Underrated to say the least ! (SoftQuad Hot Metal PRO 6.0)

Member Name: manhunter

Product:	SoftQuad Hot Metal PRO 6.0
Date:	13/05/02 (265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Non-intrusive interface, Excellent TABLE editing support, Includes full version of WS FTP Pro

Disadvantages: Uncertain future for the product is a concern, Virtually non-existant Flash integration support, Interface can be off-putting at first

Having been using Softquad's HoTMetaL Pro software professionally since way back on version 3, I thought that it was about time that I expressed my opinions on version 6 of the product here on DooYoo!

First of all, the bad news is that it is highly possible that version 6.0 of HoTMetaL may well turn out to be the final edition. This is because the developers (SoftQuad) have recently been taken over by Corel, so the future of all of their products is uncertain at the moment.

Don't let that worrying news put you off investing in HoTMetaL though - it's a wonderful HTML editor and despite it's age it remains a serious low-budget alternative to Macromedia's excellent (but rather expensive) DreamWeaver product.

HoTMetaL Pro ("HMP" from now on) offers all of the standard HTML editing features you would expect from such a product. Some are more intuitive than others, but fortunately the TABLE editing tools for start are excellent in my opinion. Editing, expanding or removing such elements is refreshingly easy, thanks to the comprehensive array of table cell editing tools and shortcuts.

The MACROs option allows you to save you own frequently used combinations of commands too, so it's possible to say, generate a 5x5 yellow table with only one mouse click if needed. Such shortcuts are extremely useful if you work on large projects, where time saving techniques are essential.

Oddly enough, HMP's interface can look extremely confusing and "clunky" when you first use it. Unlike products it competes with, it should be known that HMP does not have an ouch of style at all. This is no bad thing though, as it ensures that the software does not interfere with what you are working on. Furthermore, despite it's ugly appearance, the interface and "Attribute Inspector" are much easier to get to grips with than you would think.

There are 5 ways of viewing the HTML as you work
on it, ranging from the source view (excellent), right through to an equally useful real-time Internet Explorer preview. Personally, I use the "Tags-on" view, which is unique to HMP and is effectively a combination of the two. Incidentally, a version of Microsoft IE is actually "built-in" to HMP, so you can be confident that the preview you see is 100% correct, which is very handy and saves you from having to load the pages into the browser externally.

So where does HMP fall short?

For starters, although the cascading stylesheet support is generally very good, for some odd reason the actual CSS editor dialogue box seems to need a lot of memory to open sometimes. This could be a machine specific problem, but I have plenty of RAM in my PC so this could be a bug.

Perhaps HMP's biggest weakness is it's lack of integration with other technologies such as Flash files, RealMedia and so on. In fairness, this is not really HMP's fault though, as one would expect Macromedia's own editor (DreamWeaver) to have a big head-start with this seeing as they also develop Flash. However, it must be stated that beyond embedding a .swf file, HMP has virtually NO support for Flash files.

On a brighter note, HMP does work nicely with the previewing of pages in various browsers and you can also specify other external tools (such as PaintShop Pro) which can be easilly launched from within HMP. The software does NOT have it's own FTP capabilities, but this is not a problem because it is usually bundled with a full version of the excellent WS_FTP Pro.

Overall then, I can highly recommend HoTMetaL Pro 6. The lack of Flash integration and also the current uncertain future for the product ARE serious issues, but the product itself is an excellent tool for PC web developers, and I for one could not do with out it for day-to-day professional HTML coding.

Summary: