HTML Editor Reviews | Reviews and Discussion of (X)HTML Coding Tools

Review: WeBuilder 2006

WeBuilder 2006 is the latest version of Blumentals’ all-in-one web code editor. Currently, WeBuilder is my editor of choice, as I work primarily with XHTML, CSS, and PHP. I moved to WeBuilder from TopStyle 3 (which I’ll review at a later date), and the change was not at all difficult since WeBuilder and TopStyle have similar layouts, menus, and functionality. WeBuilder, however, is a bit more functional for my needs, featuring an integrated PHP editor and easy-to-use HTML tools (e.g., the ability to create lists at the press of a button or create tables using a simple interface).

Things I Like

• Document tabs/taskbar, which allows you to open multiple documents in the editor and easily switch between them.
• Very nice MS Word-style interface and the ability to customize your workspace.
• Customizable keyboard shortcuts.
• Bracket highlighting.
• Code syntax highlighting for PHP, (X)HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, VBSCRIPT, ASP, XML, PERL, SQL.
• Code auto complete and code insight, which make typing out code a bit faster.
• The ability to select a “column” of text by pressing CRTL+ALT and selecting the text with the mouse.
• Built-in live preview (Internet Explorer and Firefox), so you don’t have to open an external browser to test your pages.
• Multiple item clipboard!
• Code library, which allows you to create and save snippets of code you can reuse in multiple projects/documents.
• SQL database explorer, which allows you to view the contents of a database.
• Integration with online/local PHP documentation, allowing you to easily look up specific PHP functions/keywords.
• Built-in HTML 4.0 reference.
• Built-in CSS reference.
• WeBuilder is less than a 5MB download, which is great if you’re on a dial-up connection.
• Frequent product updates and improvements.
• Very good support forum.
• Excellent price for such a robust piece of software — you can’t go wrong for under $50 US.

Gripes

• Find in Files (using the “Display Detailed Results” option) sometimes doesn’t work when the search term shows up multiple times within a single file.

Wish List

• Draggable tabs, so that you can reorder the documents on the taskbar.
• CSS Colour Palette Editor (similar to that of TopStyle 3), which would allow you to see a visual of all the colours in a CSS file and allow you to edit them.
• The ability to convert multiple selected lines of code to paragraphs, divs, etc. (ala TopStyle 3).
• The ability to easily import/export syntax colouring “themes.”

Overall

WeBuilder 2006 is a great piece of software, and I’m happy to have found it. Blumentals seems to work tirelessly to improve this product, frequently releasing updates and acknowledging user requests for support and features. My only gripe is the Find in Files bug, and my overall wish list for this program is very small. Should this bug be addressed and features added, I wouldn’t have a need for any other editor on my system.

29 Comments

1. I have found this to be the best editor that I have used so far. I have tried both open source and mucho pricey editors and this one STILL won out as far as I am concerned. If you are in the market for a solid program, this is the way to go.

   Comment by Kevin Richard — June 28, 2006 @ 10:35 pm

2. It’s just an excelent! With the lately added UTF8 support, internal Firefox preview and some other features, it just stands out in the crowd. I’ve been using HTMLPad and now Webuilder from the early days – I guess some 5 or 6 years now and I must say it’s being developed in a very overthought manner. Excelent job done by the developers!

   Comment by Kewl — July 6, 2006 @ 6:24 am

3. I’ve been using this software for two years and I think it is really the best you can get. Furthermore, the developer is carefully listening to the users suggestions: I personally asked for three new features and got all of them at the first update! Forgive my bad English: it is not my natural language.

   Comment by Matteo — July 10, 2006 @ 11:12 am

4. I bought WeBuilder some time ago, and it’s absolutely worth the money. Easy to use and stable.

   Comment by Borstenson — August 2, 2006 @ 8:55 am

5. Well this is the first time I am hearing about it might as well take it for a spin…..Lol

   Comment by Arpit Jacob — August 4, 2006 @ 5:43 am

6. It’s a coding weapon of choice. Once you try it – you won’t go back to whatever you were using before.

   Comment by bandrej — October 20, 2006 @ 3:18 am

7. @bandrej tested webuilder, but went back to my homesite – olden but olden! (in my personal opion webuilder is overrated!) Gorky

   Comment by Gorky — October 22, 2006 @ 5:58 am

8. @Gorky A lot of people like Homesite; too bad it seems to have died at Macromedia’s hands. Re: WeBuilder: I guess it’s a matter of personal preference. As I’ve said before, I rate the editors based on a rubric of my own needs. Thanks for the comment!

   Comment by Eric — October 22, 2006 @ 10:12 am

9. I did try the new vers. 8 alpha – it looks very impressive , very homesite like in layout and also with cse validator integration now. Just two things missing for the perfect editor: 1) homesite like tag-controls: edit current tag in homesite show a control-window with current settings, which you can re-edit. in webuilder you cant. 2) sftp , not just simple plain ftp Gorky p.s. @eric: homesite seems to be dead, but topstyle seems to be definitly dead – even when updateing with win32hlp.exe you cant get the help running under vista and the support-forum on the newsgator-website just says you can open the help manually – so its time to move …

   Comment by Gorky — April 3, 2007 @ 3:44 pm

10. Thanks for a nice review and also thanks for constructive comments. We have released WeBuilder 2007 a couple of days ago and although we did not manage to cover all of your wonderful suggestions, some of them are in place. What is more, almost all of your other suggestions have been added to the road-map as well, so things like secure FTP and color manager should become available in the future.

    Comment by Karlis — May 12, 2007 @ 9:32 am

11. Hey, thanks for all the reviews of HTML editing software… I have been using Notepad++ and PSPad for my web design but have felt like I need something more and I have always had a hard time finding web editors that are powerful but no WYSIWYG editiors… Anyway they now have WinBuilder 2008 and I am just curious if you have tried it out and could update or post a new review?

    Comment by Nori Silverrage — July 11, 2008 @ 7:11 am

12. @Nori Webuilder2008 has a lot of new features: e.g. sftp-support, code-snippets with variables, right-click-editing similar to Homesite go to http://www.blumentals.net they have a trybeforebuy-version online for testing

    Comment by Gorki — July 11, 2008 @ 11:15 am

13. Well I tried it out and ended up buying it and I must say I am impressed. For such a lightweight editor it packs a lot of punch and is just what I’m looking for.

    Comment by Nori Silverrage — July 23, 2008 @ 8:10 am

14. Fatal flaw: No WYSIWYG.

    Comment by Yuri — September 16, 2008 @ 10:40 am

15. ad Yuri, this is by design , no flaw :-) “WYSWYN (what you see is what you need)” (“invented” by homesite)

    Comment by Gorki — September 16, 2008 @ 12:57 pm

16. Agreed. It’s just about the perfect editor. Been using it for 3 years and now and I continue to be in love with it. ;)

    Comment by Mohsin — September 22, 2008 @ 11:21 pm

17. @Yuri Not having WYSIWYG is not a fatal flaw. Its not a flaw at all. It just adds bloat and screws up code. I for one will never use a WYSIWYG editor and I think a lot of web developers would agree with me. Anyway, it is a awesome editor and I just keep finding more and more stuff to like about it. Plus they keep adding more features and actually listen to users and what they want.

    Comment by Nori Silverrage — October 2, 2008 @ 2:05 pm

18. I have used WYSIWYG editors (NetObjects Fusion, Adobe GoLive) up until I discovered WeBuilder 2008. Since then I’ve been doing all my work with WeBuilder and actually learning XHTML, CSS, and Javascript for the first time.

    Comment by Steve M. — October 4, 2008 @ 10:42 pm

19. I’ve been using it for some years now and is the best Web Editor i’ve used. It’s worth much more than it costs. The only problem with Blumenthals is that their customer service is very poor. For instance i lost my install key and emailed them for a replacement about 6 weeks ago. To date i have got no reply from them. Nonetheless their excellent product and it’s affordability will still make me patronise them.

    Comment by Bola Owoade — October 6, 2009 @ 7:48 am

20. I’m adding this as Google fodder so the poor souls wandering the web looking for a Homesite replacement might find it. Webuilder 2010 is so similar to Homesite that I am comfortable with it after just a fortnight, despite having used Homesite for about 12 years. I tried a dozen alternatives but they just weren’t right. Webuilder has most of the stuff that mattered in Homesite (and some extra). I’m a pig in mud. If you are trying to find a Homesite replacement, try Webuilder. And it runs without crashing on Vista and W7.

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