In HomeSite 4.0, Allaire has introduced the "Design View", a visual development mode. This new feature is being introduced as a productivity enhancement and is not a new strategic direction for HomeSite. This is not an attempt to target users who do not want to learn/use HTML who are probably better off using a WYSIWYG tools such as FrontPage.  In some situations (prototyping, initial page layout, quick edits, etc.), it is simply more productive to work visually. There are many new code-editing features in HomeSite 4.0 (Tag Inspector, Tag Tree, improved color coding, Style Editor etc.) that improve user productivity when creating/editing code.

When moving between the Design View and the Edit View, you will notice that HomeSite will occasionally reformat your HTML code adding indents and line spacing. You can prevent that from happening by enabling the CodeSweeper which will apply the standard HomeSite formatting rules. To enable the CodeSweeper, go to "Options/CodeSweeper Settings..." and check the box at the bottom entitled "Apply Current CodeSweeper when Switching from Design View". Note that the CodeSweeper settings can be modified here as well.

The new Design View feature in HomeSite 4.0 requires Internet Explorer 4.01. It will not work with Internet Explorer 3.01 or Netscape. The reason for this is that we use Microsoft's "DHTML-Edit" a technology in Internet Explorer 4.01 in the Design View. Unfortunately, Microsoft did not enable this technology for Internet Explorer 3.01 and Netscape does not have anything similar.

If you choose not to use the Design View, you can disable the tab from the interface by going to "Options/Settings/Design". You will still be able to use Internet Explorer as the internal browser and Navigator as the external browser as was done in HomeSite 3.0.

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