Here is a list of programs I have used in creating my sites, and which I have found particularly good. I have tried a number of different programs that claim to be especially for JavaScript/DHTML editing, but cannot really recommend any particular one. I find Homesite as good as any. Note that I use Windows 98 so I can only really recommend programs for Win 95/98. All these programs will also work on Win NT 4.0+ (Intel) however. I have tried to indicate if there are other versions available, but I don't know how they perform. Your working practices probably differ from mine, so what I find useful may not necessarily appear so great to you. In that case I suggest you try my favourite software site, TUCOWS, to look for alternatives.

HTML editors and tools

Macromedia's HomeSite is my favourite program for HTML editing. It has an enormous function list, so I will only mention a couple of features that make it outstanding. It is a text-based editor, so some knowledge of HTML is required, but the extensive help files can assist with that. Previewing the results of your work within the program is a simple matter of clicking a button or pressing a Function key; if you have Internet Explorer 3.02 or better it will use that if you wish. It is also easy to define other browsers to check the appearance of your work externally, without the need to save each time. HomeSite has an excellent and fast global search and replace function, so making changes that affect a whole series of pages is simple. The interface is highly customisable, and you can write your own tag dialogue boxes and add them to the toolbars. It is possible to download these written by others; see The Unofficial HomeSite Repository. Version 5.0 also has support for scripting using JavaScript or VBScript, so you can write your own macros.

You can see a screenshot of the program here.

The full version of the program can also be obtained here:

If, like me, you create pages using a text-based editor, one little error in coding can cause an entire page to become invisible to some or all browsers, especially text-based ones like Lynx. On a less severe level, the page may not look or work the way you planned it. This is where HTML validators come in handy. I use the CSE HTML Validator, even though HomeSite comes with its own validator. The time saved in searching for errors more than makes up for the small cost of the program.

To assist with learning HTML, and as a reference, I recommend the HTML Reference Library. It is a Windows Help file, and lays out the various tags and attributes in an easily understood way, with examples. The latest is version 4.0, which has extensive sections on scripting and CSS as well, but runs only on Win 9x/NT and requires Internet Explorer 4.x and certain additional files as well. Version 3.0 should still be available, and it has versions for Win 95 and Win 3.x, although the contents do not include HTML 4.0.

WebPosition Gold is an invaluable tool to save you time and to help build traffic to your web site. WebPosition Gold reports your site's search positions and then helps you improve them. Because search engines keep changing their search parameters, each time you run it it checks first with the site of the authoring company, FirstPlace Software, and updates automatically its database of search engines. It then goes to the search engines you choose and finds out your position according to the keywords you tell it to use.

I don't use Cascading Style Sheets very much in the pages on this site, but they should become more used in the future. My other sites do make use of them, however. I use TopStyle from Bradbury Software and have been very impressed with the program. Nick Bradbury is the original author of HomeSite, and this one looks like another winner. It is also well integrated with HomeSite. Although HomeSite does include a basic styles editor, TopStyle has many more features. In fact, with effect version 4.5 of HomeSite, they bundle a 'Lite' version of TopStyle instead of their own CSS editor. The full version has now been released; click the button for the download page.

You can see a screenshot of the program here.

Graphics

When I tried Xara WebStyle I was blown away by what it can do. This is quite simply a terrific program. I registered it within a couple of days. It offers a large selection of types of headers (2D and 3D), buttons, bullets, dividers and backgrounds, all of which can be easily altered to suit your needs with a couple of mouse clicks. It will change colours, text, size, and more in seconds. If you don't use photographs on your Web pages you probably won't need another graphics program for the Web. It is a must-have.

You can see screenshots of the program here.

From the same stable is Xara 3D. This program creates really great 3D text for headers and the like, but unlike many other 3D programs is easy to use and fast. It is also excellent at creating buttons if you use a suitable dingbats font. As well as creating static images, it will also easily make animated rotating GIFs from your text.

You can see a screenshot of the program here.

The most widely used Windows graphics program (apart perhaps from MS Paint) is Paint Shop Pro. This program really is ideal for Web graphics. It has 90% of the functionality of PhotoShop, at a fraction of the price. In fact, in the field of Web graphics, it is probably more suited to the task. A lot of the professional high-end graphics tasks at which PhotoShop excels are not needed for the Web, and only serve to confuse. I certainly find PSP to be much easier to use. The current version 7.0 has a multitude of improvements over the previous version. It supports most PhotoShop plug-ins, so its feature set can easily be extended. Highly recommended! There is a Win 3.x version also available, but further development has ceased so its features are nothing like those in the Win 9x/NT version. It still is an excellent program, though.

You can see a screenshot of the program here.

The full version of PSP 7.0 can also be obtained here:

For creating animated GIFs I use The Gif Construction Set. For a while it was pretty well the only animation program for GIFs available on the Windows platform, and despite the current plethora of programs with the same purpose, it is still the most popular. I find it one of the easiest to use of those I've tried, and it has additional features such as banner making built in. It is also very effective at shrinking the file sizes of GIFs, both animated and static.

With Web graphics, it is important that the file size be as small as possible, to save download time and bandwidth. To optimise my graphics, I use Ulead SmartSaver Pro. It operates as a stand-alone program or as a plug-in for PhotoShop, PSP, etc. It presents a window with your original graphic and what the saved version will look like side by side. You can easily adjust the controls to get the best trade-off between file size and quality. Unlike any other similar program I know of for Windows, it works with JPGs, GIFs — both animated and static — and the PNG format. As well as its use as an optimiser, it will also create the code for image maps or slice up large images and provide the <TABLE> code for reassembling them on your Web page (useful for mouseover effects in particular).

The full version of Ulead SmartSaver Pro can also be obtained here:

BladePro gives graphics a 3-D look by creating bevelled edges and surface textures. The effects can be subtle or stark, raised or sunken. There are several kinds of bevels, textures, and mirrorlike reflections, and controls for light, gloss, iridescence, tarnish, glassiness, and more. It's a timesaving and easy way to make touchable-looking text, web buttons, and special effects. I can play with it for hours! BladePro is a plug-in filter for PhotoShop, PSP and other paint programs which support the PhotoShop 3.0 standard. A Mac version is also available; in fact, it was developed first for that platform.

For more advanced site management tools, take a look here

Copyright © 1998-1999 Alan Palmer