WinPlanet /
Tips & Tutorials
Paul Roberts
Homesite 3.0 is very nice to say the least, and its built in FTP support is very effective. 3.0 features a new 'Office 97 like' look.
Homesite 2.5's bottom left side had two tabs: Files and Projects. 3.0 includes an extra three for a total of five: Projects, Remote, Custom, Local and Help. Users can switch between these very helpful tabs at any time. Homesite 3.0's main screen is very much like that of 2.5.
Another new 3.0 feature is the 'online' help; a user can click the help tab and browse for the topic.
New Features in Homesite 3.0 "Tag Insight" displays drop-down list of attributes/values for the tag/attribute currently being entered. When tag insight is displayed, the arrow keys will traverse the list and the key will insert the current selection. This feature is based on HTML 3.2, but does include Microsoft (shown in green) and Netscape (shown in blue) extensions. It will of course be updated for HTML 4.0 at a later date. "Extended Find" and "Extended Replace" have been integrated into the same dialog. Both operations now support regular expressions. Note that unchecking the "Match case" option when using a regular expression will internally create the appropriate expression (ex: "Hello" becomes "[Hh][Ee][Ll][Ll][Oo]"). New frame wizard. Completely revamped palette feature, available from the editor toolbar (or by the Ctrl+L keyboard shortcut). This feature comes with several built-in palettes (such as the 216-color "safety" palette), and also enables creation of new palettes. A redesigned spell checker also supports multiple dictionaries. Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish dictionaries will be available. Ctrl+Shift+1 through Ctrl+Shift+9 will set a bookmark at the current line. To return to a bookmark, use Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+9. "General" and "Editor" settings have been combined, and may now be accessed by hitting F8. Cold Fusion tags can now be assigned a separate color (see the "Tag Colors" page in settings). GIF support has been enabled for the thumbnail viewer. Animations can now be disabled for remote file access. Added "Convert Text File" item to the "File" menu. Added tab images to the "Resource" tab. Right click on the tabs to switch between "Text only," "Images Only" and "Text and Images." Added Ctrl+Q shortcut for "Repeat Last Tag." Multiple files can now be selected in the project file list. Removed the "X" close button from the resource tab. Pressing the "Toggle Resource Tab" button on the lower main toolbar or hitting are the only ways to close it. Increased speed of local and remote file listings. Read-only files in the local file list now have a red dot to their left. Folders in the directory tree can be drag-and-dropped to new locations. The "Filter" menu in the file list now appears even when no files are selected. Added toolbar to "Project tab"
Summary Homesite 3.0 is a 'must have' for serious developers. With the new features outlined above, we believe Homesite 3.0 will remain the number one HTML Editor, right where it belongs.
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