[thelist] HTML Kit vs. HomeSite and TopStyle

[Tony Crockford]

I am going to defend Topstyle again, if you're bored look away now.


> As Pete mentioned color coding is one thing but having the
> syntax support
> for ASP or JSP is very helpful. Also after going over
> TopStyle again now I
> see there is no table creator function for when you quickly
> need to create a
> large table. Who wants to have to manually type in all of the
> tr and td
> tags.

I don't see an xhtml editor has a place for large tables, so while I
agree it's not there I don't miss it, and if I really wanted one there
are dozens of tablemakers out there that I could link to via the
external programs feature.

> TopStyle also doesn't have scripting support whereas HomeSite
> allowed you to
> create customized buttons which could either insert start and
> end tags,
> insert code based on a script or launch a dialog box. TopStyle's clip
> library lets you setup custom tags but it's not as powerful
> as HomeSite's
> custom buttons.

Not even with the quick launch? (keyboard shortcut ctrl-q plus letter(up
to 26) and replacement tokens, which allow you to set up a script
snippet and prompt for all variables?

In that case you'll have to wait for TS4.0 - which apparently will have
scripting support
>
> I still feel that TopStyle is a step forward from HomeSite with much
> improved css and xhtml support but it left out great time
> saving features
> such as table wizard and simple image and link insert buttons.
>
> With TopStyle to insert an image I have to type in the start
> of the tag,
> click on it, then click over on the tag inspector src
> attribute, click on
> the drop down menu select my image and insert it. But I still have to
> calculate the height and width by right clicking on the img
> tag. Then to add
> a class I need to jump back to the tag inspector.

Nope, look again at the html insight feature.

All you do is start the tag <img and then insight comes up allowing you
to select all attributes one by one and select an image file, when it
will auto calculate the width and height attributes.  choosing class (or
typing it in any tag and waiting) will bring up the insight tool with a
list of all associated styles from the linked stylesheet for you to
pick.

works in a similar way with links, type <a and you get attributes,
choose href and you get to select a url.

> I know how to hand code my html and css but that doesn't mean
> I want to be
> doing it all day especially at work when something needs to be done
> yesterday. The editor should have commonly used functions available to
> quickly insert code.

It does - with the snippets you get to create insertable code styled the
way you want, you also have the option to create an immense selection of
keyboard shortcuts, for auto text.

Each to his own I guess.

Cheers

Tony