KompoZer 0.7.10 Released

The latest KompoZer release was announced August 31 by the developer, Kazé. The HTML editor and CSS editor are listed among the improvements over the 0.7.7 release. The package is available as a free download at SourceForge. The announcement appears on the KompoZer Development forum.

The information provided on SourceForge was a little sparse when I downloaded my win32.zip file. That particular version was the last to be put up but has become the most popular. When Kazé made the announcement of KompoZer 0.7.10 he provided a list of potential downloads by operating system. Versions are not available for Mac's simply because the developer does not have one. Help Wanted: Anyone know how to compile the source for Mac? KompoZer continues to be one of the few open source, cross-platform, HTML editors.

The win32 version may have been the last package to be released but it wasted no time becoming the most popular. More of us would probably switch to Linux completely if you would only make it easy on us. (Those tribes and tarballs get confusing. A tarball sounds like something one wants to avoid.)

Windows users are clearly the majority in the KompoZer camp and now outnumber all the other operating systems combined. I find that interesting because Nvu, the development providing the code base for KompoZer, was built so Linux operators would have something better than Front page. Guess we all agree that KompoZer is a very powerful editor.

The win32 version "installed" with no problem. Unzipping or extracting the file and clicking the exe file is all you need to do.

New Features Added

The development plan calls for improving the CaScadeS CSS editor for the 0.8 release and Kazé is well on the way.

A handy feature of KompoZer is the status bar that in normal view shows where you are in terms of HTML tags. Starting with 7.9, KompoZer changes a tag with inline styles to Italics.

In the "Status Bar" picture, “body” has inline styles applied. The other tags shown are defined by a style sheet. In case you don't know adding an inline style overrides the style style settings

When a right click is applied to a tag on the status bar and inline styles is selected a pop up window presents a summary of styles applied. Tabs provide a means of adjusting inline styles without resorting to typing code to further define the element’s appearance.

I was able to create an internal style sheet and then export it to an external CSS file by using the editor built into KompoZer in spite of my lack of experience with Cascading style sheets (CSS).

As a novice I can generally use inline styles to get the appearance I want but I understand the logic of using CSS style sheets to control the appearance of a page. When I get (maybe that should be "if I ever get) the presentation the way I want it I can apply the style sheet to other pages.

Using CSS style sheets is not an intuitive process but Kazé has tried to make it easier for novice web editors. Creating new style rules is simplified in KompoZer 7.10 or so it seems to me.

Radio buttons allow the user to designate how the rule is being applied and a drop down enables one to select if a rule has been applied to an element, class or ID.

One can even give the appearance of organization by arranging the order for rules already established by the style sheet.

On the Right Track

In case you haven't figured it out I really like KompoZer. I like it because it enables me to do what I want to do on the web with more freedom than a blog or any other formatted web page. KompoZer, especially 7.10 is suitable for the novice willing to learn how to use it but it still has its problems.

One of the new problems is the inability to switch back and forth from "normal" to "source" view when the page uses a style sheet. I know I shouldn't be looking under the hood anyway but sometimes I want to look. Whether I need to look may be debatable but if I have opened the CSS editor I will receive a polite message from KompoZer that the lights are going out. I save early and often so there is usually little damage if I forget and try to change views.

I suspect the simple fact is Nvu shouldn’t have been released as 1.0 because it wasn’t ready. It probably had to be released for other reasons and so it was. Wysi

An interesting comment by the developer agrees with me in my opinion that Nvu wasn't a 1.0 release to begin with. KompoZer was based on Nvu 1.0 but started with 7-something rather than 1.something. With that honesty Kazé reaffirms my confidence that when we see KompoZer 1.0 it will be ready for prime time.

The whole KompoZer situation is encouraging for those of us who want a capable, WYSIWYG editor that is easy to use. That my friend is KompoZer. Go get it.

Wysi

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