WestCiv StyleMaster - CSS Made Easy
Jun 22 '04 (Updated Jul 06 '04)
The Bottom Line StyleMaster is a great way to code CSS quickly and easily, and offers awesome tools for new users.
note: this review has some fairly advanced terminology related to CSS-coding for the web. I tried to make it generic enough for new users to understand (since this program is great for people starting out in creating their own sites), but I apologize for the length and breadth of the review in advance.
As a web designer, I've gone through the stages of compentancy: I started learning basic HTML from HTML for Dummies and HotDog web software, then moved to Microsoft FrontPage which allowed me to add custom graphics, cool colors and more dynamic content (not to mention lots of proprietary code). Soon, I realized FrontPage's limitations and started doing more hand-coding, or at least using FrontPage to frame it out and fixing the code on the back end. I moved from FrontPage to Adobe GoLive, because it worked with Adobe PhotoShop/Adobe ImageReady. I eventually discovered that PhotoShop and ImageReady could do wondrous things with designs - suddenly, rollovers were a breeze and my designs looked great. But they were also graphic and time-intensive, upping my load times and requiring a lot of work to change. I started using Macromedia Dreamweaver, known to be the WYSIWYG editor which botched the code the least and had lots of features, quickly upgrading to Dreamweaver MX when it was available.
Lately, I've jumped on the latest wave of web design mantra, web standards-compliant design, which most of the time means using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). I started designing using CSS through Dreamweaver MX to create my HTML and stylesheets. While Dreamweaver is good at HTML, the CSS programming is somewhat lacking (although Dreamweaver MX 2004 is supposedly MUCH better).
So, looking for a tool to quickly do the skeleton of my stylesheet, I tried the two leaders: WestCiv's STYLEMASTER and Bradley Software's TOPSTYLE. Although they both had their advantages, I found TopStyle to be too quirky - StyleMaster worked much better for me.
[ • software FEATURES • ]
StyleMaster is a WYSIWYG-style CSS editor. You can either use the windows to create your styles semi-manually using auto-fill, or by using the wizards that come included with the software. note: like most 'editors', I find that StyleMaster is a great program to develop your basic code, but tweaking is better done by hand.
» wizards
StyleMaster comes with 5 helpful wizards which take you step-by-step through the process of creating various CSS pieces or templates. You can start at the most basic with the NavBar Wizard, which walks you through the process of creating a great-looking and functional navigation toolbar. Customize the colors, font, borders and hover/rollver effects and then cut-and-paste or link to the page you want to install it on.
The Page Layout Wizard creates the basic framework for a new page - a good tool to create the CSS skeleton for a new page or site. Choose the number of columns, header and footer, then customize the colors, fonts, background and position/size of each. Finish the wizard and you have a CSS page and HTML coding ready for your text and images. These can be generated by the Basic Style Sheet Wizard gives you more power, letting you create great-looking pages quickly and easily in only a few quick steps. You create the size of the page and border size/color, the color and style of the links, the header and main text attributes and you're done. Quick and easy (but basic).
If you just want to format your links, use the Link Styles Wizard which will help generate professionaly looking hyperlinks - rollover and visited effects, changing background colors - and it creates very useful code to plop into a page. Lastly, StyleMaster offers a Bread Crumb Wizard, something that kind of surprised me. Bread Crumbs are code at the top of a page that shows how far one has navigated into a site, such as: Home > Writing > EPINIONS, giving users an easy way to back up a level if needed. The wizard does a great job at creating these and for helping you implement them into your page.
» Auto-Complete Coding
If you are little more familiar with HTML and CSS (or brave), or if you are like me and want to tweak the code generated, you can use StyleMaster's manual mode. In manual mode, you can tweak the settings of the HTML Attribute tags (such as <p>, <br>, and <hr> tags, for example). You can also create your own custom ID's or Classes for use in your page (ID's and classes allow you to put formatting on sections of text). You start by creating a new ID or class, naming it and then setting the properties. You can either use the Properties window to select the property (font, border, text-alignment, margins, etc.) and then change the variables (i.e. use the color chart to pick the color, select the number of the pixels in a margin, etc.). Alternately, you can type your own into the development area and StyleMaster will offer up suggestions to complete the code.
You can also use the Properties sidebar to select all of the attributes you want. This allows you to set all of the properties with prompts for relative variables. This offers a simple - if not necessarily quick - way to make sure that you set up your id or class with valid code. StyleMaster then allows you to preview your style/page within the program or in the browser of your choice.
» browser alerts
StyleMaster also offers a handy alert system to warn you of possible browser issues with your code. If you select a property that won't work in a certain browser, an alert icon shows up next to that browser in the Alert window. It does the same if you pick a variable within a property that isn't supported - a great way to help you avoid using code that will fail in certain browsers. It also helps you to keep track of whether your code is compliant with the CSS1 and/or CSS2 standards.
» browser preview
Once you are done, you can use StyleMaster to preview the new pages in each different browser through the Preview menu. Included are Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera and Mozilla - including Firefox - if you have them loaded on your computer.
» templates
StyleMaster also comes with 14 templates for you to use 'out of the box' as skeletons or develop into a full site using helpful prompts. I think that 8 of them are decent, but 1 or 2 are pretty awful. But for the new user they create quick and easy templates to build your site up - you can always go back and tweak them later. However, if you are going to do it right, I would use the Page Layout Wizard to create your own.
[ • how does it WORK • ]
For a beginner, this program would be a great help in learning to use/develop CSS. It walks you through the process, prompting you with appropriate selections and leaving little to chance while teaching you how the various properties, attributes and variables work. The helpful Contents palette offers up explanations and definitions to help you better understand what the property is and how you can change it. The templates and wizards are also well-done and will get a CSS site up and running fairly quickly. Even better, if you are like me and like to deconstruct sites, they will give you some valuable lessons in CSS design.
For those more familiar with HTML/CSS, the program is more of a cheat, a time-saver that gives you quick code. It isn't as much of a development tool, although you could use it for that if you wanted to save time creating sites and were going to do little customization beyond the basics. Having the WYSIWYG interface is helpful, but the user may find that it offers hints too often when you try to move quickly (of course, if you are hand-coding, you probably wouldn't use this). The wizards can be great to quickly generate code that you want to tweak - I use them constantly for quick nav bars. The alerts are also helpful when you wander into properties that you don't often use, helping keep your code compliant and design clean.
Overall, the program does a fairly good job of coding and creating useful stylesheets. It takes many time-intensive coding tasks and simplifies them, cutting your repetitive coding down to almost nothing and making site development more about design and less about tedium.
[ • needs IMPROVEMENT • ]
As I said, for experienced coders, doing hand-coding can be tiresome as your typing gets repeatedly pre-empted by the auto-formatting prompts. I'm sure that you could turn them off, but to be honest, I do most of my coding in notepad or Dreamweaver so I never bothered finding out how.
I have noticed a couple of weird coding things that bother me. One is that certain variables seem to be missing from your property choices (such as background:url()) and others seem to have limited choices for variables. The other thing is that when it generates the code, it has a tendency to leave off the final semi-colon in the style - technically it will work, but it's sloppy coding and bad practice. But those are minor things and not show-stoppers.
One thing that isn't a glitch but is something that I would love to have is the ability to include certain tweaks, hacks and work-arounds that are commonly used and accepted. Granted, they aren't technically in the CSS standard specs, so I can't fault WestCiv for not including them. But the ability to have a quick menu of common hacks (such as the infamous Box Model Hack for Internet Explorer) and other common methods that increase the ability of CSS to produce dynamic results. Again, I can understand why it isn't in there, but it could be a tremendous help.
[ • ordering STYLEMASTER • ]
You can try out StyleMaster FREE for 30 days at their site (see link below). If you like it, you can order the upgrade the existing installation through a payment via Kagi of $59.99. Or you can download the full version from the WestCiv site after purchasing through Kagi or PayPal. I had problems with Kagi, but PayPal worked fine.
[ • final THOUGHTS • ]
When I tried StyleMaster (and TopStyle), I was looking for a program to cut my repetitive coding down and help me do common tasks quickly - and StyleMaster succeeds at this. I can generate new nav bars or 2-column layout in seconds, and then tweak them as needed, saving me hours of time on a site.
For beginners, this program is a great way to learn how to code and use CSS, as well as move toward web-compliant coding. The program will help guide users along, and the wizards are invaluable to new users. Since I've started using StyleMaster, my production has increased dramatically. It's not perfect, but it is a great time-saver, educator and tool to help me get work done and create some great looking code to boot.
[ • for more INFORMATION • ]
Website: http://www.westciv.com/stylemaster/
Cost: $59.99
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Member: Marty
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