WYSIWYG
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Google's latest tool makes building Android apps even easier
In early 2013, Google announced Android Studio, a WYSIWYG environment that'd help you create Android applications with a lot less hassle. Now, the company is finally ready to put Version 1.0 into the hands of would-be creators across the world. The package comes with plenty of helpful templates for the first-time developer, including example media recorders, notification systems and even an instant messaging platform. Given that Android is now found almost anywhere (phones, tablets, smartwatches, TV, Google Glass and cars), the software enables you to tailor the experience across every device. Fans of GitHub are also catered to, since Android Studio will let you import samples of code from the online repository straight into your project. So, now that the tools to build your own app are this readily available, what sort of app are you planning to build?
Wikipedia rolls out VisualEditor, lets you edit without the cumbersome markup
Making simple edits to a post on Wikipedia hasn't traditionally been an impossible undertaking, but Wiki markup (the syntax used to add and adjust formatting) wasn't nearly as intuitive as it could have been. And editors dropped like flies as a result of confusing tags and a generally frustrating workflow. Now, in an attempt to simplify the editing process dramatically, the site's management team is adding a brand new What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) tool called VisualEditor. Making corrections is now as simple as hitting "Edit" and typing in your changes -- intuitive buttons for text formatting, list creation and adding headings enable you to make pages look nice and consistent without a lot of work. Assuming you're using a recent version of Chrome, Safari or Firefox, manual page overhauls should take minutes, rather than hours.
Ten WYSIWYG HTML editors for Mac OS X (Updated)
OK, I'm sorry if I have been stuck on the theme of website creation lately, but the TUAW inboxes have been inundated with emails from readers who are concerned about the probable demise of iWeb. One of our readers, Mickey, wrote to say that "I'm a former Mac user who was forced to switch to PC and has since come back to the Mac. In the interim, however, I have created a personal webpage (mostly for family). I've got hosting and a domain and all that, and I have coded it in Microsoft FrontPage. The way I see it, I have two options 1) use Boot Camp or VMWare Fusion to continue writing the webpage in FrontPage or 2) find a Mac program that might be at least relatively amenable to importing the HTML code from FrontPage." Mickey wanted to redesign his website in iWeb, but had concerns about the future viability of the app. For that reason, and the fact that being able to edit his existing website on the Mac would keep him from having to do a complete reboot of the site, I figured he needed a Mac replacement for FrontPage -- a Windows application that has been abandoned by Microsoft. I've compiled a list of ten possible candidates to replace FrontPage with lovely Mac goodness. FrontPage was one of the first WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) website tools that allowed you to design a page by moving elements around while it handled writing the HTML code behind the scenes. If you're looking into a way to move to Mac but still need to keep up a website that you originally created in the dreaded Land of Windows, then you'll find this list of Mac HTML editors to be very useful. 1) Panic Coda (http://www.panic.com). Coda probably has a lot more sophistication than most casual website designers need, but it will read existing HTML files and let you also add CSS style sheets. There's a free trial download available on the Panic website. Update: Several astute commenters pointed out that Coda is not a WYSIWYG editor. Instead, it's a full-powered text and code editor with the ability to display a preview of your edited work. 2) Kompozer (http://www.kompozer.net). This is a branch of the abandoned Nvu Open Source HTML editor that has been updated fairly regularly and is free. Never used it, so I can't vouch for it. The screenshot below is for the Windows version, but the user interface for the Mac edition is similar. 3) Flux (http://theescapers.com). Flux (£69.95) is a fairly powerful CSS / Javascript / HTML editor, with a free trial download. Once again, I've never used it -- but if you want to update your site into HTML5 goodness for the future, it's probably a good way to go. Potential Flux users shouldn't be worried if they don't know much about CSS, as the application is a wonderful way to get your feet wet in terms of style sheets. There's a very thorough Quick Start Guide available for download as well. 4) W3C Amaya (http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/BinDist.html) If you want a tool that will let you both browse and author web pages, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has a freebie editor available for download. For former FrontPage users, this app seems appropriately low-key and quite simple to use. 5) Mozilla SeaMonkey (http://www.seamonkey-project.org/) Made by the folks who created Firefox, SeaMonkey is not only an HTML editor, but has a lot of built-in Internet tools including a web feed reader, IRC chat client, etc. Update: The most recent version of SeaMonkey was delivered only five days ago. 6) Adobe Contribute (http://www.adobe.com/products/contribute.html) Back in the early 2000s, I had several sites that had been developed in FrontPage and needed to be maintained. Macromedia Contribute was a powerful tool, although sometimes frustrating. It's $199, and might be a bit of overkill for many casual users in terms of price and capability. 7) Freeway Express (http://www.softpress.com/products/freewayexpress/) Freeway Express is a wonderful Mac HTML editor with a surprisingly complete feature set. It's $69 for this low-end version, or you can upgrade to the even more powerful Freeway Pro ($229) if you need more capabilty. Trial versions of each are available for download. 8) Adobe Dreamweaver (http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html) This is the design tool for professionals. It has a steep learning curve and an equally steep price tag ($399), but for a top-of-the-line web design package, Dreamweaver is the choice. 9) Quanta Gold (http://www.thekompany.com/products/quanta/) Considering that the web page for this app shows that it is now "Mac OS X ready", it looks like it hasn't been updated for a long, long time. There is a free demo version available for download, and the price if you decide to buy it is $39.95. 10) BlueGriffon (http://www.bluegriffon.org/) A free WYSIWYG content editor based on Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine. Free is always good! Update: Before anyone asks where RapidWeaver and Sandvox are, note that although they do have the capability to edit RAW HTML, they're both predominantly used to design new websites from scratch using built-in templates and then maintain those sites. Those two solutions were covered in my previous post, "Ten ways to replace iWeb and MobileMe hosting." Also, you may wish to look at several other editors, some of which aren't really WYSIWYG, but are favorites of some of the bloggers here at TUAW: Hype sells for $29.99 in the Mac App Store and is an amazing HTML5 WYSIWYG editor. Created by two ex-Apple engineers, it's gaining rave reviews and can be used to create animated websites. HyperEdit ($9.99) is another package from the Hype developers. It's a code and text editor in the same vein as Coda. Very similar to HyperEdit is Taco HTML Edit ($24.99), which has a component library that can add amazing features to an HTML document. MacRabbit's Espresso was a huge miss on my part. It's also a code editor more than a true WYSIWYG tool, and it's available from the MacRabbit website for $79.99. As usual, if you have a favorite Mac WYSIWYG HTML editor and wish to let other readers in on your personal choice, leave a comment below. Good luck, Mickey!
Sandvox 2 features major overhaul, Objects Menu, more
Sandvox by Kareila Software will celebrate its fifth birthday this year. The festivities begin with Sandvox 2.0, a major update to the WYSIWYG Web editor for the Mac. With more than 5 dozen new or improved features, such as the super-handy Objects Menu and full HTML5 compliance, Sandvox 2 is ready for weekend Web warriors and small business owners alike. Here's my look at Sandvox 2. UI Web editors like Sandvox are meant for those who wish to create websites without touching HTML. That's a large number of users, like new parents, baseball coaches and small business owners. The common thread among them is the need for simplicity. Fortunately, Sandvox 2 meets that need. The main UI window is familiar to anyone who's used iTunes, Pages or iWeb. On the left-hand side you'll find thumbnails of pages. On the right is the page you're currently working on. A customizable toolbar allows easy access to your favorite functions. Working on a page, be it a blog, gallery, form, etc. is as easy as editing text. Simply type (or paste rich text) and Sandvox handles the code for you. Adding interesting elements -- what Kareila calls Objects -- is also a breeze, as this article will point out later. Also, an inspector lets you fine-tune page elements. Adding YouTube videos, Amazon product links and more is drag-and-drop easy. As for looks, Sandvox 2 ships with about 60 themes, while third-party theme developers extend the options even further. In short, Sandvox 2 looks good, and the UI is simple enough for its intended audience.
RIFT beta powow with Scott Hartsman
This is, by any measure, a busy week for RIFT. Fresh off the second beta event, Trion Worlds has dropped the NDA for the game and announced a third beta to take place over the holidays. As the process speeds exponentially faster toward launch, Scott Hartsman and his team have a white-knuckled grip on RIFT for all the bumps, shimmies, dips and hills that such a high-profile title offers. Even with a heaping amount of work on its plate, the team has been willing to share its passion for RIFT with the press and community. During this slight lull between betas two and three, Hartsman sat down with us over the phone to jaw about lessons learned from the beta, why Trion has dropped the NDA, how RIFT's already made history, and when we might be seeing this game on the shelves. Hit the jump and let's do this thing. As Hartsman is fond of saying about the game, "S**t just got real."
MarsEdit 3 adds rich text editing, enhanced media browsing
In the "send an email, post a blog entry" fun and fast-paced world of tomorrow, services like Tumblr and Posterous make it exceedingly simple to prepare and post to your blog; meanwhile, Twitter, Facebook and AOL Lifestream push past the article metaphor to 140-character status snippets. Delightful as they all may be, sometimes it's nice to have a well-rounded Mac app that supports more reflective and considerate writing for your online outlets -- not to mention one that saves your drafts in case your browser picks that particular moment to crash. For a lot of bloggers, including many TUAW veterans, Red Sweater's MarsEdit (US$39.95) is that app. It allows you to write, edit and schedule posts offline at leisure, with full preview capability so you know what you're getting when you hit the Publish button. It will happily upload your images and files alongside your posts, and it works with scores of popular and obscure blog back-end systems (WordPress, TypePad, Tumblr, Squarespace, etc.). If you prefer to edit elsewhere but still want the uploading savvy MarsEdit delivers, it plays nicely (via the ODBEditor scritping suite) with other text editors like SubEthaEdit and TextMate. MarsEdit has just hit version 3.0. At long last, WYSIWIG rich text editing is included, alongside the traditional HTML/text edit window that has cheered experts but may have intimidated novices. Other new features include better syntax highlighting in HTML, support for WordPress static pages, media browsing from iPhoto/Aperture/Lightroom libraries, and more. You can download a 30-day trial of MarsEdit and see for yourself if it works the way you do. Upgrades for previous owners are free if you bought MarsEdit in 2010, and $14.95 for all earlier purchasers.
Sandvox 1.5 is now available
Sandvox is the WYSIWYG web editor from Karelia that's won praises from users and the design community (including an Apple Design Award) alike. You can read our previous coverage here.This week, Karelia has released version 1.5, which offers a slew of changes. You can use Sandvox to publish to any webhost (including FTP, SFTP and MobileMe) or create a blog. The pro version lets you edit the HTML and both the pro and basic version include attractive templates that you'll actually want to use. Changes to version 1.5 include Major improvements to media processing, making it easier than ever to create and publish multimedia and media-intensive sites Improvements to all pagelets, including an enhanced Contact Form and a brand new YouTube pagelet Seven all-new designs, plus enhancements to other designs, bringing the total to 50 New blogging features, including a Collection Archives pagelet to better manage and display older entries, automatic navigation links between entries, and "continue reading" links to better manager longer entries There's much more, and you can read the full release notes here. As we said, Sandvox is a very nice tool for people who want to put up a page or site with no fuss. Sandvox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, is a Universal Binary and comes in both pro ($79US) and standard ($49US) versions. Version 1.5 is a free upgrade for registered users.
Freeway 5.2 available with new MobileSafari support
Softpress Systems has released Freeway 5.2, which includes new tools for building web pages for iPhone and iPod touch. Freeway is WYSIWYG website creation software that features a traditional, page-layout approach and omits the need to write any code (unless, you know, you really want to handcraft your HTML). New in version 5.2 is the ability to create iPhone home screen icons and custom links to iPhone applications like Mail, Phone, Maps, and YouTube. Also, Freeway helps prepare QuickTime videos for playback on iPhone under a variety of network conditions. Additionally, Softpress has published a best practices document for publishing web sites for the iPhone and iPod touch. The "Building websites for the iPhone with Freeway" document can be found on the Softpress website. The update is free for registered users of Freeway 5 or higher. For new users, it's available in two flavors: Freeway 5 Express ($79) and Freeway 5 Pro ($249). The differences between the two versions are available here.
Sandvox 1.2.8 adds MobileMe Compatibility
Karelia Software announced the availability of Sandvox 1.2.8 this week. If you're unfamiliar, Sandvox is a very nice and lightweight WYSIWYG web editor for Mac OS X (we've written about Sandvox before) that makes publishing easy. With iLife integration, attractive themes and more, you'll be happy to use it for that quick and easy site you want to publish with a minimum of fuss.Karelia has always offered .Mac integration, and version 1.2.8 offers compatibility with MobileMe. Other changes include an updated iMedia Browser which supports iPhoto Events and multiple Aperture libraries.Sandvox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, is universal and comes in both pro ($79US) and standard ($49US) versions. Version 1.2.8 is a free upgrade for registered users.
Sandvox 1.2.7 is ready to go
Earlier this week, Karelia released Sandvox 1.2.7. If you're unfamiliar, Sandvox is a great WYSIWYG website development application. It's really fun to use, and features .Mac and iLife integration, templates you'll actually want to put up on your site and a great user interface (in fact, it was the runner up in Apple's 2007 Design Awards for Best Mac OS X User Experience).Version 1.2.7 is a minor update, but includes some important changes, like Improvements to iMedia Browser, including new movie thumbnailing code Graphical Title Text replacement now works again under Leopard Updates to the Digg pagelet There's more, of course, and you can get the full run down here. Once you've got your Sandvox site up, share it at Sandvoxed. Sandvox now requires 10.4.11 or 10.5.x, is a Universal Binary and comes in both pro ($79US) and "regular" ($49US) versions. Version 1.2.7 is a free upgrade for registered users.
Sandvox 1.2.4 offers Leopard compatibility, more
Karelia has released Sandvox version 1.2.4, with improvements for both Leopard and Tiger users (we've mentioned Sandvox several times). For the uninitiated, it's a WYSIWIG web editor that features iLife integration, .Mac support, beautiful default forms, and drag-and-drop ease. If you like iWeb and Rapidweaver, you'll like Sandvox.This update includes the following changes: Leopard-ready. Improved compatibility with iPhoto '08 Graphical title text size is consistent across all pages within a site. Improvements to many designs. Numerous bug fixes Check Sandvox out if you haven't. Sandvox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, is universal and comes in both pro ($79US) and "regular" ($49US) versions. Version 1.2.4 is a free upgrade for registered users.
RapidWeaver 3.6.4 is available
RapidWeaver by Realmac Sofware is a WYSIWYG web editor that we like. If you're unfamiliar, it's a super-simple editor that features iLife and .Mac integration, flash photo galleries, an SDK and so on. Version 3.6.4 offers Leopard compatibility.Realmac also announced today that Rapidweaver 4.0 is under development. It will be exclusive to Mac OS 10.5 and a free upgrade for registered users. Cool! In fact, you can get a sneak peek of of RapidWeaver 4.0 at London's MacLive Expo at the end of this week.
RapidWeaver 3.6.2 released
Realmac Software today released v3.6.2 of RapidWeaver, their popular WYSIWYG tool for creating websites, podcasts, blogs and more. Among the new features of this version are: Aperture Support in the iMedia Browser Dynamic PHP Sidebar option for the blog plugin Sidebar is now a fully features styled text area The link panel now supports linking to tags and categories from Blogs Also included in their blog post announcing this update is a PDF manual for the new version and an all-new Help Desk area with links to tutorial videos, manuals, FAQs and more. A demo of RapidWeaver is available, while full licenses costs $49.00 and upgrades from versions previous to 3.6.x are $25.
Sandvox 1.2.2 offers iPhone support
Fresh from receiving an Apple Design Award at WWDC '07 (runner up for "Best Mac OS X User Experience"), the folks at Karelia have released Sandvox 1.2.2 (we've written about Sandvox before). If you're unfamiliar, it's a WYSIWYG web editor that features drag-and-drop ease, iLife integration, simple publishing and several attractive templates.Speaking of templates, they've all been tweaked in version 1.2.2 to look great on an iPhone. Other changes include squashed bugs and localization improvements. Sandvox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, is universal and comes in both pro ($79US) and "regular" ($49US) versions. Version 1.2.2 is a free upgrade for registered users.
RapidWeaver 3.6 released
Realmac Software today has released the much-anticipated new version of RapidWeaver, their powerful WYSIWYG software that does a great job of filling the gap between iWeb and Dreamweaver. This new v3.6 ushers in a significant list of new features, such as: Themes Styles - no more digging in HTML and CSS to customize your theme (unless you really want to) 6 completely new themes Snippets - manage chunks of frequently used code instead of copy/pasting or constantly re-typing New Flash Slideshow - completely rewritten and can now pull images from a Flickr feed Improved blog, including tags and inline comment support Easy creation of Lists Detailed Publishing And much, much more Also, due to RapidWeaver's "skyrocketing" popularity, RealMac Software introduced a redesigned website today that includes a full-featured add-ons section where users can browse themes, plug-ins and code snippets, which of course also means 3rd parties nowhave one central RapidWeaver community where the can highlight their products. With everything involved, I can completely understand Realmac Software's decision to make v3.6 a paid upgrade - current users (including MacHeist owners) can purchase a v3.6 license for $25, while a full license costs $49. A demo is of course available, so head over to the shiny new Realmac Software site to see everything RapidWeaver has to offer.
Panic releases Coda web editor
The folks at Panic are celebrating the tenth anniversary of their incorporation today with what developer Steven recently called "...our biggest, most ambitious new software launch of all time." Today, we can tell you that project is Coda. It's being billed as "One-window web development," and from what we can tell, it looks pretty awesome. I only played with the demo briefly, so there's obviously a lot more to this app then you'll find here (Steven's blog is a good place to go for the full scoop). First of all, the UI is beautiful. When first launched, Coda offers to import your Transmit favorites, which it did perfectly for me. It then "taped" each project if found in my copy of Transmit to the main window. To work on a project, just double click it and it "flips" into view. One more click logs into the project's remote files and displays them in the left hand sidebar. Select any file to begin working on it. Super easy and fast.One more thing that needs to be mentioned, and I'm only scratching the surface here, is the "Books" feature. One click and you're brought to a virtual bookshelf that houses volumes on HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP. Click any book to begin "reading" it, and quickly jump to any topic you are particularly interested in just by clicking a keyword. You can also order hardcopy versions of any of the books.Coda retails for $99 (lower introductory rates are available for now) and requires 10.4 or later. Now if you'll excuse me, I really want to stop typing and return to playing with Coda.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Sandvox 1.2 is available
We've written about Sandvox before. It's the WYSIWYG web editor from Karelia Software that makes site building and publication a breeze. It's nicely integrated with .Mac and iLife, and features attractive default templates you'll actually want to use. Changes in version 1.2 include: Easily change the banner image Many new templates New RSS feed "pagelet" IM status Page view counter Insert your own HTML, JavaScript, or PHP/Scripting code There's a lot more, of course. This looks like a good update to pick up. Sandvox requires Mac OS 10.4 or later, is universal and comes in both pro ($79US) and "regular" ($49US) versions.
MacZOT offers 30% discount for RapidWeaver
RapidWeaver, arguably the 800 lb. gorilla of the WYSIWYG web design space on the Mac, is being sold for $27.97 on MacZOT - a 30% discount off its retail price of $39.95. The debate around sites like MacZOT aside, I view this simply as a killer sale on a rockin' app.Now I honestly haven't checked in on a MacZOT deal in a while, but it appears RapidWeaver is up on the block only through tonight and tomorrow, so act fast.
WordPress 2.0.6 supports HTML quicktags in Safari
We typically don't post about updates to WordPress (that's Download Squad's job), one of the most popular install-it-yourself blogging platforms available, but this latest v2.0.6 is a little different. Amidst some security updates and other goodies for plug-in and theme developers is HTML quicktag compatibility for post authoring in Safari. As you can see in the screenshot Safari users can now enjoy more powerful editing in WordPress post and page creation windows. Though this isn't quite full rich text/WYSIWYG editing, there are plenty out there who would make the argument that you shouldn't be blogging that way with WordPress in the first place.Text formatting aside, this should offer the Safari-slinging WordPress users out there some browser-hopping relief when drafting their next diggable post.
On TextMate extras
Like me, there are probably a lot of fresh new TextMate users out there in the audience thanks at least in part to MacHeist, so I thought it would be pertinent to point out a few helpful resources Allan Odgaard (TM's developer) maintains at macromates.com. Of course the searchable mailing list and IRC channel are handy for getting your discussion on, over which TM user Brett Terpstra just shared a WordPress templating bundle he's created - quite possibly a good addition to that theming workflow we just blogged. Another powerful resource is the TextMate wiki, which houses a plethora of learning tools and resources such as a bundle repository if you're looking for some features or a language not included by default, as well as an RSS feed for bundle changes. Of course, what text app would be complete without user submitted themes? Last on my resource roundup (but by no means the end of what's available) are a few TextMate plugins, including a WebMate plugin that turns TM's Web Preview into a full-fledged WYSIWYG HTML editor based on WebKit. There's a lot more from where all this came from, so dive in or simply get your feet wet with this swiss army knife of text editors.
