Web Authoring Made Easy

Products:
Macromedia Dreamweaver
NetObjects Fusion
Design Intelligence Ipublish
Microsoft FrontPage
Terry Morse Myrmidon (Mac only)
Astrobyte BeyondPress
HexMac HexWeb XT

Product: Fusion
From: NetObjects
For: Win95/NT or Mac
Pros: Easy to use, allows rapid creation and editing of design-intensive websites. Hides HTML from the user. Pixel-level accuracy. Imports existing local or remote websites.
Cons: No way to rearrange layers. Layouts created with Fusion tend to look incorrect when a different screen-size is used. Occasionally awkward interface. Poor import of existing HTML page layouts. Spaces are inserted; table colors are not preserved. No CSS or TrueDoc support. Version 3.0 for Mac is unstable.

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Update: According to a Dec. 1999 report by MacWEEK, NetObjects Fusion for the Mac, currently at v3.0, is not likely to be updated. Worse, version 3.0, says the report, continues to suffer from "general instability" and "crashes for no apparent reason." Version 4.0 is the latest version of Fusion for Windows.

Product: Ipublish 2.0
From: Design Intelligence
For: Win95/NT
Pros: This program makes it extremely easy to set up stylish looking printed and/or web-based documents. Ipublish is the easiest to use publishing tool we've ever used.
Cons: Limited functionality. In other words, this is a publishing tool for those who don't consider themselves artistically inclined.
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Product: FrontPage
From: Microsoft
For: Windows 95/NT
Pros: Very full-featured, with site management tools, a web-server, graphics and GIF animation editors, HTML editor (with WYSIWYG and "Raw" HTML modes, CGI and CSS support) and much more. Supports frames and tables. Easy to use. Imports existing websites.
Cons: Some functions require a Microsoft server. Program changes <center> tags to <p align=center>, adds <div> tags and makes other unwanted changes that can negatively affect many layouts. Complex table layouts may be imported incorrectly.
Strongest Competitors: Adobe PageMill, Claris Home Page, Netscape Composer, NetObjects Fusion.

(Reviewed in April 1997)

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Product: Myrmidon
From: Terry Morse Software
For: Macintosh
Pros: This is a one-trick pony, but it performs remarkably well. Myrmidon is a Chooser-level printer driver for Mac that outputs HTML and, where appropriate, GIFs. Configurable to automatically open converted pages in Netscape, IE or your favorite web browser. Retains existing columns and formatting in most cases.
Cons: Text areas on complex pages, such as those with text wrapped around graphics, are converted to GIFs, as are single-column headlines on multi-column pages.

Samples (printed using QuarkXPress 3.32):
No pictures; single-column headline, two column text. (Headline is converted to graphic)
Two column with picture (text next to image was converted to GIF);
Complex page test (graphics-intensive layout caused all text to be converted to a GIF)

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Name: BeyondPress
From: Astrobyte
For: Macintosh; QuarkXPress 3.31 or newer
Pros: Xtension for QuarkXPress allows conversion of Xpress documents to HTML (and graphics as appropriate). Can output entire documents at once. Supports tables, CSS, and fonts.
Cons: No printed manual. (Testing still in progress.)

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Product: HexWeb XT
From: HexMac
For: Windows 95/NT or Mac; QuarkXPress
Pros: Xtension for QuarkXPress allows conversion of Xpress documents to HTML (and graphics as appropriate).
Cons: Cannot output entire documents at once (i.e., items must be individually selected for conversion). Lacks support for tables, CSS, and fonts.

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Product: DreamWeaver
From: Macromedia (a 30-day trial version is downloadable from www.macromedia.com)
Pros: Excellent WYSIWYG HTML editor and web page authoring toolkit. Includes support for ActiveX, JavaScript, Java, Flash, ShockWave, tables, frames, etc.
Cons: Some pages imported incorrectly. Table editing features are seriously flawed, at least in the DreamWeaver trial version we tried. It can't adjust size of tables with borders set to "off." Lacks some automated functions of FrontPage, such as the latter's ability to automatically format an email address as a mailto: URL.

Strongest Competitor: Microsoft FrontPage

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Related Technologies:
Product:Coda 1.01
From: RandomNoise
Pros: RandomNoise Coda is a Java-based web site builder. Being 100% Java based, it runs -- theoretically -- on both Mac and Windows 95/NT systems. It is not a substitute for an HTML editor, but can produce complex websites with more sophistication (and potentially more problems) than possible with HTML alone.
Cons: We tested version 1.1.0 and found that it wanted to install numerous Java components older than those already on our system. We were running Internet Explorer 4.0 on Win95, and during the installation of Coda 1.1.0 (according to the release notes, or 1.0 according to the icon) on our system, the Coda installer warned us that the Java components are older. We chose to "keep the newer ones," and then Coda didn't run at all. By the way, even after we *did* say "Keep the newer components," IE4 thought it was IE3 and went to the IE3 Java intro page when we next ran it -- a typically problematic Java experience. And we are innately suspicious of any company that doesn't use or even demo its own web site authoring tools on its own website.

(Not yet rated)

Product: Niknak
From: 5D Solutions
Pros: PDF distiller built into a Windows 95/NT printer driver. Automatically optimizes gradiants to produce smaller files than Adobe's Distiller or PDF Writer. A drag-and-drop PostScript-to-PDF converter is also provided, using the company's JAWS interpreter.
Cons: Didn't work properly in some applications.

(Not yet rated)

For Further Reading:

• Web authoring tools grow up - PageMill and FrontPage reviewed and compared.
• More Web authoring-related articles are available on TCP's Web Weaving page.