HomeSite 5

One of the most basic on-going "discussions" among Web page designers/coders is which is better as an HTML editor: plain text or WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)? Everyone has their own opinion and mine is on the side of plain text editors. Maybe it's a control thing, I don't know.

With that in mind I decided to take a look at the latest version of HomeSite. The program has been around for years and has passed through a few different companies before residing with Macromedia. This is the same company that brought you Dreamweaver, Flash, ColdFusion Studio, and Authorware

Starting at the beginning, inserting code is simple and fast using the different options available. One such option is the QuickBar. Clicking on a QuickBar toolbutton inserts code directly into the document. Basic toolbuttons are included and others can be added. A nice feature is the ability to add start and end tags. All that is needed is to highlight the desired text and click the toolbutton with the proper code. The code will be added in its proper place.

Another method of adding code is by using the Tag Chooser. This involves right-clicking in the document, selecting "Insert Tag" and finding the proper code. If additional parameters are needed, another window is opened with all the available options. It does sometimes require a little hunting to find the proper code, but I suppose that would probably be solved after continued use.

There is another, more direct method of adding code — using Tag Insight along with Tag Completion. When these are turned-on, beginning a code (i.e. typing "<") will pop-up a window (shown at left) with choices for completion of the code. If there are additional parameters for the tag, other windows will open as each parameter is chosen. When the parameters have been entered, the Tag Completion tool will enter a closing tag. The user can pre-set the amount of time the program waits before offering a code suggestion. This feature has been enhanced in this version.

Another way of doing this is using Auto Completion. This method allows tags to be set-up so that when the first part of a tag is entered (i.e. <!--) the other half is automatically entered (i.e. -->) after it. These tags can be customized by the user to fit their own personal preferences.

As a plain text HTML editor, HomeSite ranks with the best. One of the greatest features is that it writes clean, pure code. Aside from what the user enters, nothing else is added. No bloat or useless code that causes problems down the road. In fact, coding can be checked using the Code Sweeper and HTML Tidy. The built-in Code Sweeper allows the user to define their own rules for formatting.

HomeSite offers many extras to basic hand coding. One nice feature is the Style Editor. The editor uses TopStyle Lite 2.10 for creating Cascading Style Sheets. Creating Style Sheets with HomeSite is pretty simple. Obviously a basic knowledge of style sheets is required, but you only need enough to be dangerous. It is basically a point-and-click operation.

The software also offers the ability to manage projects. A project is a collection of files that are used for a Web site or other application. These can include HTML files, Cascading Style Sheets, images, scripts, and others. This helps make tracking Web sites and other projects easier by keeping the related files together. Uploading an entire site is much easier as is a complete search and replace of the site. A nice touch is the ability to "deploy" (copy) an entire project or an individual directory or file. I have seen other project managers that will not allow copying individual files. This can be a nuisance when trying to make a minor change to one page on a Web site.

A new addition in this upgrade is a Secondary Files Tab which allows the user to drag and drop files between drives, whether they are local or remote. Another new feature is XHTML support, based on the W3C specifications for XHTML 1.0. Also added is auto backup, Fireworks integration, and the ability to edit an include file by clicking on the link in the page. A full- size help browser is also a nice touch. Pressing [F1] while highlighting a tag provides help for that particular tag without having to wade through a cumbersome help index.

One of the things I did find annoying was the use of system resources by the program. When I edit I usually have a few programs open, i.e. graphics editor, e-mail, FTP, telnet. With HomeSite open, it causes a serious drain on the system resources. Macromedia addresses this with a link to the Allaire Corporation (the former owner of HomeSite) Web site. Unfortunately it does not give any help as to how to cure the problem. The article states: "HomeSite and the Studios are very resource-intensive applications, due to the high number of controls on the window such as tabs, menus, folders, and toolbars.... Macromedia continues efforts to further reduce the resource usage on Windows 9.x in future releases, but cannot predict at this time how much savings our additional efforts will yield."

For the most part, HomeSite 5.0 is a very nice HTML editor. It has many additional features that make it a very good all-around editing tool for Web designers. If you are a first-time user there is a major learning curve, but if you do not have any other favorite HTML editors, it may be worth the time.

What is it again? HomeSite 5

Who makes it? Macromedia, Inc.

Where can I get it? http://www.macromedia.com/software/homesite/

What does it cost? $99.00

Can I try it out first? Yes, there's a 30-day trial

How big is the download? 13 MB