NVu

Since I'm a web master that doesn't know HTML code, I've had to rely on page editors that are considered WYSIWYG or 'What You See Is What You Get' (pronounced 'wuzzy-wig'). For a few years now, I have been using the editor that comes with Open Office, with the odd stint using such items as Microsoft's Front Page. Though individuals that code in raw HTML frown upon these programs, they are a godsend to people like me that want to publish a web site, but don't have (or want) to take the moderate time it takes to learn the code.

To create this review page as well as my home page, I decided to use NVu to see if my first impressions had merit. I think I've found a keeper and here's where I tell you why:

Platform......
NVu is open source. Both the finished product and source code are available for Windows (used for this review), Linux, and the Mac! You really can't beat that line up!

Web Site.........
The web site for NVu has TONS of information for each version of the program. The download page itself shows all of the links, not only their current version for each operation system, but links to past versions as well The screenshots page shows many views of the program in action. All pages are neatly organized, available in multiple languages including Russian and German, and include many links to different information areas.

Downloading........
Your choice of download depends on what operating system you are running and what version you want. There are links for both the .zip and .exe windows version, .tar files for Linux, .dmg for the Mac, plus there are contribution versions for your observation. Since Nvu is open source, the source code also has it's own link.

Installation........
.NVu uses a standard installation engine which gives you the usual questions such as the EULA to Mozilla, the installation directory etc. It's quick and fast!

Help Files........
The help file consists of basically three pages, the first of which tells you how to use the help file, the second is the guts of the help itself, and the third is a page of keyboard shortcuts, of which there are many! Unfortunately, the help file is without any major screenshots. In addition to this, there is a forum for NVu which at the time of this writing, contained postings current to today and seems quite busy. It's available from the NVu web site or you can go HERE! Both the site and the program itself link to a FAQ page which answers basic questions dealing with the program.

Interface & Features........
NVu has an interface similar to many high end (and high priced) wysiwyg editors. It starts you with a blank page, and gives you many nice tools to use via the menu items, icons, tabs and toolbar adjustments. Here's a pic of the opening screen:

NVu tries to make it as simple as possible for anyone to build a nice web page and publish it on the Internet. The bottom of the page has four tabs which give you different views of your page. I'll get to these later. The program itself takes 'Themes' however, the link to the Mozilla site didn't produce any and I haven't been able to find any so far from a google search.

Entering the 'preferences' selection in the tools menu, you'll be given a window where you will make general default settings to the program itself. Here's a couple of pics of this windows tabs to give you an idea as to how you can configure NVu's settings:

NVu has the typical tools to insert items into your page and to make adjustments to them. There are provisions for producing forms and tables, image insertions and adjustments, link creation, and anchors. NVu also includes a spell checker. Many of these tools have excellent windows to help you format what you've entered to your own specifications. For some examples, click on the 'table' menu item and a window pops up giving you a pointer choice as to how many sections will be in your table. Just drag your mouse to the amount of cells you require and click ok. Here's a couple of pics of the table window with open tabs:

Now, highlighting your table on your page and clicking on the 'table' icon in the icon bar will bring up a great two tabbed window to make the adjustments to your table and the cells within. Here's a pic:

For another example, I've taken the above graphic and, after a double click on it, brought up it's tabbed adjustment window to make the necessary changes that you want to make to it. Here's a couple of pics to highlight your selections:

Working with tables and images is just a start for this great freebie! Forms for your pages can be created with NVu via the 'insert' menu field or right from the icon in the top toolbar. This option gives you many windows for producing and modifying your forms. Here's few pics of the different windows just to give you a good idea on what you can do with forms:

Let's not stop there though! NVu lets you insert characters and symbols, horizonal lines, table of contents, comments, anchors, and links. Here's a small pic of the 'characters and symbols' window where you can insert such items as percentage symbols (¢©¼€):

Not bad at all! Of course, NVu is not stingy when it comes to making modifications too. For instance, you can insert and delete cells, move cells, move rows or columns above or below or before or after others, change the table or cell background color, increase or decrease indents, plus much, much more.

NVu also gives you a pixel reading along the above and left border to give you an exact measurement of your table or text sizes where you happen to be working on your page. It's noticeable in this pic I created to give you a look:

Notice the four tabs that appear on the bottom left. These tabs are your connection to the different aspects of web page creation. The normal tab is the window I use which gives you that WYSIWYG work area. The HTML tags tab shows you all of the tags within your page. The HTML Source tab allows you to view AND EDIT the entire web page in html code, which makes NVu also quite attractive for individual who may be just starting out to learn the code. The last tab is to preview your page as it would appear online however, I prefer to use the 'Browse' icon at the top toolbar which will open up the page in your default browser.

Nested in the 'Tools' menu listing are some excellent additions to NVu. The validate HTML selection takes you to the Markup Validation Service to check the code on your page. After I ran this page on this utility, it stated a total of 16 errors. Unfortunately, since I do not know HTML code, I basically was lost with this. My page DOES present itself in both Firefox and Explorer properly on my computer and every other computer I've seen it on, so I'm going to assume here that this particular feature of NVu would be very benificial to a newbie to coding. Also it contains a Cascading Style Sheet editor. Here's a pic of it's window with one of the tabs open:

Next within NVu is a nice publishing utility which will post your pages along with all of it's contents to the web site of your choice. I gave it a try with this issue of the Stall Wall and every file, photo, link etc. uploaded to my site in an instant, completely and flawlessly. The Icon in the toolbar brings you to a two tabbed window for inputing your information to get your pages up on your site. Here's a couple of pics:

Of course, I always make good use of a spell checker and NVu doesn't disappoint in this category. You can set NVu to check your spelling 'on the fly' and if you're like me, you'll end up with all kinds of nice red lines under your spelling mistakes. Right click on the word and the menu gives you suggestions or allows you to add this new word to your dictionary. You can also do a complete check of the page all at once if you prefer.

Does It Work.....
I have found that NVu works so well, I have decided to use this program exclusively for my web pages and have put their logo on my index page just to prove it. I still prefer to use Filezilla for my ftp uploading and downloading, but I have found that their ftp utility built into NVu is very handy when I make a simple correction on only one page and I don't want to open another program to upload it. A couple of click, and the job is done.

Uninstall.....
Taking NVu out of you're computer is performed through the 'add/remove program' area in control panel. The uninstall for NVu does not remove the directory. You'll have to do that manually.

Problems......
I have found none however, since the program is promoted as being for individuals who are basically new to web page design, I would have liked to see a more in depth help file to assist in the aspect. Even if you've had a bit of experience using a word processor or desktop publishing program however, you'll be the master of your own web site in no time!

In Closing ..........
Well, what else can I say? It's PricelessWare! Need I say more!? :)

NVu by Various Contributors	Home Page	NVu is a great web page editor which incorporates WYSIWYG along with spell checking, publishing controls and an excellent interface!
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