HTML Editor Review

Introduction

Creating and owning a web page is quickly becoming as important as having an e-mail address. As recent as one year ago, the idea of building your own web page seemed an impossible task for Joe ComputerUser. It was the sort of thing left to the experienced computer programmer. Now, this task has become commonplace. Companies are using the web to check out on-line resumes, students are creating web pages for classes, businesses are developing web sites for advertising and marketing their products and services, and the list goes on.

With such a great demand, it also become necessary for products to be developed that simplify the use of the sometimes confusing Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). In response to this demand, the HTML editor market has quickly become one of the most intensely competitive areas of the Internet. Developers of web editors have produced packages that make the task of web authoring a simple one - even for computer users with little or no programming experience. In this review, we take an indepth look at four of the more popular tools available for authoring your own web site:

HotDog Standard
Adobe PageMill
HoTMetaL Pro
HTMLed

Our review begins with a brief desription of the task to be solved. This section gives some background information on web editors and discusses our intended audience.

Included is an extensive comparison matrix which rates the packages on various attributes such as support, ease of use, presence of HTML validation and spell checking. The matrix gives a comprehensive overview of the testing we perfomed on the four products. Our hot picks are indicated by the "thumbs up" image.

We have also included a full review of each of the products tested, consisting of an overview of the package, a brief list of features, and a summary of how the product stood up to our testing process. The evaluation discusses the price, functionality, ease of use and learning curve associated with each individual product. Some of the drawbacks are also listed.