By Jay Arcos
MacDirectory
New Media Director
If you have been thinking about creating your own web site but don't know how, NetObjects Fusion may be the answer to all your questions. NetObjects Fusion is a true integrated tool to build and manage your web site painlessly.
As an HTML author I tend to dislike WYSIWYG tools and page generation applications, simply because in most cases you still have to go back to the HTML code and re-write some of it. Well, not with NetObjects Fusion.
"NetObjects Fusion is designed for users with a broad range of experience levels who need an efficient, reliable way to build professional quality Internet and intranet sites."
NetObjects Fusion is different from other web page generators because it is a "site oriented" application, which means that you can actually manage entire web sites altogether, as opposed to "page oriented" applications that only enable you to deal with individual pages.
To have a presence on the web, your initial thoughts would be to put together a group of professionals such as an HTML author, graphic designer, CGI programmer, administrator and/or webmaster. With NetObjects Fusion you have a software application that will do all this work and more.
Features
Site View
After you install the program (see system requirements), you will be presented with an initial window to create a new web site. You can choose from a list of pre-defined templates including: Company Internet or Intranet, Marketing Department, Online Publishing, Product Catalog and more. Or you can create your own site structure.
The first thing to do is define the structure of your site. Start with a home page that will branch out into the rest of the pages of your site. This is as easy as clicking on the new page button. Connecting them is as simple as drag and drop, all the links are updated simultaneosly (love this feature) so you don't have to worry about going to each page to change hyperlink tags.
Style View
Next you should define the style of your site. There are 50 styles to choose from the SiteStyles feature, and you can add your own or modify existing styles. This will eliminate the need for a graphic designer, since these style sheets come with predefined banner titles, menu buttons, text colors, etc.
Page View
Once you define the style, simply start to develope the content of your pages. NetObjects Fusion allows you to include text, graphic files, sound, video or play with the Java Applets and Shockwave elements (don't miss the chicken choker sound file!). You can also include forms to collect data from your clients or visitors with the included Form-Handler CGI, which essentially eliminates the need for a programmer as well.
Preview and Publish
Once you create your pages and are ready to publish, simply preview the site. Make sure all the links and files are working and you are ready to send your newly created site to your server. NetObjects Fusion will contact your FTP server automatically and send all the files and folders needed to start serving your site.
Assets View
You may think that this would be it for a program valued on $495 (suggested street price), well not quite, we still have to kill the administrator and/or webmaster. NetObjects Fusion has another feature called "Assets", which allows you to correct links, graphics or any element on your site with a click of your mouse. You can modify one asset in all the pages it's contained in at once. Let's say you have a graphic placed on 3 pages of your site, well, you don't have to correct the graphic on each page, simply select that asset and make the modification. All 3 pages will automatically update. Kewl!, we just killed the administrator and or webmaster too.
Technical Support
These people know what they are doing, you not only get free technical support online at http://www.netobjects.com/html/support.html , but also by phone, and let me tell you, this may be one of the fastest answering technical support staffs for the Mac (sorry but Apple's tech support is pretty slow).
It took exactly 1 min and 37 secs for someone to answer my call, and to my surprise the person not only knew the program inside and out but also knew what I was talking about. FYI, I wanted to know how to add META tags and Refresh tags into my documents and her answer was right on target. I got my answer right away, so I was off the phone within two minutes, and if it took me longer it was because the support-girl was really nice and I decided to chat with her for a little longer (sorry to other users waiting on line, but this is addictive).
NetObjects Fusion 2.0 Sneak Preview
A new version of NetObjects Fusion is coming up soon, you can download the Beta version from ftp://ftp.netobjects.com/pub/m20/beta/
Key New Features
- Site Import
- MasterBorders
- AutoFrames
- NetObjects components
Site Import Lets you use NetObjects Fusion to import and enhance some or all of an existing site (either local or Web-based), allowing you to leverage investments in current sites as well as reducing the resources required for ongoing site maintenance.
MasterBorders Allows you to define standard page borders containing text, graphics (such as company logos) or functional elements (buttons, for example) and apply them across your entire site or within selected sections to promote a consistent look and feel or facilitate user navigation.
AutoFrames Provides an extremely easy way to create a frames-based Web site -- which allows for easy, flexible user navigation -- simply by converting any predefined MasterBorder into a frame.
NetObjects Fusion components Offers the option of adding any of a variety of sophisticated interactive features to your Web site through a simple drag-and-drop procedure. NetObjectsFusion 2.0 now includes components that offer the following functionality:
- A fully threaded message board
- A CGI script that facilitates the handling of Web-based forms
- A Java application that makes it easy to create a helpful site map Java-based buttons that provide ongoing interaction to site visitors Java-based applets for displaying -- and even rotating -- images
- To augment these and other already available components, NetObjects intends to provide an API that will enable third parties to create their own components to provide additional functionality to NetObjects Fusion.
System Requirements
Hardware
- Power Macintosh or 100% compatible (Power Macintosh 8100 or greater recommended)
- 256-color capable display
- available hard disk space, depending on the kind of installation you intend to perform:
- 10 MB for a minimum installation
- 60 MB for a complete installation
- 16 MB of total physical RAM (24MB recommended) with 8MB available for NetObjects Fusion
Software
- Macintosh Operating System 7.1.2 or greater (System 7.5 recommended)
- Web browser software
- Netscape Navigator 2.01 or later
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.1 or later
- Other HTML 3.x-compliant browsers
- TCP/IP compliance using MacTCP or Open Transport for remote FTP publishing
So, If this is so great, why didn't you rate it as "Awesome"?
Good question. I think the product is excellent, but if you are an experienced HTML author and like the flexibility of writing and controlling your own code, you definitely won't need NetObjects Fusion. If you are managing and creating a web site that is going to develop into a huge project with shopping carts, additional features, then NetObjects Fusion still falls short. However, if you are a small shop that wants to create a really cool and full-functioning web site, then NetObjects Fusion is the way to go
Pricing NetObjects Fusion 1.0 Street Price $495 NetObjects Fusion 1.0 (+ 2,0 upgrade) Special offer for MacDirectory users* $425 2.0 Upgrade Free for 1.0 users *To take advantage of this special offer place your order by phone 1-888-449-6400 and reference "9Mac1" as your code for pricing.
If you need additional information on NetObjects Fusion, go to http://www.netobjects.com
Special Thanks to Leigh Ann Bischoff for making this review possible.
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