Style Watch by HTML with Style

Netscape 6: At Long-Awaited Last

Is Netscape 6 a revolution in the making, or is it too little too late? Style Watch surveys the new standards-based browser from a developer's perspective. Will it change the way you design your sites forever, or will it fail to catch on and be forgotten?

The Seven Habits of Effective Web Sites

For sale: ALT attributes for your Web site. Cost: $2 million. (Temporarily out of stock; expected delivery time: 12 months+). Well, crazier things have been auctioned on eBay for crazier prices, but is IBM serious about charging this much and taking this long to add basic accessibility to the Sydney Olympics Web site? Why is accessibility and usability ignored so blatantly on so many professional Web sites today? Read our thoughts on this and what can be done to make the Web a better place.

This is Not a Review of Internet Explorer 5.5

Microsoft has unveiled yet another version of its massively widespread browser upon the public. Does this mean more work for Web page developers the world over, or will we finally be able to stop worrying about browser bugs? Read our overview of IE5.5's new browsing capabilities to find out how your job just got a little tougher.

HoTMetaL PRO 6.0

SoftQuad's famous HTML editor, HoTMetaL PRO, is now in its 6th incarnation. With a very cautious approach, Style Watch examines the latest version looking to evaluate how good it is and, more importantly, what exactly it does.

XMetaL 1.0

XML is the hot subject for everyone who's anyone on the Web. SoftQuad, makers of the popular HoTMetaL HTML editor, have recently created a new product, XMetaL, that allows WYSIWYG creation and editing of SGML and XML documents. Style Watch takes a look at the recently released version 1.0, and examines how helpful it can be for XML and SGML deployment, and tries to answer an important question: Is XML ready for the Web?

Take a Stand and Understand the Standard

On August 11th, 1999, the Web Standards Project, also lovingly known as the WaSP, circulated a petition urging Microsoft to commit to adopting W3C standards in the next version of Internet Explorer. W3C standards? I thought the W3C didn't make standards! But if they don't, what do they do anyway? This article takes a look at who is changing the Web, and reaches a not-too-obvious conclusion that might give us a clue as to where the Web is going and why it's not getting there fast enough.

Internet Explorer 5.0: With Style, Finally?

In our latest Style Watch article, we take a look at Internet Explorer 5.0 from the HTML and CSS author's point of view. How much of HTML 4.0 and CSS levels 1 and 2 are implemented, and how well? Do we author for the new browser, or stick to what we know of version 4.0? Is this really a worthwhile release? Has Microsoft finally given us a browser with a hint of Style? The answers to these questions and more are given in this in-depth review, as we find Internet Explorer to be sorely lacking in the most important aspects of its function.

Gecko: A Smaller, Faster Lizard

Premiering our new Style Watch area is an overview of Netscape's new browsing component, Gecko. The first official alpha release from Netscape of part of its 5.0 browser, Gecko is the consolidation of two of the modules developed at Mozilla.org. What do we think of it? "Gecko is the most important piece of software ever released for the Web since Tim Berners-Lee wrote WorldWideWeb for the NeXT. Although still at an early stage of its development, it shows every sign of becoming the catalyst for nothing short of another information revolution that has been years in the making." Read the article to find out why...