A solid choice for the web developer
Part of the reason why everyone is flooding onto the Internet lately is how easy it has become. ISPs are providing detailed descriptions for configuring software, and it has gotten to the point where you only need to configure your dialer and web browser, because the web browser does everything most people want to do on the Internet. In the move toward ease-of-use on the Internet, creating web pages has not been left out. Everyone wants to put themselves on the internet to share their opinions, ideas, or family pictures; but for a long time, it could only be done with text and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) knowledge. Then came the editors that allowed you to insert tags with the click of a button, even putting tags before and after a highlighted section of text. Then, Adobe announced PageMill, the first ever WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) HTML editor. Gone are the days of writing code by hand, now anyone who wants to can write a web page in a word processor-like environment. That is, anyone who wants to spend $100, which may rule out the casual users to whom such a product would appeal most.
PageMill isn't the only WYSIWYG editor around anymore; several other companies have their own programs, 
and with competition comes lowered prices. Not too much lower though - PageMill now sells for only $95, and Home Page sells for $89. This is still out of the reach of most casual users who want to build a personal, non-profit web page, so Claris has not surprisingly made Home Page 3.0 more suitable for professional designers.
The editing window is very much like a word processing window, which doesn't come as a big surprise from the maker of one of the most popular Mac word processors. Text controls are conveniently located in a toolbar, making editing an even easier and quicker process. The same "Object Editor" is used to change the settings for virtually everything, including tables, horizontal rules, and forms. The "Link Editor" makes linking to other pages easy, placing recent URLs and open files are available from a pop-up menu. You can browse through local files in the standard open dialog box, or you can manually type in the URL.
With Home Page 3.0, you can manage an entire site from a single window. All of the files in the site are contained in a single window, from which you can open individual files and edit them. 
This feature is extremely useful for webmasters who have to manage a professional site with hundreds of files, allowing them to change an attribute, such as background color or text color, across an entire site. The impressive find/change feature facilitates more complex changes, like changing the name of a site, for instance. A straight forward dialog box enables words to be changed in all specified documents or folders from, for example, "Apple" to "Orange" while defining case sensitive changes. This also makes it easy to change your files from .html to .htm, if needed. The site feature also allows you to check for broken links quickly and effortlessly, a frustration that can create a bad image for an entire site.
FileMaker Pro 4.0 integration is a welcomed addition to HomePage 3.0 for users who want to make an entire database ready an accessible over the web. Unfortunately, this requires that FileMaker Pro 4.0 be running on the web server or a computer on the same network as the web server, which makes it difficult for users who rent web space to take advantage of this feature. Claris provides detailed instructions for linking your web page to a FileMaker Pro database, and even an assistant to automatically create a web page, making the process as painless as possible.
For the majority of webmasters who edit their web sites remotely, Claris Home Page includes an integrated FTP feature. This convenient feature allows you to either upload or download files on your site, as well as delete files and add folders to the server without the use of a separate FTP program like Anarchie. Homepage 3.0 can also upload only the pages that have been modified since the last session if the user wants, eliminating the need to remember which files have been changed or created.
An important feature for professional webmasters who can't afford professional tools like Photoshop is Home Page's ability to automatically convert GIFs to 216 colors. The GIF format supports 256 colors in one image, but Netscape only supports the 216 colors that are included in both the Windows and Macintosh standard 256 color pallettes. This auto-conversion eliminates the cross-platform guessing game.
Home Page is an excellent WYSIWYG HTML editor with several powerful and convenient features which allow professional editors to quickly create a page, then use BBEdit to "tweak" it. It would be a well-chosen addition to almost anyone's web toolbox , although professionals may find it frustrating to solely use it and the price may deter some amateurs.
  |
 SRP: $129.99 |