IWR review of SoftQuad XMetaL2.0

Reviewer's Details

Philip J. Hunter, Information Officer, The UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN).

p.j.hunter@ukoln.ac.uk, http://www.ukoln.ac.uk

Introduction

SoftQuad's XMetaL 2.0 is its latest XML Editor. On the box it is described as 'the premier XML content enabler'. This suggests that the application is a bit more than an editing interface. XML looks like becoming the premier way for institutions to mark-up their text resources for both intranets and the internet. With re-use and interoperability in mind, information managers should be looking to upgrade their tools so that they can manage XML content: SoftQuad is targetting this part of the market with XMetaL 2.0.

Quality of Content

Like its HTML predecessor HoTMetaL, the software offers three document views, (Tag, source, and WYSWYG), multiple document views, context sensitive property inspectors. The user interface has customizable toolbars. The Resource Manager provides drag and drop management of boilerplate text, document fragments, macros, etc. The default layout shows in the left pane the structural tree for the opened document, the document itself in the central pane, (unlike HoTMetaL), and the list of available elements in the right hand pane. The software will open a number of different document markups, and prompts the user to select the DTD or rules document against which the structure can be validated.

Software Details

XMetaL has a number of quick productivity enhancements - you can create an XML content creation environment by specifying the type of display for documents and the behaviour of the application: essentially creating profiled views of the document creation environment for a variety of skill levels. It is possible to specify how your document will be displayed in XMetaL's authoring view. For instance, for Cascading Style Sheets, it is possible to set the most common style properties - such as indicating that crossheadings should be centered and rendered in Arial, using XMetaL's Quick Styles dialog option. There is of course a full CSS editor which allows all aspects of styling to be specified. XMetaL also supports semantic tables to display elements in a tabular structure.

The insertion of new tags can be handled using the Customization editor. Content tags which regularly come in sequence in custom documents can be made available together as a logical sequence, in much the same way as it is possible to sequence one style following another in Microsoft Word. It is also possible to choose author-created styles from a drop-down list.

The XMetaL Resource Manager is an extensible, drag-and-drop object management repository, allowing access to reusable content (images, text, etc) with completely customizable options. These 'assets' can be customized for each DTD used in document creation. XMetaL also has a macro scripting facility: these recorded macro scripts can be edited and assigned to keyboard shortcuts, toolbar buttons and menu items.

Customizations can be deployed across a whole organization - the customization components can be gathered together in a folder, and once setup is run, the customization layer is installed for the new user. The distribution can be mounted on a network or on a CD-ROM, according to institutional requirements.

Ease of Use

In terms of useability the software is an improvement on versions of HoTMetaL before version 5.0, because it is customisable in a way HoTMetaL never was, and it is easier to understand why it does what it does. As a way of easing users into rigorously structured document development, it may be a good option, since it can be used as a general mark-up tool for existing requirements, to code a variety of different kinds of page - from flavours of HTML through XHTML to full XML.

Value for Money

Cost of XMetaL 2.0 Full Version: USD $495.00. This is a competitive price for a serious content generating tool for the Web, which may become a standard workhorse for many institutions. There is an XMetaL 2.0 upgrade pricing for registered users with a maintenance contract (USD $75). Upgrade pricing for registered users without a maintenance contract is USD $195.00. Certified educational institutions can take advantage of the special educational price of USD $249.00 (plus S&H). There is also a Competitive Upgrade Program for those currently using another XML editor, such as Arbortext Adept, Arbortext Epic FrameMaker+ SGML WordPerfect plus SGML XML Spy or Stilo

Conclusion

The product is quite different from some of its competitors such as WordPerfect plus SGML or Adobe's FrameMaker+SGML. In some ways Xmetal looks like a product evolving in two directions simultaneously, and managing the balance pretty well. On the one hand it is a development of SGML editing tools which were designed to be used by specialists or enthusiasts who learned to adapt to the 'clunkiness' of a very useful tool; and on the other, it seems to be aimed at those users - mainly corporations and educational institutions - now moving into structured document creation for the web.

PJH 27 October 2000