August 8, 1996

Akimbo trots out Web authoring tool

Defining a new generation?

Doesn't it feel like 1986, when a new desktop publishing program appeared every month? This month's WYSIWYG HTML editor is Globetrotter from Akimbo, owners of the FullWrite compound document processor for Macs. FullWrite, you may remember, had a zillion neat features but not the muscle of Microsoft. Globetrotter also has many neat features, including support for forms, tables, AppleScript, Java and JavaScript -- but it is at heart an HTML export filter for a word processor that caters to a loyal but, alas, small following.

Ideas to copy. Globetrotter may be a long shot in the Web authoring market, but it introduces a few features that its competitors will no doubt want to copy in their next releases. We thank Akimbo for thoughtfully suggesting these points of comparison on its Web page.

• Links as aliases. In a twist on the links-in-database approach, Globetrotter stores links to documents as System 7 aliases. This ensures that links remain intact when documents are moved or renamed, but does not prevent you from keeping old links or from linking to files that don't exist.
  
  
• Small caps. It's about time somebody put small caps into a character attribute dialog box. Now all we need is for the browsers to accept style sheets.
  
  
• Creating dingbats. Globetrotter converts special symbols, dingbats and other special glyphs into GIF images. This is one of those good ideas we hope will be made obsolete by real foreign-language and special-character support.
  
  
• Horizontal rules. Globetrotter creates horizontal rules of various kinds -- including ones made out of pictures -- and treats them as styles, so changes can be made globally. Maybe Adobe can get that into PageMaker 6.01 as well as PageMill 2.1.
  
  
• Splitting up a document. Several HTML "grinders," such as InfoAcess HTML Transit and Ntergaid's AutoLinker, will break word processing files into multiple HTML pages at sections or other dividing points that you set up. Globetrotter does this on its own files -- as any decent HTML filter should.
  
  
• "New" icons. Right now, it tends to be the database-driven sites that add "new" icons automatically to updated material.

  Globetrotter tracks changes within its own files, and can generate a "new" icon or a page of links to new material. This is nice, but we think the rules-driven database approach is better because it allows more flexibility in deciding what it is you want generated and in selecting the criteria for making the selection.
  
  

• Forms. Globetrotter has WYSIWYG authoring of forms that can be automatically exported to HTML and CGI scripts. We haven't had a chance to test the quality of its code, which is a critical factor, but the user interface is very appealing.
  
  
• Plug-in architecture. Taking a cue from Xpress, Globetrotter has a plug-in architecture for extending the program. Akimbo supplies a library of button styles as a plug-in example. Plug-ins could be written to provide a custom interface for specific Java or JavaScript applications. Similarly, connections to Frontier Macros and Web Glossary entries are objects, which can be copied and pasted like anything else.

Akimbo tries to draw a comparison between publishing HTML from Globetrotter and printing to PostScript. It plays up the "we hide the codes" aspect. That's important, and if the product is half as good as Akimbo claims, it will have achieved a new level of codeless Web page authoring.

But the "static" aspect of PostScript is also worth noting. Globetrotter does not generate dynamic HTML; it "presses" HTML, much as you press the print button. Thus, it will work for sites that don't change any more often than when you go in and edit the pages.

Globetrotter has been announced but is not yet available; the company hopes to deliver it this fall. When released, it will no doubt be useful for FullWrite users. In the meantime, for those creating Web pages on one of those "first- or second-generation products" on the Mac (yes, that's us, too), Globetrotter's feature list offers some excellent additions to suggest to your vendor, and is one to keep in mind if your vendor seems late with the upgrade.