Review - Epic Editor 4.0

Insert Markup Functionality

Finally, there is the full Insert Markup dialog box, accessible through a toolbar button. In addition to the keyboard-seeking list of legal tags as just described, it also lets you insert processing instructions, text entities, and other XML markup.

The editing of tag attributes is made possible through a simple, yet effective dialog interface.

Typing Ctrl-A opens a dialog that lists the possible attributes for the current element (a toolbar button is also available). Required attributes are highlighted, and attributes with a fixed set of possible values appear as drop-down lists. When you insert a new element that has required attributes, the Attributes dialog box appears automatically for you to input them easily.

One of the most powerful structural features is support for drag-and-drop editing. Want to move a section somewhere else in your document? Simply drag its icon in the Document Map to the place you'd like to move it and let go. The mouse cursor changes during the drag operation to indicate legal and illegal drop locations, as well as locations where the editor will automatically insert new elements to make the dragged element legal there.

Word Processing Features

All this XML editing power, yet Epic Editor still manages to offer most of the amenities of modern word processors as well. Toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts are provided for most common formatting commands (e.g. the bold toolbar button inserts an <emphasis role="bold"> tag in DocBook XML mode). Multi-level undo/redo and document change tracking work as expected. And the real-time spell check (with red jagged underlines for misspelled words) and thesaurus are welcome writing tools. The built-in dictionary, however, is somewhat dated, so expect to spend some time adding words like 'Internet', 'download', and 'configuration' to the custom dictionary if you plan to write anything technical. Fortunately, this is a painless, one-click process for each word.

Advanced features are many and varied, and most are disabled by default so as not to confuse novice or non-technical users. The Find/Replace feature can be set to use regular expressions, and match markup (tags and attributes) instead of just document content. An "Edit Selection as XML Source" feature lets you get your hands dirty and work at the code level when you need to (such instances are surprisingly rare!). Tag name aliases, editing behaviour, and WYSIWYG formatting are all fully configurable when you need them.

An Editor For the Big Jobs

In short, Epic Editor is the ideal choice for the WYSIWYG editing of medium-to-large XML content. It handled a ~300 page, heavily structured, technical book without even breaking a sweat, and is far superior to any competitors I could find. In fact, the only downside to this program is that no evaluation version is available for download, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Epic Editor 4.3 is available now for Windows, Solaris, and Unix (not Linux).

Product: Epic Editor 4.3 (Arbortext)
Price: US$860
More Information: Visit arbortext.com