| Web Suites: Overview | Chorus « Mixed Reviews |
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Web-Development Suites from Adobe, Corel, and Microsoft Compared |
| It seems that everyone
is developing Web-authoring tools these days. While the word-processing
market, for example, has managed to sustain only two or three major programs
and some tenacious upstarts, the World Wide Web has sparked a software
gold rush. Although many are staking claims, only a few will win big.
This review considers three Web-authoring suites, all from companies known
for other things. Software giant Microsoft has released FrontPage 98.
Graphics kingpins Corel and Adobe have introduced WebMaster Suite
1.0 and PageMill 2.0, respectively.
FrontPage is a Windows 95/NT-based package that has been ported to Macintosh. (As usual, Mac users must wait for the latest version.) It is a member of Microsoft's Office family of software. WebMaster Suite is a first-generation Windows 95-based package. (At least two components represent older 16-bit technology.) PageMill is a Macintosh program that, in its second incarnation, has been ported to Windows 95. There are several bases for comparison as each suite goes beyond simple page authoring. Each targets beginners as well as advanced users; each uses a WYSIWYG interface, making it unnecessary to work with HTML; and, each brings together several programs for handling aspects of Web development. For example, each includes graphic-design capabilities. (WebMaster Suite includes both a vector-drawing and bitmap-editing tool.) In addition, FrontPage and WebMaster Suite include site-management software. (Adobe has developed site-management software called SiteMill, but it has not been ported to Windows.) Of course, each suite allows users to edit HTML code directly. This is important because the included WYSIWYG editors do not allow access to all HTML tags. In some cases this is because the program has not caught up to the latest specifications, in others because tags have been purposely left out. Advanced users should be warned, however, that all three programs rewrite the source according to built-in rules. "Round-trip" technology, like that available in Dreamweaver, is not available here.
Paul Dyck is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at the University of Alberta. His electronic activities include editing Interactive Early Modern Literary Studies and researching for the Orlando Project, an integrated history of women's writing in the British Isles. Copyright © 1997 Paul Dyck. All rights reserved. |
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 1. Adobe PageMill 2.0
4. Comparison Chart of Major Features
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