NetObjects Fusion 3

Nobody ever expected the Internet or, more specifically, that portion of it called the World Wide Web to become a global phenomenon - if they had, a superior browser-friendly language would have been chosen. Over the last decade, Web designers have been working within the limitations imposed by that 'browser-friendly language' called HTML to create vibrant Web sites. It's been an uphill struggle, but over recent years, with the release of version 4 browsers and dedicated Web design tools, it's become a lot easier. The Holy Grail of Web design, however, has always been the true wysiwyg coding tool.

NetObjects' Fusion 2 was an excellent effort at wysiwyg HTML design, enabling designers for the first time to tackle Web pages without having to get their hands dirty in code. The downside was the tortuous HTML, riddled with convoluted tables and one-pixel transparent GIFs that were used to precisely position objects (be they images, textboxes or tables). It was absolutely impossible to change a Fusion-designed page with anything other than Fusion and the resultant pages were notoriously large.

The completely revised Fusion 3 retains its wysiwyg design but adds a large number of much-needed features to the blend. HTML code or custom scripts can be added directly into pages, frames are well supported, Dynamic HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSSs) have been included and - since many people still haven't upgraded their browsers - there's a new feature called Everywhere HTML, which creates code targeted at specific generations of browser.

NetObjects has clearly been listening to feedback from Fusion 2 users, because many of the features in Fusion 3 were at the top of my wishlist. Most important of all is a new three-tier approach to page design, which recognises that the rigidly anchored 'object' model of Fusion 2 was not always a blessing.

An enhanced graphical style editor is still present in Fusion 3, replete with varied advanced button, image and form functions. However, you can also opt for a Text Editor mode, which enables you to design pages in a word processor style similar to the one found in FrontPage 98 (reviewed issue 38, p208), Dreamweaver (reviewed issue 42, p141) and many of the other pseudo-wysiwyg editors. Finally, there's an external HTML Editor option that gives you total control over the code - Allaire's excellent HomeSite 3 is bundled with Fusion 3 for this purpose.

A la mode

The Graphical Editor mode is designed to appeal to the Web designer who has absolutely no interest in code. Objects such as textboxes or images can be dragged and dropped directly onto the page and positioned, using a grid in much the same way you'd lay out a page in a DTP package. Using either Tables and Clear Pixels, Nested Tables or CSSs, depending upon the browser series you're designing for, these objects will not move, even if a browser window is enlarged or font settings are altered.

Fusion 3's new Text Editor mode is a useful feature that's irritatingly hidden away in the help documentation. Using the Text Editor, you can create a textbox of any size, into which you then drop images, tables, text or any other object. These embedded objects can be aligned and wrapped around in exactly the same way as in FrontPage 98's editor. Peeking at the code that this approach creates reveals that those horrendous Nested Tables really have gone.

For an application with such a visual bias, it's surprising to find a full version of HomeSite 3 bundled with Fusion 3. HomeSite is included for those moments when full HTML control is required, without the vague code that many Web design applications insert into pages. In such instances you can embed an entire HTML page within a Fusion 3 page - double-clicking on its icon then starts HomeSite, or any other HTML editing application that you choose.