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Namo WebEDITOR 5
www.jasc.com
www.namo.com
Maureen
Shannon, NJPCUG
WebEDITOR
5 by Namo is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web designing tool for
both the experienced web designer and those who are new to web creation.
As
with any web designing software, you will need to work with it to become
accustomed to the all the features and the way it works. I have several web
design applications and they all approach their design methods differently.
After working with the product for a while, it becomes much easier to add
elements and create web sites suited to your personal style. Don’t expect to
be able to understand or even discover all the power and options included all at
once. But as you work with it, you will find many items that will enable you to
create web sites with an attractive, professional look.
The application is not at all difficult to work with, quite the
contrary. It has so many features that it takes some time to discover them all.
The installation was quick and easy. The application requires Windows 95, 98,
NT, ME, 2000, and XP; Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher; 32 MB of RAM
Win 95/98, 64 MB RAM for Win NT/2000/XP; Minimum of 12 Megs of hard disk space,
Standard installation requires 80 megs of space, and the complete installation
needs 220 megs; 800x600 color display or better recommended; Microsoft Personal
Web Server or Internet Information Server required for preview of
database-driven documents.
Features include:
Advanced Page Creation
Version 5 has a new look to it. WebEditor 5 packaging has a sleek, updated, and
more business-like design. It also seemed to me that this version was easier to
understand. This application has a wide variety of features and is not difficult
to work with. One feature that I especially like is the variety of themes. The
themes are very nice and they have an excellent eye for color in the softer
shaded themes. I find this to be an important feature because color can
immediately effect how you react (your initial response) to the pages you are
viewing. Many web design applications have either basic bland colors or they
blend colors that don’t quite seem to fit together. Often they use one color
that to me seems totally off from the rest of the colors. The themes in Namo
WebEditor 5 have colors that are very complimentary to one another and work very
well together. (In any application, you can alter the color attribute choices
– type, background, etc.) You get the impression when viewing many of the
selections that they took the time to find the best use of shading and blending
in their color choices. The pastel tones are very pleasing and the bright color
designs are attention getting. There are also a good selection of very bold
color and design selections for those who prefer a strong color statement and
graphic design. The themes are broken down into design categories to help you
make the right choices when selecting a theme design. You can choose everything
from business designs to those that are light-hearted and playful. Since the
majority of us are not going to create a corporate presence, but are looking for
something more along the lines of small business, personal, club, etc., the
designs offered here will more than fit the bill and they can be custom designed
to fit your needs. The many theme choices make it easy to recreate your web
sites look and feel whenever you want.
The
best way to see how the application works is to
make a web site. (Click the "X" in the Namo Demo to
return here.) So that’s what I did. I created a business site for my
graphics and web design business. For me, it’s easier to design a web site
that is real, or as close to real as possible, rather than try and make up a
business and then come up with the necessary information to make it look real. I
used the site wizard to walk me through the setup - entered the necessary
business information, selected a theme, entered a site description and the
publishing information for uploading it to a server. Since this is a demo site
and I was trying to test features, there were a few extra things added that I
wouldn’t have put in if the site were going up as a business site. But for
demonstration purposes, I added a java applet, flash buttons, and used the
script editor to create a drop-down navigation menu.
The navigation bars are very easy to customize. The theme will automatically
enter the default buttons and then you can change the navigation setup to meet
your needs. The navigation bars are automatically updated when you add or delete
pages or change the bar type (for example from “Siblings” which shows all
the main pages: Home, Introduction. Resume, Portfolio, Mail to “Up, Previous,
Next”). Image Examples: Theme Navigation Bar: Siblings and Flash Button Bar
with the Back, Home, and Next style.
The drop-down menu is added to the web page
through the “Script Wizard” (picture on the left). The Script Wizard
selections are: Menus and Navigation (Text Navigation, Drop-Down Menus, and
Expanding Navigation Menu), Special Effects (Background Fade In/Out, Wipe
Effect, Floating Layer, Slide Layer, and Mouse Trails) , Scrollers (Marquee,
Scrolling Text in a Box, and Scrolling Text in the Status Bar), Image Effects
(Rollover Effect and Animation), Links and Buttons (Link Button and Rotating
Banner), and Utilities (Pop-Up Window, Clock, and Access Information). When you
make your choice from the available scripts, the wizard walks you through the
steps necessary to add it to the web page. I tried the Drop-Down Menu and it
worked perfectly and was easy to add to the page.
Another element that I liked very much was
that I could add a frame and/or a drop shadow to an image with the image
effects. The photo shown on the left had a plain white background because I used
it to fade into a page with a white background. The Namo web I made had a pale
pattern/texture to it. In order to not have a white box look when I added the
image to the page, I used the effects to put a frame around the picture, using
the color selector to pick the exact color from the blue in the design, and then
added a drop shadow with a deeper shade of blue from the image (again selecting
the color from the image with the color picker tool). Double-clicking the image
in the “Edit” tab brings up the “Image Properties” “Right clicking”
brings up a menu with all the available options including the “Image
Effects”. The image on the left is the “right click” option with the Image
Effects choice selected. This feature added just the right touch to the image I
used on the home page. Namo’s tools will also let you slice an image so that
it will load faster when the page is opened.
I
also tried to add a java applet to a web page. Unfortunately this application
makes adding an applet as difficult as most of the others that I work with. (one
application I have has an easier method - it has you draw the place-marker for
the applet and then you open a small window and copy and paste the code into a
specific area of the html code (head or body)– it also has the same (recommended)
method as this application but either way works in the other application). I
cannot figure out why that window that requires you to add each element of the
applet separately is the preferred method of placing an applet into an
application when it so easy to make a mistake entering the applets parameters
and values. You would think someone would have redesigned this feature by now.
Most java applets create a simple code that you copy and paste into the html
code of the page, adding the necessary class files and/or any other files to the
web site directory. It is much easier to go to the html view (or the applet code
generated by the applet maker) and copy and past the entire applet code into the
page. This also prevents the possibility of entering one of the parameters or
values incorrectly. Once you paste the code in the applet “place-marker”
appears on the page in the editing view. I used both their method and mine for
adding the code and both worked with the exact same results. The copy and paste
method is much easier, faster, and much more likely to be accurate.
The Property inspector allows you to edit an
item’s attributes without opening a dialogue box. Select the item, open the
inspector, and it changes to the selected attribute and shows the properties for
that item. If a layer is selected, the Property Inspector will show you the
properties for a layer. The Property Inspector can either float or be docked in
the work space. The Property Inspector view changes for each item on the page
selected. This view is the page.
There
are many areas that I haven’t covered due to space constraints. Items such as
the Table features, the Database features, the Formatting options, Frames, Tools
(Spell-Checker, Auto-Correct, Creating a Photo Album), the Resource Manager
where you find Components, ClipArt, Color Sets, Smart Buttons, Flash Buttons,
Themes and Table Styles. There are many items that you will discover as you use
Namo to create a web site that I wasn’t able to get to in this review. It is
full-featured as well as having some little extras what were a pleasant
surprise. I will include screen shots of many of the menus and features in the
online review so that you can see all of the available features.
Namo
Web Editor 5 is available on the Jasc web site (www.jasc.com)
and sells for $139 for the downloadable version and $149 for the boxed shipped
version. My choice would be the boxed version because you have your application
CD and a printed manual.
Menu Views:
Form Field:
Insert Object:
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Namo Screen Shots
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