Falling in love with Fusion

I liked Microsoft Corp.’s FrontPage, but I love NetObjects, Inc.’s Fusion.

FrontPage made me feel like I had a capable tool for Web site creation. Fusion makes me feel like I can do anything.

Well, almost anything. This Web site development and management application isn’t suited for sites that require interactive database access or electronic commerce applications. But if you want a tool that enables you to quickly create and modify sites, even change a variety of looks with just a click or two, I’ve seen nothing that beats NetObjects’ Fusion. While its features are overkill for the casual user who manages only a handful of pages on a single Web site, Fusion will quickly become indispensable for real Webmasters.

With Fusion, you begin by designating a site template, which specifies the kinds of pages and the location of elements on each page. You can also import an existing site. If you choose to import, you must decide whether to bring the files in to Fusion, thereby changing their layout, or keep track of them as external HTML files. You can edit external HTML files from within Fusion by specifying any HTML editor in the Preferences menu.

Each page’s appearance is controlled by what NetObjects calls “styles,” which define the look of banners, buttons, backgrounds and text (see Figure 1). Dozens of supplied styles can give your site a look that ranges from button-down to whimsical to avant-garde. And if you don’t find exactly what you want, creating your own style is simple.

Each page in a site comes with elements that tell you how to modify them (see Figure 2). For example, a Jobs page for a corporate site comes with an employment overview, a list of open positions and instructions for submitting a resume. You simply change the supplied text to suit your needs. You can also move sections around to suit your aesthetic sensibilities.

Fusion has tools for adding tables, forms, multimedia, Java or ActiveX to your pages. There’s even a built-in spell checker. If you want to present data from an external database, you can easily create a data list with elements from any Open Database Connectivity database, although no tools allow you to update the database files. You can, however, use a short data list as a table of contents that points to more detailed information on a given item.

Fusion can use variables to customize pages. You can specify a variable in multiple page layouts and change their appearance all at once by editing the value in a single place. For example, you could specify a corporate division in a variable name and use the same design for multiple divisions. Fusion produces straight HTML code, unlike Microsoft’s WebBots, which require proprietary extensions on the Web server.

A site management view lets you see your entire site hierarchy, down as many levels as you specify. Fusion also can automatically publish your site locally or remotely and will ship it to a staging area first so you can try navigating through it before releasing it to the world. During the publishing process, Fusion can generate HTML comments that outline where various parts of each page start and end in the code and create a site map.

Fusion’s user interface is eminently logical. I tried working with it before I read the manuals, which consist of a thin “Getting Started” book and a slightly thicker “User Guide.” I got the hang of things in no time by clicking on different buttons and menus. For a more comprehensive resource, you can turn to Web Designer’s Guide to NetObjects Fusion 2 (Hayden, $39.99, www.mcp.com) or NetObjects Fusion 2 (Sams.net, $39.99, www.mcp.com).

Page design is near-WYSIWYG, and Fusion lets you preview in Netscape Communications Corp.’s Navigator or Internet Explorer with a single click.

It would be nice if NetObjects didn’t feel compelled to put its company logo at the bottom of some pages or if it let you put your own logo there. But I should not quibble – for $695, NetObjects Fusion is the best Web development tool I’ve worked with to date.