Another element of HTML-Kit's flexibility is its integration
with HTML Tidy. Tidy is a tool worthy of its own review, but briefly
it's a utility for analyzing and correcting errors in HTML files. Tidy
can generate a list of errors and automatically clean up the offending
files.
But Tidy isn't just for fixing bad HTML. Using the bundled
Tidy plug-in, you can convert an HTML document to XHTML or XML with a
mouse click. Tidy analyzes your document, adds the appropriate XML or
XHTML wrappers, and displays the output in a second window. If there
are still problems, HTML-Kit displays hints on how to correct them.
On the Downside ...
... HTML-Kit is slow to start because the app uses custom
plug-ins to build the toolbar at start up. There's no documentation
included with either the editor or the Plug-in Generator -- it's all at
the program's Web site. And, unfortunately for those who've cast off
the shackles of Microsoft, HTML-Kit is only available for Windows. I
know a couple of people who have managed to get HTML-Kit running under
Linux, but haven't tried doing that myself.
Summing Up
HTML-Kit offers Web authors a powerful and flexible
environment for spinning Web content.
It's not the be all, end all of HTML editors, but then again what is?
But it does pack more than enough power and features to satisfy the
needs of all but the most jaded Web authors. HTML-Kit has found a
permanent home on the hard drive of my Windows notebook computer. I
can't think of any higher praise than that for a piece of software.