David Ruppert

Several times over the years I’ve decided I need to move on from Homesite. Homesite had become an afterthought long before it was acquired by Acromedia . . or Macrodobe . . or whatever it is these days.

Every time I try to find something new, I’ll download one . . play around with the trial version and find something that’s a total deal-breaker for me. I tried Notepad++, but didn’t download the Explorer plug-in initially . . and subsequently spent an HOUR looking the safety blanket of my file browser docked to the left side of the window.

I also tried e Text Editor, meehh . . . not that impressed. It didn’t auto-complete tags. Again, deal-breaker for me. It just wasn’t as user-friendly as I’d hoped. I’d assumed that it was just a matter of me using Homesite exclusively over the past 10 years . . and really not wanting to learn anything new.

Another faaaaairly significant downside to e Text Editor was the fact that it crashed 4 times in the first 8 hours of use. I’ve got enough crap on my machine that crashes . . I don’t need to add the most commonly used application to that list.

One feature that was a must was being able to reassign keyboard shortcuts. Lets face it, that goes a long way in helping me with the transition. Five years ago I set up Ctrl+P as the shortcut for <p> [by the way, who's printing out code anyway?]. I need that back. If every time I hit Ctrl+P it brings up the print dialog box . . I’m frustrated.

Next, and seemingly obvious, I need a file explorer docked somewhere on my window. What I ended up finding . . and loving . . was HTMLPad 2008. HTMLPad 2008 not only has a built in file explorer . . but just about everything else . . and somehow it’s all easy to find.

HTMLPad 2008 must have been influenced by Homesite, because right off the bat, I don’t feel lost. In fact, it feels like Homesite, but with more helpful tools.

For example, there’s an Inspector [much like Visual Studio]. Not completely sold that I’ll use that much . . but I’m interested in its capabilities.

Next, much like Homesite’s Snippets, HTMLPadd 2008 has a Library. Short code snippets with the ability to edit or delete existing ones and create new ones.

Next, a multiple item clipboard. I remember the introduction of this feature in Office, but this one seems more usable. Can’t quite explain that one yet, but that’s the case.

One thing that Homesite never had . . and I ALWAYS wanted was block selection. In fact in certain scenarios I’d be willing to open up the resource hog known as Visual Studio just to be able to block select something.

Built in HTML Validator . . SVN integration . . built in preview in IE or Firefox. I could really go on. I’m really embarrassed that I’m sooo happy to find a capable, feature-rich, inexpensive text editor.

I’m able to change to an updated text editor without spending an inordinate amount of time relearning the way I’ve been writing code for the better part of the past decade.

I’ve only had this gem for a couple of days, so I’m apprehensive that the shine might wear off, but as of right now, I’m ecstatic to pay $35 for a top notch html editor.

At least visit the site. There’s plenty of information about features and what’s new, including more than enough screenshots to get the idea.

This entry was posted onWednesday, March 18th, 2009 at8:27 pm and is filed underCode Snippets, Nothing, Office. You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.