Claris Emailer 1.1v3 Review

Claris Home Page 2.0b Public Release
By WilliamLH

As I downloaded and installed Claris Home Page 2.0b Public Release I thought to myself "here we go, another HTML editor that I'll have to do more work straightening out HTML code than if I hand coded." Well installation went well and I double clicked the Claris Home Page 2.0b Public Release icon and my fears stared me in the face, simplistic interface (usually means bad code) not that many menu choices (usually means low on high end or HTML 3.2 features) and there was a load of web clip art that was included (usually means that they had some contract with a clip art company and the art is not great.)

Well as I "played" with Claris Home Page 2.0b Public Release I found ALL my fears were unfounded. Claris Home Page 2.0b Public Release is extremely promising! Frames support, server and client side image map capability, a preference selection that can be left alone for the novice HTML author or played with for the Advanced HTML professional. It has Quick Time Movie embedding, Java Applet support, Netscape and compatible plug-in support, tables, forms, password fields, font face tag support, editable spelling checker that is as good it's parent product Claris Works and the list goes on.

As for that load of clip art, I was impressed. It is a fresh selection of various backgrounds, arrows, pointers, rules, boarders, themes such as South Western, and they even include their own "Made with Claris Home Page" badge for your page.

Cons:

About the only down side that I found with Claris Home Page 2.0b Public Release was that the server and client side image map controls lacked a freehand tool, so you are limited to square, rectangle and circle selections.

Pros:

Simple interface for the beginning HTML Author, yet powerful enough for a seasoned pro. The features are not visible at first glance, but after a very short time they become very apparent. The actual HTML code output is extremely close to hand coding and conforms to HTML standards that are proposed(HTML 2.0-3.2).

In a Nutshell:

If Claris Home Page 2.0b Public Release straightens out the image map problem, and does not add anything to the final release that messes up a good thing, Claris has a big winner.

Reviewers Grade:

WilliamLH's reviews can be viewed at WilliamLH's Reviews, and he is the creator of The Mac Trading Post (tm).