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Author Topic: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.  (Read 10935 times)

vizacc

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ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« on: April 07, 2008, 12:49 PM »
hi,
i'm currently writing a freeware HTML editor.

Current download:
http://www.vizacc.co.../downloads/hh101.zip

[attachimg=#1][/attachimg]

* screen subject to change due to more developments.
* url will be updated and may change without notice.

can you kindly try it out and suggest ideas to make it work better.


Jimdoria

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2008, 04:34 PM »
I took a look at this. First I have to say I'm mighty impressed. This is a nice bit of coding, and I especially like the drag-and-drop of components into the window.

What follows may not be the kind of feedback you want to hear, but I'm going to go ahead and say it anyway.

Given that there are lots of programs out there that do what yours does, you might want to give your program a little extra something to make it stand out. I humbly suggest that you make that something real support for styles.

Your app doesn't get styles. Doesn't really get them.  Don't worry, it's in good company. Most WYSIWYG HTML editors don't either.

But in 2008, there's really no need for another HTML editor that generates HTML 3.2, with hard coded formatting attributes embedded in the markup. It's time we all moved on.

What a WYSIWYG editor ought to really do is understand that what I want is well-formed, CSS-compliant HTML, even if I don't know that's what I want. It should understand that when I highlight a paragraph and format it with "Trebuchet MS" I don't  really want a "font face=" tag on that paragraph. What I really want is for the program to: 

1. Create an entry in the stylesheet for me called something like "Normal_TrebuchetMS"
2. Apply that style to the "p" tag on my paragraph
3. Make that style available up in the style dropdown box, so that I can apply it to other paragraphs.

The WYSIWYG program has to understand that on the web today, the stylesheet is not an afterthought but an integral part of the page. It should offer me some control over it; the option to save it as an external file or embed it in the page header, for example. It should let me import or attach an existing stylesheet (as you already do).

But it shouldn't make me monkey around with it too much. It shouldn't just dump me into an "enter CSS here" text box with no guidance, let me fend for myself as best I can, and then basically treat that part of the job as if it never happened. In MS Word, the Style dropdown shows me all the styles used in my document, or those available in the attached template. I can't understand why no WYSIWYG HTML editor does this. Why bother to let me design styles at all if I can't then apply them through the GUI?

The application should handle the creation, application and maintenance of style definitions for me, because that's what computers are good at. And if I'm using a WYSIWYG web editor, that's probably not something I'm good at. Yet it's something I really need to do, even if I don't realize it. And you know what? Even though I personally can code CSS styles by hand without too much trouble, I'd still prefer the program handle it for me, provided it did so in the right way. Hand-coding CSS is not a fun part of the job, any more than hand-coding HTML is. If the program spares me from one tedious chore, why not the other too?

I realize that this is not a trivial task, and that it requires functionality that's not included and would probably be difficult to implement with the default components available to developers. I can understand why a developer wouldn't want to take the uphill path on this. But I have a list as long as my arm of WYSIWYG HTML editors I've tried, and they all pretty much do exactly the same thing. I can't understand why a developer would want to spend their time building yet another Nvu, or another Komposer, or another WebDwarf, or another...  Well, you get the idea.

So I'm sorry if this post comes across as negative. I do like your program and heaven knows it's better than anything I could ever build. But I really feel strongly that until some bright developer realizes that CSS is no longer an optional part of HTML, and makes the effort to embrace all that implies, we're just going see this endless string of the same darn thing over and over when it comes to these kinds of programs.
- Jimdoria ~@>@

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who divide everybody into two kinds of people, and those who don't.

vizacc

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2008, 02:27 AM »

Thank you for your feedback.
Keep your fingers crossed for the next version of the product.






Jimdoria

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2008, 10:34 AM »
Aw shucks! You're welcome!  :D

Will do (the fingers crossing bit). Can't wait to see it!
- Jimdoria ~@>@

There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who divide everybody into two kinds of people, and those who don't.

crono

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2008, 05:09 AM »
Hi vizacc,

just to let you know: when I try downloading the editor, I get an "Overlapped I/O operation is in progress." error...

MerleOne

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2008, 09:26 AM »
Cannot seem to be able to dl it, or ant other software from http://www.vizacc.com/Default.aspx ?
.merle1.

vizacc

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2008, 01:44 AM »

hi,
which version of IE are you using? are you using Firefox?


MerleOne

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2008, 02:05 AM »
Maxthon 2 which relies on IE6, I'll try with Opera...
.merle1.

MerleOne

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2008, 02:11 AM »
hi,
which version of IE are you using? are you using Firefox?
With Opera I was able to see the download links and get hh101.zip !
.merle1.

vizacc

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2008, 03:26 AM »

hi,
we fixed this DCOM error on website  :tellme:

it was very strange as it has never happened before.

issueless

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #10 on: May 02, 2008, 04:00 PM »
Seamonkey (used to be Mozilla) has a built-in WYSIWYG HTML composer. I don't know if the people working on Seamonkey have done much with that part of the suite, but you could try it. The price is right.  :Thmbsup:

vizacc

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Re: ideas or suggestions for mostly free html editor.
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2008, 12:26 AM »
Seamonkey (used to be Mozilla) has a built-in WYSIWYG HTML composer.

we're looking more towards e-book, book writing facilities and "html-collection" facilities.

thank you.