Coffee Cup: HTML Editing Software

Web page and analysis by Jill McCue

Created as part of EdPsy 490 NET at the University of Illinois
For an analysis of other HTML Editing Software visit these other sites:
Nelda Baker, Jenna Bryant, Leonard Fretzin, Susan Holderread, Darren Loschen,
Elizabeth Twardowski, Terry Sullivan, Marna Kitzmiller, Kathy Leggett, Joshua Norman,
Linda Norman, Judith Pacey, and Timothy Rogers.

Program's Price

I downloaded the trial version,of CoffeeCup HTML Editor, which is good for 45 days.
This software costs $49.00 to buy or it can be purchased in bundles
of many other programs for $90.00 or $149.00.
I would like to explore some of these bundled programs in the fall
to determine if would like to purchase them as I am considering buying CoffeeCup HTML Editor.
This was one of the least expensive programs to buy that I found in my research.
Dreamweaver by Macromedia was listed at $98.95,
and FrontPage by Microsoft was priced at $129.00
You can add up the savings!

Program's Appeal

I have to admit I was drawn to CoffeeCup's bright colors and graphics.


Front Page is on the Neoga public library computer so I played with it. Although I liked the fact that the menus looked so familiar, I did not have the attraction to it or the desire to continue working with it, as I was not able to quickly see my results. I downloaded Webmaster Gold and had a terrible mess. DOS commands were required to complete the install, and I did not know what they were asking for to continue. I exited the installation and ended up with hundreds of icons on my desktop! It took me most of one night to delete them. I had all ready installed CoffeeCup and kept going back to it. I played with the menus and buttons, and I liked the ease with which I could go from the edit screen to the preview screen. Then I found out about the Live Help desk! This company advertises that they are the only HTML editor program to come with live help. I used live help on several occasions when I could not find help in the Editor Help contents. In less than a minute for a technician would introduce himself and begin helping me via Instant Messenging. For a beginner like me this was invaluable. On one occasion the Live Help Desk was closed, however an email form popped up and my question was answered in 24 hours. To introduce myself to the program I just played. I'd open a new page, type in some text, insert some graphics, play with the menu buttons and click on preview to see what I had produced. This was extremely helpful to me having never used any programs except Netscape Composer and the GreatPage template software my district uses. I decided to use this software to develop the home page for Activity 1 also.
I discovered how to use my own graphics and insert them for this page.

Click here to see The Global Grocery List Plus home page.

This program also offers lifetime updates with a click of an icon. There is also a Quick Post feature for users who need to add information or entries to their pages. This would be very convenient for a teacher who lists daily homework, quizzes or other scheduled activities. The document weight could be obtained by a click of the mouse. This informs the page developer how long the page will take to load with different speed modems. For business users who want to get peoples' attention quickly, this would be valuable. Document dependencies lists all of the components and links on the page. This became a helpful component for me as I revised class members URLs for this activity. Meta descriptions and Meta keywords are able to be added to assist one's site being found in Internet searches. 2 icons allow the site developer to test the current page on one's favorite browser and default browser. I never realized how much an HTML editor program would help me learn HTML. I would insert a graphic or script, use preview to see how it looked, then go back to edit to view the code to see how it was written.


Program Features: Nuts and Bolts

CoffeeCup HTML Editor comes with graphics, includinganimated gifs,arrows,bullets,
backgrounds(as shown on this page),buttonslots of cool buttons, and objects.

Sounds, java scripts, dynamic HTML and CGI scripts can be inserted easily with a right click and adjusted to the user's need by filling in the blanks of a pop-up box or in the areas indicated.
    Set up Wizards are available for
  • colors
  • fonts
  • tables
  • style sheets
  • Flash text
  • page transitions
  • Quick Start
This bulleted list was set up using the list icon. This program offers so much more than the GreatPage template program my district uses. I never imagined that I could insert graphics, sounds or java scripts as easily as I did for this project!

Program Weaknesses

Although the help menu, a pull-down menu, and Live Help Desk were easy to use I had questions that were not a part of the menu. I would like a manual to follow as I am working on the computer. I still like hard copy when I am trying to learn something. This is one feature that I know Dreamweaver and FrontPage both have. I had difficulty getting the page to upload to the lrs server using either a right click or the icon on the menu bar. A Winsock error message was displayed each time. The page displays nicely on Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, but on Netscape the colors are different for the horizontal rules and the clock script does not function. Users who are more familiar and proficient with HTML programming would be more capable of evaluating this program's usefulness compared to other programs. However, I feel like I got a lot of use and capabilities out of it as a novice in the use of HTML editors.

Program Recommendation

I would suggest this HTML editor to anyone who is looking for an easy to use program. I plan to investigate the various bundles of programs that can be purchased with CoffeeCup HTML Editor to see if I have the desire to buy these. I will read the other research done by my classmates of other HTML editors to get a clearer picture of what is available before I purchase. However, now that I have spent the time utilizing the menus, wizards and included features of this software, I would be hesitant to tackle an entirely new program. I feel that for the money this is a COOL editor loaded with features I would use!

Click on the link below to see the pros and cons of this program
as experienced by Jill McCue

My Experience with CoffeeCup HTML Editor


Created with the CoffeeCup HTML Editor