NoteTab Pro: When HTML Coding Speed Matters HTML Coding Made Quick and Easy Lee Underwood
If you're comfortable with HTML and CSS and don't want or need a WYSIWYG program, then NoteTab Pro may be the editor for you. Its many features and clip libraries make it an excellent choice for getting down and dirty in the midst of your code.
Many Web developers work on sites that don't need complicated editors to accomplish the work that needs to be done. It's often unnecessary to add a lot of fancy stuff, so why use a program that loads all those extra features into RAM?
Don't get us wrong. NoteTab Pro has almost everything you will ever need to create HTML and CSS pages. In addition, you can write JavaScript, PHP, Perl, and any other languages that use a plain text editor.
Looking at the Specifics
You don't always need to see what the page looks like as you're working on it. In fact, doing so often slows down the process of creation. Since NoteTab Pro is text-based, you can code as fast as you like without all those annoying screen refreshes. Eventually, of course, you will need to see what the page looks like.
Opening the Web page in your system's default browser is a simple step: just press [F8]. You can also set up other browsers for viewing, although Firefox can sometimes cause a problem (but one that is easily overcome).
NoteTab Pro also helps with reformatting text when moving information between the Web, e-mail, and other applications. With a couple of keystrokes you can change the flow of the text, including the option of removing the HTML code. You can, if you like, choose to leave the URL's in the text. The software also highlights the URLs and HTML tags.
The toolbar across the top of the program can be customized with the features you want displayed. Unnecessary features can be removed to keep it clean and simple. A shortcut menu (shown at right) can be accessed by right clicking the mouse anywhere on the editing screen. It's also customizable. A selection of more than 90 commands can be added to either menu. The menus include features such as configuring text case, text alignment, file operations, and search and replace.
Four clipbars are included with the program. These reside, one at a time, under the toolbar at the top. Two of them are for HTML coding, one is for miscellaneous utilities, and the other is a TopStyle clipbar that creates style sheets. The HTML clipbars are especially nice.
Need to add an image to a Web page? Place the cursor where you want to add the code, click on the image icon on the clipbar, and a window pops up. Browse to find the image, type in a few parameters, and the program writes the code and automatically sets the image size. Additionally included are a color picker, special character selector, hyperlinks and list setup, paragraph alignment codes, and JavaScript writing facilities, among other features. You can even create your own clip bars or edit the existing ones without much difficulty.
Working with Clipbook Libraries
The real power of NoteTab Pro is its clipbook library. These libraries contain 'macros' that aid in the editing and maintenance of documents. These can be used to insert text or code, or run complicated sequences to accomplish tasks such as reformatting documents, extracting data, coding designated text within the document, searching for and replacing data strings, formatting and cleaning up e-mail messages, converting HTML files to plain text files (or vice versa), and creating keyword lists.
A few sample libraries are already included with the program, and many more are listed on the NoteTab Web site. The nice part is that they're all free! The libraries cover HTML, JavaScript, CSS, DHTML, XML, Perl, PHP, Pascal, COBOL, C/C++, VBScript, foreign languages, and mathematical equations as well as many utilities.
Help is available within the program and online for writing your own libraries. In addition, there are many people on the NoteTab mailing list who are experts in writing clips and that are more than happy to help.
Pressing [ESC] brings up the 'active' clip library. You scroll down to find the appropriate code, click on it, and it will be executed. After using the program for awhile, this almost becomes second nature. The last code used is the default next time the library window opens. The library can also be kept open and left on the side of the screen for easy access.
