WeBuilder 2010 - My Top 10 Feature Requests

[kfury77]

I've been a big fan of WeBuilder (and previously HTMLPad) for several years. I use it every single day and I'm looking forward to WeBuilder 2010. Here are my top 10 feature requests:

1. HTML5 tags support (with auto-complete, tag hints, inspector support)

2. I often right-click an image and select "update IMG size". Is there a way of this working on non-local based images (eg. http://www.domain.com/image.jpg) - this would be useful.

3. When I'm editing XML, I can't insert special characters. I wish the insert characters panel was still available and if I selected a special character it would insert the correct XML code for the character

4. Ability to hide preview pane options for certain file types (for example; I never, ever need preview pane for ASP or PHP files, but use it for CSS and HTM)

5. Improved CSS Compress function. would be good if it converted HTML hex values such as #ffffff to fff# and also removing the final ";" from each CSS declaration and remove all unnecessary whitespace.

6. I always have automatic spellcheck on, but if I comment out some code it shows valid HTML tags and code as spelling mistakes (eg HREF, DIV, TD etc are underlined in red). This is a bit annoying. Can you please either add all valid tags to the built in spell-checker, or, don't spell-check commented code.

7. CSS3 support (with auto-complete, tag hints, inspector support)

8. On startup check for new versions automatically once per week

9. In the preview window have ability to select IE8 or IE7

10. In the preview window for Firefox, have ability to view Firebug add-on, or Chris Pedericks' (excellent) Web Developer Toolbar (or if its impossible to integrate a Firefox add-on, then simply copy some of the ideas (option to switch on/off images, outline divs, outline table cells, etc etc)

[EvilBMP]

1. HTML5 tags support (with auto-complete, tag hints, inspector support)

Sure, that would be nice ... but I think there are other features, which imho should have a higher priority... This gets more and more interesting, as newer browser versions are going to support HTML5

3. When I'm editing XML, I can't insert special characters. I wish the insert characters panel was still available and if I selected a special character it would insert the correct XML code for the character

I totally agree in that point. It would be even better, if the chars get replaced by their entities as you type! I often need to write in xml language files - this would be a much more easier then!

4. Ability to hide preview pane options for certain file types (for example; I never, ever need preview pane for ASP or PHP files, but use it for CSS and HTM)

Partly agree here, the preview panes should be disabled where they make no sense ... like css, sql,... files. But on files that could render an output, I really like this feature ... especially if I want to test a PHP code snippet, without saving it into a dummy test file!

5. Improved CSS Compress function. would be good if it converted HTML hex values such as #ffffff to fff# and also removing the final ";" from each CSS declaration and remove all unnecessary whitespace.

You should use external libraries for that ... the wheel shouldn't be invented twice or more imho. Have a look at the google minify script ( click) - it offers nice features like gzip compression / server side caching, to reduce requests and compress the data.

7. CSS3 support (with auto-complete, tag hints, inspector support)

see 1.

8. On startup check for new versions automatically once per week

Agree!

9. In the preview window have ability to select IE8 or IE7

10. In the preview window for Firefox, have ability to view Firebug add-on, or Chris Pedericks' (excellent) Web Developer Toolbar (or if its impossible to integrate a Firefox add-on, then simply copy some of the ideas (option to switch on/off images, outline divs, outline table cells, etc etc)

Totally disagree, this would overload the preview pane ... sorry to be impolite - but did you already think about a second monitor This solves the problem for me @work And to test your code in different browsers I would suggest using virtual machines! You can get each of the current browser versions as a VM executable from the company Xenocode ... pls have a look ( click)

Just my two cents

Greets, Evil

[chrisjlocke]

4. Ability to hide preview pane options for certain file types (for example; I never, ever need preview pane for ASP or PHP files, but use it for CSS and HTM)

Thats what the 'Code Editor' tab is for, isn't it?

and also removing the final ";" from each CSS declaration and

Why? Seems a lot of effort to code something like that for no real benefit.

9. In the preview window have ability to select IE8 or IE7

WOuldn't that depend on what version you've actually got installed?

10. In the preview window for Firefox, have ability to

The Firefox preview is a third party control, and an out-dated one at that. You can't integrate anything into it.

PS: Edited the topic title to include the word 'My'. I think it looked too official before, and people thought it was the top 10 feature requests. Maybe.

[syrupcore]

... or, don't spell-check commented code.

please don't do this! the only place I used the spell checker is longer code comment blocks! :)

[CaliforniaJerry]

Please also take a look at my 14 Ultimate Feature Requests.