Upgrade Claris Home Page for OS X !
by Tony Caravan

I've tried every program from Dreamweaver to the plethora of freebies and iWeb, too; still, nothing comes close to Claris Home Page (CHP) for WYSIWYG site creation and quick HTML editing.


During Apple's restructuring, and the move from System 9 to OS X, the 'Claris' software chunk was somehow consumed by FileMaker, Inc. (the FileMakerPro people). Anyway, FileMaker discontinued Claris Home Page; and to date, no one has produced a comparable program for web design. Everything on the market is either all HTML editing with a browser-type preview, or object oriented without an easy HTML editor.

Anyone who has ever designed a web page knows there's a fast learning curve for learning how HTML works. And, what seems mind-boggling during the first week, becomes child's play after a month or so. CHP is a great app because it's not only great for beginners; but it incorporates all kinds of neat little things for the more advanced 'webmaster.'

Programs like Dreamweaver are too pricey for the average person who just wants to build a web site; and quite frankly, it's not as good as CHP in its ease of use. Like most Adobe products, Dreamweaver is bloatware with too many bells and whistles that get in the way of creativity.

As for the new iWeb, it has a very limited HTML editing (snipet) capability; and until Apple expands this, it's useless for web page designers that want to create outside the box -- some people just don't like being limited to the use of templates only.

There are a slew of shareware and freeware programs out there that are either great for code or visual editing; but nothing that integrates both as elegantly as CHP.

Hopefully, either Apple will upgrade iWeb to meet the demand, or one of the (you) shareware developers will hear my plea -- I will gladly pay someone to make CHP work on OS 10.5x !

Dated but useful links:
Old CHP discussion page
Claris Home Page tutorial
Another tutorial with screen captures

Newer and useful stuff...
How to create a 'shockwave' slideshow without flash -
SWF 'n Slide Pro; Encode a WMV file on a Mac - Flip4Mac; Record audio from any program - WireTap Pro; Extract video and audio from DVD 'TS' folders - ffmpeg

Shareware web page editors, etc:
Coda; NVU; Mozilla SeaMonkey project; PageSpinner; GoodPage

Disclaimer: As always, remember I don't endorse any of this stuff. Download/use it at your own risk; and only do legal stuff with it. Don't give out personal info unless you are sure the site is secure, etc. Have fun!


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