Mac

Windows

Free

WAPtor is a straight forward WML editor for creating WAP pages. The interface is split in two – the left pane is where you create your WML code and the right provides a preview of your WML cards. You can insert text, links, even images into your pages with a quick button click. Formatting options include tables, font sizing, line breaks, buttons, bold, italic, and underlining for text, and more. Colour syntax highlighting helps you keep everything separated and easy to view. Images are supported in WAPtor but you'll need to convert them to WBMP format first so the WAP device can render them.

Web link: www.waptop.net

Latest trial version

This is a full-featured HTML editor that includes Expresso FTP for uploading and downloading, highlighted tags and automatic image sizing. Supports editing of .ASP, .PHP, .XML and .XSL files. It also has 125 JavaScript scripts, a frame designer, a table designer, spell checker, style sheet editor, a font designer and an HTML code cleaner. Editor comes with more than 25,000 graphics, icons and photos, including 30 background images, and more than 175 animated GIFs. This version adds a style sheet wizard.

CoffeeCup HTML Editor is a professional tool with a bargain basement price.

Web link: www.coffeecup.com

Latest version – free

Arachnophilia can import and automatically convert RTF documents, tables and outlines from any Windows 95-compliant application to HTML. It also supports up to six Web browsers, CGI, frames, Perl, C++, Java, and JavaScript development. Other features include a built-in, intelligent FTP client; automatic uploading of changed files; user-defined templates; user-customisable toolbars for quick access to frequently used tags; global search and replace; and a multiple-document interface with full drag-and-drop capabilities. In addition, Arachnophilia includes built-in tutorials on HTML development, JavaScript, frames, and the Internet. This version fixes a bug in Beautify and increases the Undo/Redo stack from 8 to 16.

Web link: www.arachnoid.com

Free

ColourDrop is a straight-forward colour picker tool for selecting, converting and saving colours from a variety of sources for use in your Web pages. Using a cross-hair, you select colours from anywhere on screen including HTML, CSS, inline scripted CSS tags as well as ColourDrop's own colour swatch set. You can save up to sixty-four custom colours which you can use later in web pages as backgrounds, font colours, borders and so on.

Web link: www.korax.net

DHTML Menu creates professional looking fly-out menus for your Web pages, without your writing a single line of code. If you have a lot of links to display on your home page, DHTML Menu may be just the thing. Simply define your menu structure into main groups and sub groups, add any icons to menu entries, special effects, background images and links you want, and DHTML Menu generates a cross-browser compatible menu system in no time.

Web link: http://software.xfx.net

A WML editor that will create WAP enabled Web pages. It simplifies the development of WAP pages with syntax highlighting which lets you navigate through the WML code more easily, and to make changes faster and effectively. All the WML commands are available in the toolbar and a comprehensive help system will get you writing WML in no time. Unfortunately there's no preview facility available, so you'll need to upload the files and test them on a WAP phone or a WAP browser such as WinWAP Pro (www.winwap.org).

Web link: http://inin-wap.avalon.hr/zdravko/ wmlwrite.htm

Latest shareware version

Ready to run – no installation required. Just copy the program's folder from the CD to your hard disk and run the program mwtoolbox222.exe from there.

My Web Toolbox is a collection of utilities designed as an aid in Web page design and creation. The utilities have been grouped into subject categories. There are functions which assist in the selection of colours, with an emphasis on HTML and browser colours. Another group relates to image manipulation, including button creation and cutting images into smaller segments.

The latest version has a couple more fancy buttons that can be created, plus a value converter, i.e. to/from decimal, binary, octal and hex. There are now no feature restrictions on this shareware version, but watermarks are placed on buttons – take advantage of UK/Aus exchange rates and register for a bargain basement price.

Web link: http://web.one.net.au/~webtoolbox/

New version – free for personal use

DB/XML Vision provides you with the power of Query-in-and-structured-XML-out technology. It also enables you to browse database metadata, table contents and query results, and generate reports of them in XML and HTML format. The Tree-Structured Query tool is a very flexible and easy-to-use, yet extremely powerful tool for data retrieval and publishing in XML.

The new features of v1.3 include database-to-XML object mapping, exporting table contents and query results in delimited and positional (fixed length fields) text formats with customisable rules, supporting CLOB data type, plus some minor enhancements and bug fixes.

DB/XML Vision needs the Java Runtime Environment 1.2 or higher installed on your system – if you don't already have JRE installed, you can find JRE 1.3 in the utilities folder on the CD (you must install it before DB/XML Vision).

Web link: www.bdisystems.com

Latest 30-day evaluation

Specifically designed for the small and medium business, Actinic Catalog will help you sell online easily, securely and cost effectively. Many companies are already doing it.

This month, Internet Magazine offers you the opportunity to sell online with a 30-day evaluation of Actinic Catalog version 4 (RRP £349+VAT).

You can publish an illustrated, online catalogue, then update your site and download orders with a single mouse click. The software includes a shopping cart and secure encrypted ordering, so visitors to your site can order with ease and confidence. Actinic Catalog is approved for use by major high street banks, WhichWebTrader and several shopping portals. By installing on your PC, it gives you ownership and control of your site and customer information.

To use the software you need a dial-up connection to the Internet. A full hosting service is supplied free-of-charge by Alto Hiway for the 30-day evaluation. Register at http://www.actinic4.altohiway.com/cgi-bin/autotrial1.pl for your free hosting. You will then receive your server login Username and Password, and the URL of your commerce site.

When you first run Actinic Catalog the software asks you for an authorisation key (this is supplied when you purchase the product). Click 'Bypass' and the software prompts you for a server login Username and Password. Enter the details you received when registering. Actinic Catalog will self-configure to run with your evaluation site. Full on-line help is provided, together with an online manual.

This service is provided by Alto Hiway, an Actinic Gold Partner. For more information about the evaluation and how you can purchase Actinic Catalog, email: sales@hiway.co.uk or telephone: (0)1635 573300.

Web link: www.actinic.co.uk

Small file sizes should always be a key consideration when you're creating pages and pictures for the Web. SpaceAgent is a one-stop HTML and image optimiser that could shrink your site and speed it up by 50%. Using SpaceAgent is as simple as dragging and dropping a site folder onto an icon, which starts the optimisation process. The optimised pages and images can be previewed in a second Web folder, preserving your original work. After processing your site, SpaceAgent generates a report detailing file size reduction and the bandwidth saved. All optimisation settings are editable.

Web link: www.insidersoftware.com

30-day trial

EditML Pro is an editor for creating XML documents. The document can be a data file, schema file or a stylesheet. It is based on Microsoft's MSXML parser conforming to XML specification 1.0 (W3C standard).

Web link: www.editml.com

Free

Applet Composer from Open Cube creates cross-platform, professional looking effects for your Web pages. There are more than ten applets on offer including text scrollers which feature URL link highlighting, pausing, images and typewriter properties; tree style menus with images, animation options, scroll bars and customisable text as well as presentation applets such as Message Window which creates a scrollable floating window that can be positioned anywhere on screen. All the applets are customisable through configurable options. When you're happy, simply paste the code into your Web page.

Web link: www.opencube.com

Mac OS

NOTE: The Mac programs are mostly in archived 'HQX' (BinHex) files – they can be extracted with several applications, including Stuffit Expander (which is on the CD...). Clicking on the links below should set the process in motion. You may receive a message that the file cannot be loaded into Simple Text — if so, start Stuffit and then open the HQX file you want from within Stuffit.

Shareware

META Maker is the perfect tool for generating META Tags for your Web pages. These HTML Tags help search engines find your site. Using a wizard, you enter information that describes your site and when you're finished META Maker generates all the code for you. It includes fields for submitting keywords, revisit parameters, description, author, rating and more. As an added bonus META Maker submits your site to 37 popular search engines.

Web link: www.squirrelsw.com

HTML Optimizer does a great job of streamlining the HTML code in your Web pages, making it more manageable and the pages quicker to access online. It also checks for correct usage and syntax.

Latest 15-day trial

Style Master is a user-friendly cascading style sheet editor suitable for the developer new to style sheets, as well as the more experienced among you. This new version includes: an intuitive new editor for the most common style sheet properties; a templates feature that allows easy reuse of common style sheets; and improvements to selector editors, making this tricky aspect of style sheet editing even easier.

Recently updated evaluation

Page Spinner is a full-featured text editor. This is a great way to learn HTML as although there is a helping hand, you still get to see the code being used. Page Spinner now supports HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0, previews in multiple browsers and is optimised for PowerPC.

There is support for plug-ins that you can download to extend PageSpinner's feature set. All the functions in the program are scriptable with AppleScript, making it possible to take a script-driven approach to creating and updating a site.

New features include: built-in HTML Checker; new editing modes for Text, HTML and XHTML files; more JavaScript Actions; improved support for files modified in WYSIWYG editors; support for Server Side Includes; and improved file handling.

Web link: www.optima-system.com/pagespinner

Small file sizes should always be a key consideration when you're creating pages and pictures for the Web. SpaceAgent is a one-stop HTML and image optimiser that could shrink your site and speed it up by 50%. Using SpaceAgent is as simple as dragging and dropping a site folder onto an icon, which starts the optimisation process. The optimised pages and images can be previewed in a second Web folder, preserving your original work. After processing your site, SpaceAgent generates a report detailing file size reduction and the bandwidth saved. All optimisation settings are editable.

Web link: www.insidersoftware.com

Requires Page Spinner

StyleSpinner is a style sheet helper application for PageSpinner 2.x and higher (see below). The application and the included Style Sheet Menu Extension enable you to insert Cascading Style Sheet declarations in PageSpinner files. StyleSpinner replaces the Style Sheet Assistant extension previously included in the PageSpinner distribution. StyleSpinner also includes a Style Sheet Reference that lists and describes the style sheet commands available in the Cascading Style Sheet Level 1 recommendation.

StyleSpinner is free for registered users of PageSpinner.

Web link: www.optima-system.com

VSE Link Tester is a link validation utility that allows you to fix dead links and locate missing resources. This new version tests an unlimited number of links. It supports Web sites that require user authentication, cookies required by some sites, and creates HTML as well as plain text reports. It supports 24 different user agents, including MS Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, iCab and WebTV. There have also been some minor bug fixes.

In the demo version you can enter only one URL and the error report is limited.

Web link: http://vse-online.com

Free

BBEdit Lite is a less powerful version of the popular BBEdit text editor. The Lite version is ideal for people who need a flexible text or HTML editor at a low cost (free, in fact). This version includes many improvements and refinements to the user interface, and a number of performance enhancements and bug fixes.

Web link: http://web.barebones.com