HTML Editors: Take a Few for a Ride
By Karen G. Schneider
American Libraries Columnist
Director of technology for the Shenendehowa Public Library in Clifton Park, New York.
kgs@bluehighways.com
Column for September 2001
There are many ways to build Web pages, but some truths are universal. “Everyone needs to know HTML enough to code by hand,” says James Cayz of the Delaware Division of Libraries. It’s as essential to our profession as knowing the fundamentals of cataloging. Librarian Web designers should also be intimately familiar with the guidelines for technically correct HTML (established by the World Wide Web Consortium, known as W3C). Beyond that, however, there are tools for every taste.
FrontPage news
FrontPage is the automatic transmission of the Web-design world: The gears shift, but you aren’t really sure how or when. FrontPage works hard to keep the Web designer as far as possible from the actual HTML code. Purists might sniff, but FrontPage may suit your needs if you are working with staff who will only code infrequently or have no strong interest in learning HTML, you are willing to put up with “code bloat”—long strings of additional code inserted by the editor—and you can live with a final product that may not be fully compliant with guidelines for technically correct HTML.
Andrew Mutch of the Waterford Township (Mich.) Public Library finds that “Many of the people who work on the Web pages for the township departments do so infrequently, and FrontPage allows them to create their pages with a minimum of hassle.” Beth Mazin of Memorial Hall Library in Andover, Massachusetts, concurred: She “would recommend [FrontPage] highly to smaller libraries that need an inexpensive and relatively easy way to maintain a Web site and create Web pages.”
Roll your own code
However, FrontPage only saves time if you’re willing to live with the results. Several librarians reported that they had taught staff to use FrontPage, on the assumption that it didn’t require knowledge of Web design. Yet these Web pages had to be extensively cleaned up by technical staff to meet W3C and accessibility guidelines. Others echo the observations of Sharon Centanne, a school librarian in Florida, who finds FrontPage intrusive, believes that it generates a lot of code that shouldn’t be on Web sites, and feels it’s “confusing and over-engineered.”
FrontPage is snubbed by the hard-core text coders. If Web sites were cars, these folks would be rebuilding their own engines. This group wants to be fully hands-on with the code. For the extreme fringe of this crowd, only a Unix or Linux editor will do—and only the most arcane of these tools as well.
The more moderate hard-core coders are content with Notepad, the free editor available in every current version of Windows. Some use inexpensive souped-up mini-editors such as NoteTab or Notepad Lite. Joyce Latham, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science who teaches HTML coding to library students, says Notepad Lite is “a good bridge between hand-coding and high-end editors.”
At the next level are editors that include enhancements such as code validators to verify the accuracy of HTML, or other tools for automating Web production. John Iliff, Web librarian at the University of Alaska/Anchorage, praised HTML-Kit, “a freebie . . . [that] does an excellent job of double-checking for W3C compatibility.” CuteHTML, from Globalscape, has many fans. “I like it because it doesn’t add anything, has a few simple tools, does a great job of ‘find and replace,’ and gives me line numbers,” said Linda Woods Hyman of Pacific Bell Education First.
Then there is Homesite, a text editor with a V-8 engine under its hood, and until recently my editor of choice. You pay a little more—about $80 per license—but Homesite “is just unbeatable as a fancy but no-nonsense editor,” wrote Terry Brennan of the Education Resource Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia. “[HomeSite] creates perfect HTML . . . is highly customizable, speeds up/automates all of your main activities”—and includes an excellent code validator.
The Cadillac of editors
Dreamweaver is the pink Cadillac of HTML editors. It succeeds because it does graphical and code-based coding equally well. In design mode, Dreamweaver is a gorgeous, cushy ride-along Web-design boulevard; in code (text-editing) mode, you’re a star mechanic in a NASCAR race. Dreamweaver has an amazing suite of features, including tools that clean up FrontPage and Word HTML, site-management tools, and a style editor. To top off the tank, Macromedia recently bought HomeSite and includes it for free with Dreamweaver, which can be configured to use HomeSite as its internal text editor. As Brennan noted, “If I need to think my way through it, then I use HomeSite; if I need to do it without thinking, Dreamweaver.”
Dreamweaver is much more expensive than other editors—over $200 per license—and the learning curve is steeper than most. Nevertheless, after a test drive, many Web designers are hooked; it’s like trading in a hand-me-down jalopy for your first new car. (Like most of the editors discussed in this column, Macromedia offers a free trial download for Dreamweaver.) I received a review copy of Dreamweaver for this column, and although I had to spend a few hours learning key features, I fell madly in love.
“We moved from HotMetalPro to Dreamweaver and have been absolutely pleased by the ease of use and power of Dreamweaver,” said Denise A. Garofalo of the Mid-Hudson Library System in Poughkeepsie, New York. Despite the challenge of migrating from FrontPage to Dreamweaver, “we are very glad we decided to do it, in the long run,” agreed Margaret Hazel of the Oakland (Calif.) Public Library.
Go ahead and rebuild engines all you like. I’m shifting gears down the Freeway of Love!
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