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Web Authoring QuickTopic: The Bottom Line

Web Authoring QuickTopic: The Bottom Line

CNET staff
3 min read
The results of our latest Readers Recommend QuickTopic on Web page editor and graphic software are in. Of those users who favored a WYSIWYG Web page editor, Macromedia Dreamweaver received the most nods, Adobe GoLive was a very close second, while Freeway and Home Page rounded out the field. Opinions were less divided on image editors: Photoshop with ImageReady was the first choice among an overwhelming majority of users. Dreamweaver won favor in three different areas: its interface, its more frequent updates compared to GoLive, and Macromedia's tech support. Several former GoLive users agreed that, in their experience, Dreamweaver generated cleaner HTML and that it had surpassed GoLive's feature set. One user noted that "with Dreamweaver, you don't have to mess with the layout grid like you do in GoLive." Adobe GoLive 4 was considered the best choice more than a year ago according to several users, but a year or so in Internet time is an eternity, and GoLive has lost ground to Dreamweaver during that period. (Note: GoLive 5 is due to be released within the next month.) However, GoLive still has its fans. One user prefers GoLive for "general page layout, frames, forms, and working with tables." Another user praised GoLive for its ability to "handle two byte fonts...especially Japanese." Freeway drew acclaim from a somewhat smaller yet just as satisfied group of users. One user summed it up this way: "I tried all the demos. Freeway won hands down - and [I] since discovered - like the Mac - it has a great community and excellent support." FileMaker (formerly Claris) Home Page also collected a number of favorable comments. Although not in the same league feature-wise with the others, it was praised for its ease of use and was recommended for beginners who may not need the power of a more comprehensive program. Nearly a third of all users did not recommend a WYSIWYG editor at all, preferring instead to edit HTML code with a text editor. Bare Bones Software's BBEdit was the leader among text editors, although the venerable PageSpinner also received a large number of recommendations. Many users, even those who had moved on to a different program, suggested PageSpinner as an excellent and inexpensive tool for beginners to learn the basics of HTML authoring. By far the gold standard of image editors continues to be Photoshop 5.5 (with ImageReady 2.0). Nearly everyone used it as either a primary or secondary graphics editor. Several Web designers even use it to prototype a layout before creating the Web pages themselves. Fireworks has its fans as well. One user said that "the compression of Fireworks is far better [than Photoshop] ... smaller files, and crisper looking." High-end Web authoring tools is one of the most innovative software market segments at present, due mainly to the competition between Macromedia and Adobe. Hopefully the forthcoming GoLive release will continue this trend. The selection of Web authoring tools for professionals and newcomers alike has never been better.