|
 By Candy Baker
For those of us who don’t care to be a geek and write code all day, NetObjects Fusion 11 is our hero. If you are an experienced HTML artist, you probably won’t like it much ... but for most small business owners who simply need to have a current representation on the WWW, Fusion is for you. The newest is NetObjects Fusion 11 and we have been reviewing Fusion since their first version was unveiled in 1995. New in version 11 are some things that you may never use, however there are some really nice enhancements that makes the upgrade worthwhile.
One of the features that Fusion has been known for is the site view, which features an outline organizational chart, which makes it very easy to see where your pages are arranged, which is a child of which, etc. This feature alone can make using Fusion one of the easiest to organize, and we have not seen any other website design software which offers this feature. Fusion has been doing it since day one. If you can use MIcrosoft Word, you can use Fusion 11.
New features include:
AJAX Integration
Utilize the powerful Ajax framework to combine XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and XML into a seamless drag-and-drop interface· Ajax User Interface Components - Fusion 11 integrates a complete set of AJAX user interface elements (accordions, tabs, toggle panes and wizards) which enable the rapid development of AJAX-powered web pages.
· Timeline Editor - Create visual animations like Grow, shrink, slide, reveal, color-change, or manipulate any aspect of the page.
Image Management
· Image Gallery – This improvement is one of the most useful NetObjects has developed. With the Gallery, you can quickly access and view thumbnails of your image libraries and then drag-and-drop the images from the gallery directly on to your page. Sure speeds things up, it works similarly to Adobe InDesign’s Library.
· Image Placement – In aiding in defending us against ourselves, NetObjects has added some helpers when it comes time to place images on your layout. You can edit, resize and color correct (not like Photoshop, but many times it is adequate) images before applying them to your page. Fusion will help protect the integrity of your design by warning you if the selected image will alter the layout of your page.
New Workspace Layout
- Access to all HTML 4.1 properties of any object on your page with the Code Inspector Panel
- Open and edit multiple pages at the same time. The pages all appear in tabs at the top of the layout area, making navigation much easier.
- New organization of more common tools for better productivity
- Larger full screen workspace
- Code Generation: XHTML Publishing
Publish your website in semantic XHTML. Semantic code is important as a means of improving accessibility to content, be it for automated tools (search engines and crawlers), alternate user interfaces (small form devices, speech browsers for visually impaired people), content management systems and more. Be sure to download the update #1, as the Semantic code had quite a few bugs in the original version.
More Development Enhancements
- Editable code in ‘HTML SOURCE’ view
- Color-coded syntax for better readability
- Auto-completion of common code values for greater accuracy and efficiency
- Open, edit and integrate javascript, PHP, ASP, ColdFusion, XML files
- XML Data Integration - Fusion 11 allows for integration of data into web pages from any XML data source. A simple point and click will select any local or remote XML file (for example an RSS datafeed), and Fusion will auto-discover the structure (schema) of the XML file, and allow for the drag & drop insertion of the data fields into the design. Various features for data iteration and pagination are provided/built-in. The database integration also had some bugs in the release version which are addressed in update #1.
- Databind to any object or property on your page
- Easily build data-base driven applications.
- Easy connection to the database of your choice – includes MS Access, MySql, XML and more.
- Web Calendar – In version 10, this is an additional plug in that costs $29.95. It isincluded with version 11.
Easy-to-use interface with familiar calendar application tools. Easily add events and recurring details and display them by week, month or year. Integrate your calendar into your website by modifying the colors and size to match your look-and-feel.
Charts and Graphs –
Illustrate and display your spreadsheet data with Flash-driven animated line, pie and graph charts. Charts and Graph tool allows you to import existing spreadsheet data or create your own.
Built-in Search Engine Submission and Website Tracking
- Automatically generate your site’s Google Analytics code on every page of your site.
- Easily create a sitemap to submit to Google.
|
