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Product Evaluation - Namo WebEditor 2006 Suite
As with most people today we link too much of the world via the Internet no matter where we happen to be located. Having a web site is a necessity for virtually all businesses and organizations plus penetration into the individual user continues to accelerate. Some ISP sites do offer a simple personal or business web page but most desire something more sophisticated. The pervasiveness of eCommerce is a further driver for the growth in sites on the web but options for easy to site creation tools had not kept
pace with the increasing number of novices desiring to create their own web pages or eCommerce sites.
In the past, creating/authoring a web site was left to the professionals or the sophisticated computer users for both corporate and individual sites. With the emergence of easy to use and effective authoring tools, the universe now extends to the relative novice to design their web, blogging, and in many instances specialty eCommerce sites. We have tested and used a variety of tools to create sites in the past but the results were never quite satisfactory. Our continuing research indicated an easy to
use tool to create, edit, publish and manage a web site seemed just out of reach for the typical user. The available suites tended to be complex.
In our travels to a variety of trade shows (CES being on of the key events each year), we noted the namo WebEditor 2006 Suite from SJ Namo, INC. of San Jose, CA and wished to evaluate the Suite for it appeared to be extremely comprehensive from web site authoring, Blog posting, code helpers, XHTML formatting, calculating values in a table, visual aids, a quick tag editor, drawing on an image and a host of other features that provide significant utility to the users. In additional to the functionality
provided, a one year domain name is include plus 90 days web hosting at namohosting.com, and the ability to download over 2400 free templates to the software program. It almost seemed to good to be true especially if a relative novice could navigate through the suite and generate the desired results. (We must state we do have some familiarity with the Namo product via prior testing and use of namo¡¯s Webeditor5.)
Set-up
Our test bed was a laptop running Windows XP Home Service Pak2, Pentium 4 @ 1.70 GHz, and 384 MB RAM to be reflective of potential individual users. We did not drop down to the minimum recommended RAM of 256 MB. This was the lowest featured computer available for the testing. As with our customary practice, a restore point was created before the software installation. We set out to test the suite with several users of varying skill levels (intermediate to experienced) to reflect the potential authoring tool
users. However, we excluded the "professional" level user.
The user manual included with the package was very clear. We personally like the hard copy manual for reference versus a CD. The installation from the CD was uneventful. In a few minutes, the program was installed and ready to use.
Feature/Functionality Testing
Our evaluation methodology is to use real time conditions and experience levels as much as possible to create the initial web site designs.
In preparation, we worked our way through the manual exploring the following elements of the 2006 Suite. (Yes, we do read the instructions.)
1. The visual authoring environment to become familiar with the windows, tools, and layout guides.
2. Set and configured our preferences (The only difficult part was selection of preferences).
3. Working with documents and local sites.
4. Using layout boxes and frames, using layers and so forth.
We then perused the balance of the manual to complete our familiarization before beginning any authoring/editing/publishing efforts.
When we were comfortable with the software, we defined our proposed site¡¯s folder and logical structures. We then began creating a local site using the 4 step wizard. We selected the wizard approach rather than scratch for the initial build, for the site would only have 12-14 pages.
The wizard approach was amazingly straightforward.
(1) The Template was selected. The site tree allowed quick manipulation of the nodes until the desired structure was achieved.
(2) The Theme was chosen for a list and previewed until the preferred visual was selected.
(3) The requested Information was prompted and entered into the appropriate boxes. Forgetting to click "Save" necessitated re-entry of the information.
(4) The last stage was Publishing to a defined remote site. In this case, a local server we use for testing in the network.
(5) We clicked "Finish" and had our first web site in view.
Note: A second run through halved the design time.
We now expanded our web site size to approximately 24 pages and moved to "Creating an empty local site". To establish what the increase in difficulty might be for the user. We expanded the site¡¯s folder and logical structures and then merely followed the instructions in the manual and screens. It became more intuitive as we gained experience with the program. No serious problems were encountered moving step to step in the process was almost mechanical. Addition of dynamic page banners, navigation
bars, and trees took a bit of time during the build. This was primarily due to selection of clip art and modifying the dynamics until we were satisfied with the output.
Of key interest as we perused the user manual was Section 5 - Spicing up your site. The ability for the non-professional to add multimedia objects, Smart Clip Art, Flash Buttons, JavaScript effects, and adding interactive features is a tool that most may forgo on the initial build for time reasons to get a site published. We proceeded through the section adding the enhanced functionality to one of our builds. Again, we found the process very straightforward and encountered no serious problems that were not
of our own making. The typical intermediate user should have little difficulty in using all the desires features.
With the ease the WebEditor provides to add such functionality, we hypothesize most experienced individual users will begin to add a number of the features in a relatively short time. Businesses on the other hand will utilize them in the initial builds given the ease of use. We would anticipate that the users will acquire the FreeMotion 2006 at some point to complement the WebEditor.
Time was expended moving through all the new (1-8) and the improved (9-18) features included in the suite and listed below.
(1) Code helpers - Like the quick select menus
(2) Quick Tag Editor - Great simplification for editing
(3) Drawing on an Image - Solves a key problem in editing visuals with an easy to use dialog
(4) XHTML - Being fully standards compliant resolves many prior issues
(5) BLOG Posting - Simple to use and addressing an exploding market place. Many individual may use the suite for the Web Site Wizard and the Blog posting capabilities. Very nice feature.
(6) Visual Aids - A vital tool to simplify operation in the Edit mode.
(7) Calculating Values in a Table - Inserting the results into another cell works well
(8) Tracing Image - Very useful in the document layouts.
(9) Photo Album - With the ever pervasive digital cameras and cameras in cell phones, we expect this feature will be heavily used by individuals.
(10) Tag selector - The increased command availability reduced the design times.
(11) CSS - Changes are helpful but did not use very often.
(12) Changing Sizes Units of Tables and Layers - Helpful in eCommerce applications
(13) Empowered Tag Cleanup - Solved a problem previously encountered.
(14) Improved File Support - Very helpful since imports from MS Office occurs frequently
(15) Site Library - Helpful
(16) PRE Tags - Good to have the choice of element vs. paragraph
(17) Default Name Extension - Usually default to HTML
(18) Syntax Highlighting - Helpful.
Commentary
We found the software easy to understand and use. Authoring a web site proceeded quickly and met our desired results. We are in complete agreement with the company¡¯s statement - "By providing tools to easily create profitable websites, Namo WebEditor 2006 suite empowers both business and individuals with independence."
We do have one complaint (smiling) about the suite. At the keyboard, it becomes nearly addictive when using the initial elements to create a web site and then a blog. The programs are so easy to use, one just moves to the next area and capability to see how applicable it may be to you. As a result, it was difficult to share the computer for testing.
Overall, in our evaluation, the WebEditor 2006 Suite performed as advertised and actually exceeded our expectations for ease of use. Three keys for us are (a) Simplicity and ease of use, (b) The breadth of functionality included in the package with seamless interaction between areas, and (c) The minimal number of problems (user generated in all cases) encountered during our testing of the features. We cannot state there will be no problems encountered by any of the potential users but, if there are,
Namo¡¯s Free 24/7 Phone Tech Support (according to the marketing materials not the manual) is there to provide whatever assistance is needed. The amazing aspect is that the Suite has a suggested retail price of $99.95 (even less with the upgrade rebate) which is within reach of virtually all individual users and reaches an interesting signatory level in businesses for a company purchase.
We highly recommend the WebEditor Suite 2006 for use by both the casual (intermediate) and sophisticated computer users for web site authoring to create dynamic, highly functional, and sophisticated sites.
Company U.S. Headquarters (World Headquarters are in Seoul, Korea) :
SJ Namo, INC.
3003 North First Street
San Jose, CA 95134
www.namo.com
Ed Poshkus
Technology Editor
Jeri Trippe
Editor
The opinions expressed are solely those of the author.
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