Tools of the Online Trade
Welcome to this first installment of Tools of the Online Trade.
The purpose of this column is to share valuable (and free)
resources for those engaged in online learning.
I hope as the AEQ Extra continues that you find these reviews helpful.
Arachnophilia 3.9 Build 5181
          Bill Stifler,   Chattanooga State Technical Community College
Arachnophilia is a customizable HTML and java-script editor. The
author, Paul Lutus of Port Hadlock, Washington, offers Arachnophilia
as Careware. The user receives the program in exchange for "caring,"
everything from doing a good deed to refusing to whine--a worthwhile
exchange for anyone. For more information, see Lutus' website at
http://www.arachnoid.com
I have used Arachnophilia as my default editor for several years now.
While Front Page and other programs offer WYSWIG HTML generation, I find
that I still prefer working at the command line. Maybe it is because of my
MSDOS command line roots, or maybe I just prefer the added flexibility that
working at the command level gives. In the fall of 1997, I took an online
course in web course development through Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN),
where I learned to use Front Page for the first time. While I like many of
the features of Front Page 97, especially the support for CGI, I find that
I still prefer Arachnophilia to the internal HTML editor provided
with Front Page. The Arachnophilia Help file includes a section on using
Arachnophilia with Front Page. I also use Arachnophilia to
"clean-up" documents that I have fast-formatted with my word-processor
(I use WordPerfect 8.0).
One of the nicest things about Arachnophilia for me is the ability
to create personalized toolbars that can paste in often-used commands or
sequences of text. Users can create Arachnophilia toolbars using
the toolbar editor available from the Tools option on the menu bar. I have
created toolbar buttons for mailto links as well as for pasting complicated
chunks of code. Another useful feature for me is the ability to make global
changes to all open documents. If I make a major change to my directory
structure, I can open all my files, then search for the old directory entry
and replace it with the new in all the open files. Other nice features
include automatic conversion of RTF documents to HTML format, the ability
to configure up to 26 keyboard macros, power undo, tag coloring, and an
option to beautify the script.
For new users, Arachnophilia includes tutorials for creating that
first web page while more experienced users can benefit from tutorials
on java-script.
If you are looking for a free HTML editor, I highly recommend Arachnophilia.
Major features
Open unlimited numbers of documents at once (depending on
system resources) and search all of them to make a change.
Drop RTF and Windows documents into Arachnophilia, and it
instantly converts them to HTML
Create toolbars and buttons for common, repetitive tasks.
Preview documents using the internal browser and up to six
external browsers.
Transfer files to a website using the built-in FTP.
Create file templates.
Review tutorials for HTML and java-script.
Analyze links using the built-in site analyzer.
Automatically copy resources used (such as graphic files)
to the same directory where files are stored.
Screenshots
Arachnophilia Work Area
Arachnophilia Internal Browser
Arachnophilia Toolbar Editor
Additional Uses
Use as a text editor
Create a shortcut in the Send to folder and use in place
of Notepad
Arachnophilia is available for download at http://www.arachnoid.com/
Reviews and additional download sites
ZDNet - 4 stars
Tucows - 5 cows
C-NET's Dowload.com