HTML Editor Reviews

HTML Assistant 97

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HTML Assistant Pro 97 -- Brooklyn North Software Works

Found: http://www.brooknorth.com/

Overview:

• HTML Assistant 97 - MS-Windows NT/95
  HTML Assistant 3.0 - Windows 3.1
• stand alone program
• Text-style
• NO HTML checking
• Very stable
• Pro version $89.95 USD
• Screen Shot
• User Comments

Nice features Found in this package include:

Support for many extensions

Assistant includes dialogs to add applets and ActiveX components. It also includes menu items for Microsoft marques, background sounds, and video clips. I'm disappointed that the application does not include a way to work with attributes for all the tags (only a few, like fonts, are supported).

User Definable Text

A nice dialog box for defining text is present. This text can be scrolled through and selected for placement into a document. However, there is no simple way of setting up single click access to this feature (you must scroll through the list each time). In addition, you can modify a few "user" buttons to quickly insert special tags or text.

"Quick frames" dialog

This is a great addition to the application. Unlike most editors, HTML assistant Pro provides a list of commonly used frame layouts as part of its frame dialog. This quickly gets a user past the arduous task of defining layouts. A nice innovation.

Nicely done dialogs

Most dialogs hide extended options until an "arrow" button is clicked. This allows the user to hide some of the extended attributes.

Right button access to common tags

Clicking the right button will bring up a menu of common tags (including the LI tag). Unfortunately, the menu does not include the copy, cut, and paste selections.

Numerous text Filters and Options

The package includes numerous filters to convert DOS text to UNIX text, converting ISO ASCII code to HTML, and strip extra new-line characters.

Mulit-file search and replace

HTML assistant Pro developers have added the ability to search through a number of files for text and replace it if desired. This will prove useful to users who have a number of pages with similar information that might need to be changed (email address on every page of a site, for instance). However, I wish they would support regular expressions. This addition would make this a very powerful tool for HTML developers.

Built in simple previewer

As many other recent packages, HTML assistant Pro contains a simple previewer built in. It's really only for quick checks (since it doesn't support some elements such as tables), and the DDE capability (with Netscape) is preferable.

Assistants

The package includes a dialog to quickly create a web page, and dialogs to import HTML links from files, and to add background colors or images. It also includes a very nice dialog which can search a list of URL's and their comments (from an imported bookmark file) for text and insert the URL's into the document with just a few clicks.

Site Assistant

The application provides a few tools to help simplify the task of publishing a site. The tool basically performs the tasks of an FTP application but is useful.

Other features

There are a number of nice features which add to the usefulness of the application. Ability to import RTF files is a great addition. User can easily define how paragraph marks will be inserted (<P>,<P></P>, etc). I personally like to use enclosing paragraph marks which is contrary to the way most editors do it, but HTML assistant Pro allows me to configure it my way. As expected with a professional grade product, a spelling checker is also included. Assistant also adds an automatic save feature, though its hard-coded at 5 minutes.

Missing/Poorly Implemented Features:

Table Dialog is Missing an Editor

The table dialog included simplifies adding table tags, but is missing a quick way to enter table data.

Conclusion:

HTML Assistant continues to gradually improve upon the solid foundation created with the 2.0 version. Although I would like to see more support for editing attributes and tables, I can't argue with the numerous useful features found in the application. Experienced authors, who might be partial to notepad, will find a few features they'll love and will appreciate that the editor doesn't get in the way of development. The lack of editors for some of the complicated markup (tables, forms, etc.) may make the program less appealing to new authors. HTML Assistant 3.0 and 97 are solid packages that should be on your short list.

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