Dell Desktop Deals
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CNET editors' rating:
4.5 stars
Outstanding
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 23 reviews
- See all user reviews
Product summary
CNET Editors' ChoiceOct 01
The good: Highly customizable; better performance and stability; updated file support; backup and deployment tools.
The bad: Steep learning curve on advanced features; unhelpful error messages.
The bottom line: This new and improved version of an outstanding code editor is more stable and remarkably well tailored toward the professional Web developer.
Specifications: License qty: 1 user; License type: Complete package; Min Operating system: Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, Microsoft Windows 98; ; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 10/22/2001
Growing with the times
HomeSite's first asset has always been its editing window, with myriad options that can be as helpful or as nonintrusive as the user prefers. In keeping with the expanding Web, HomeSite 5.0 extends color-coding, tag help, validation, and code optimization to support still more languages beyond HTML. It recognizes XHTML documents by their and validates and edits tags accordingly. Visual Tools Markup Language (VTML) lets you create tag support for new document types such as custom XML DTDs. The editor also now has a double-byte mode that supports Unicode and other international character sets.
Another HomeSite strength is its file-handling interface, which has convenient devices for editing and managing several documents at once. This version adds a Secondary File panel that lets you work with content from two locations at a time. A smart FTP manager, integrated with Windows Explorer, transparently handles FTP connections and transactions for you. And the new Auto-Backup feature regularly saves works in progress to a backup folder, so the user can selectively retrieve earlier versions after an unwanted save, a system outage, or a change of heart.
Other new features aim at the developer who manages an entire site or also works with graphics and design. A new project-deployment system automates rule-based file publishing to one or several remote servers. It has a steep learning curve but can be scripted, and it is quite a time-saver once you get it going. HomeSite 5.0 also introduces nominal integration with other Macromedia products: a button lets users switch to editing in Dreamweaver, and a menu command opens any image in Fireworks, which attempts to find the original source file.
Stronger, with minor scratches
The stability and performance are much improved over previous versions, handling complex file systems and large open documents with speed and grace. HomeSite is still fragile on the edges: dragging the wrong panel icon or attempting a misconfigured deployment gets you a long pause or a cryptic error message. But in our most abusive tests, the program didn't once crash or freeze.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 23 reviews
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