure display) editing windows is a decent compromise between totally free-form WYSIWYG editing and tag-oriented (HoTMetaL Pro-style) editing. It permits you an unencumbered view of your document, while allowing real-time adherence to HTML rules checking ("Trust us, it's for your own good"). Unfortunately, it also makes certain editing functions clumsy. You can't change tags in the Content Editor by simply highlighting text and clicking on a toolbar icon, for example; you have to switch to the Logical Editor window, double-click the associated level button, and then click on the desired toolbar icon. Viewing the raw HTML is also non-intuitive; you're better off exporting the document to the linked browser (this operation works well) and viewing the HTML source from there.
WebAuthor's status as a Word add-on makes it easy for users to transition to their new status as Web page designers. You're using virtually the same interface, which inspires confidence. What WebAuthor does so well is convert text, Word (.DOC) and Rich Text Format (.RTF) files to HTML documents, as well as back the other way (it also reads HTML files). So you can retrieve pages from the Web and print them as Word documents, or quickly publish your existing Word files.
Compatibility
Both FrontPage and Navipress opened every test document without a complaint.
HoTMetaL Pro found the errors in the "Fonts, Text" page, but also had trouble getting through the HTML 3.0 and Netscape test documents.
Spider tends to find many DTD (Document Type Description) errors upon loading documents (even with some of its own accompanying HTML files), no doubt due to its structured orientation, even when these documents have otherwise valid HTML. When it does find HTML errors, it doesn't tell you exactly where they occur, only reports them like "HEAD: element has illegal child."
WebAuthor was able to open all the test documents, except that it kept (rightfully) complaining each time it encountered an ALIGN inside an <H4></H4> pair. It properly suggested removing the errors from the "Fonts, Text" page, also.
When you open an HTML document with a tag that WebAuthor doesn't recognize or feels is in error, it brings up a dialog box that explains what it finds wrong with the tag. Radio buttons and an editing window let you fix the problem right there and proceed with validating and importing the file. This is in direct contrast to a program like HoTMetaL Pro, which will often simply sit there and refuse to open a file that it doesn't like.
The Glitch Gallery
NaviPress didn't always operate smoothly, especially under heavy system loads. Once, holding down the arrow on the ends of the visible area sliders did nothing, rather than scrolling as it should have. This may be related to its inherent speed problems; NaviPress operates noticeably slower than many other Windows programs, certainly slower than the other products reviewed, although not slow enough to make me chuck it out the window (good luck, though, if you're using a 486/33). Another peeve was its insistence on opening small windows that you have to maximize manually.
More of a problem, though, was NaviPress's inability to print under Windows 95 (the print menu is actually grayed out and unavailable). You can save HTML files to disk and print them using your favorite browser, but this is more than just a bit annoying. This version has been out long enough that a fix should have been made available already (although they get back a few points for making upgrades available on the Web).
HoTMetaL Pro's release notes mentioned that it had trouble converting files from formats other than HTML under Windows 95 if directory names were longer than a certain size. I was unable to get it to convert any input files, though, even after following their guidelines and dealing with the support people. While HoTMetaL Pro does display graphics, its facilities for doing so are limited: it can deal with a GIF87 file but not the more popular GIF89 format or any other formats such as JPEG, and would sometimes refuse to redraw graphics properly, requiring closing and reopening the document.
One small thing I found odd in a product of this nature was a prompt for the document title that appears as text, as though your title always starts with the words Document Title: and you can't delete it.
More annoying, considering HoTMetaL Pro's total unsuitability as even a quasi-browser, is that it launches a separate incarnation of your chosen browser for each page you ask it to preview. Three or four copies of Netscape 2.0 sitting in memory is not my idea of fun. Come on, SoftQuad, if the Eudora and Ecco people can get this right, so can you. But they do get points for allowing a user to set up an entire menu of linked browsers, since most experts recommend checking out your pages in a number of different environments.
I found no real problems with FrontPage, other than the fact that it couldn't recognize or generate tables. But FrontPage's Explorer module almost made me hate the editor itself, as Explorer was initially launched as default behavior every time FrontPage Editor started up. The problem here was that running Explorer and the Personal Web Server and the FrontPage Editor simultaneously can bring your system to its knees in no time flat. Running FrontPage Editor by itself doesn't cause this problem.
Spider can import virtually any text from the clipboard, but it does so without consistently retaining the structure of your document. So when you import a Word document, for instance, some of the subheads are recognized and converted to HTML headings while others are merged into adjoining paragraphs, making substantial editing necessary.
WebAuthor displays certain elements oddly, such as the document title. I also found it would sometimes add nonessential tags on its own, such as <P></P> towards the end of a file. The most serious problem I could find was that the formatting toolbar would sometimes go away when I returned to Word; not really a big deal.
Conclusions
If you're a dedicated Word 6.0 user (and you know how to FTP files to a server), run, do not walk, to your favorite software emporium and pick up a copy of WebAuthor. The only major changes I would make would be to require less user interaction when reading in files; to bring the HTML up to today's standards; and to make it compatible with Word 7.0. At $49, it's quite a lot of software for the money, and worth the price just for its ability to convert Word documents to valid HTML while still being fairly non-threatening to end users.
By the standards of the other programs reviewed here, FrontPage is way overpriced at $695. Nevertheless, it provides well-integrated functionality not available anywhere else, and is extremely stable. Including the Personal Server was a fine move that lets you test your entire hierarchy of pages exactly as a user would see it. But before investing in FrontPage, I would wait to see what version 1.1--or even 2.0, the traditional "safe" version from Microsoft--might be like.
Past all those considerations, my personal favorite turned out to be NaviPress. Minor operational glitches aside, it does what most people need; its operation is simple enough for almost anyone; and--paired with NaviServer--it makes Web publishing about as easy as it's ever going to get. Its MiniWeb organization helps you manage and visualize all your Web pages, links, and graphics files. And heck, it's only $99.
HoTMetaL Pro and Spider aren't bad; I just found their structure constraining. For someone who likes to insure an absolute level of adherence to all standards, either one would no doubt be comforting. I personally liked Spider a bit more, but HoTMetal Pro has far more features; perhaps a Windows 3.1 user would have better luck than I did in importing files with that product.
About the Author: David Fiedler amuses himself by installing multiple software packages on his computer and then watches them try to kill each other.
Web Developer® Site Feedback
Web Developer®
Copyright © 2000 internet.com Corporation. All rights reserved.
