Re: Homesite 4.0

Hi Barbara & Friends:

Barbara wrote:

> Problem is, I don't have MS IE 4.0 or later installed. And as I dislike
>  it as a browser, and mistrust it as a program, I don't want to. How many
>  of you who use Homesite use Design View, where IE is required? 

I began HTML coding at the beginning of this year and used to do everything 
in NotePad on my PC.  A designer who I hooked up with was using BBEdit, which 
is the equivalent Mac authoring tool.  She mentioned HomeSite, I installed it 
(4.0) and have never been happier.  My productivity has increased, it's led 
me to a greater understanding of HTML code, and allows me to preview my page 
in different browsers as I work.  All this at the touch of a button. :-)

In fact, yesterday I ordered the upgrade to 4.5!

You asked:

>And if
>  you don't mind IE, and have it installed, has it given you any problems?
>  I've heard some negative things about the way it gets its tentacles into
>  Windows, and won't let go.

IE is a blessing with a caveat - it's far more forgiving than Netscape. Which 
is why the preview mode is so helpful - I can toggle back and forth between 
the two to see how my code is affecting the page.

I don't understand what you mean by "tentacles" - seems a horrid metaphor.  
IE is also the leading browser at the moment.  If you're not designing and 
previewing in IE you're missing a huge audience.

Design Mode is not meant to be used exclusively to put your pages together.  
It is only to be used sparingly under certain circumstances - ie.e 
complicated table work.  It is *NOT* meant to be used as a WYSIWYG program - 
better to go with Dreamweaver for that as it won't muck up your code.

 You wrote:
>  [rant on]
>  Seems like everywhere I turn, I'm told I must have MS IE installed for
>  anything to work. No other browsers exist, apparently. Is Allaire in bed
>  with Microsoft? Even MS FrontPage doesn't require IE to preview!
>  [rant off]

See comments above - you need to have IE installed because the majority of 
the users out there will be looking at your pages with IE.  And if you 
haven't upgraded at least to 4.0, you're even further behind your audience. 
And Allaire is not in bed with Microsoft - they've just created a tool that 
works on a PC platform and happens to integrate well with the most popular 
browser. :-)

As far as FrontPage goes - I won't even touch that debate.... :-)  I prefer 
raw code and my authoring tool....

You wrote:
 
>  The plain Preview works OK, without IE. Does it have its own internal
>  viewer? I hesitate to commit to this huge web site, not knowing what
>  editor will do what I need it to do, to generate a lot of similar pages,
>  import text from elsewhere (Word files? the Web? not sure at this
>  point), keep track of its links, and keep me sane.

HomeSite does not fool with your code, i.e. it does not add its own 
proprietary tags.  You can create your own pages, or open other pages not 
created in HomeSite with no problem.  As far as importing goes, I've just 
been cutting and pasting from Word into Homesite - then formatting it with 
HTML.  No problem - works great!

You wrote:
  
>  Any helpful comments or suggestions would be welcome!

I hope this has helped - HomeSite has been - for me - an efficient, clean, 
and quick way  to produce HTML pages that also provides immediate feedback in 
the preview window.  Why don't you head over to the Allaire site - 
www.allaire.com - and read up about it.  May increase your comfort zone and 
dissipate some of your concerns...

- Jeff Kopito

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