The Bottom Line
Web Page Developer for iPad is a decent HTML editor for the iPad. It is great for developers who need to make small changes to web pages while out and about.
It would be possible to build an entire website with this application, but I wouldn't want to. I'd rather rely on it as a backup to my normal web page editor.
I reviewed version 2.0 of WPD on June 10, 2010.
Pros
- Easy to add standard HTML tags and characters
- Previews your changes as you type
- You can open many files at once
Cons
- Save saves a copy rather that overwriting or asking
- Tag buttons don't show the close tag just "close"
- No color coding, tag completion, or validation
- No search and replace
- Alignments use align attribute (deprecated)
Description
- Edit in landscape or portrait mode
- Open HTML from the Web or from the device (or a new file)
- Open images from the device or download
- Open and edit multiple documents at once
- Preview as you type or edit in code view alone (portrait mode)
Guide Review - Web Page Developer (WPD) for iPad
Web Page Developer or WPD is a decent iPad web editor. It allows you to write your HTML and preview it as you write (portrait mode). It was also one of the first editors on the iPad that pulled out the HTML and CSS tags from the third layer where they are hidden on the iPad's virtual keyboard. That change alone made this app much easier to use.
Still a Far Cry from Computer Web Editors
While this editor is fairly decent for an iPad editor, it still is a far cry from the editors you can get (for free) on Windows and Macintosh computers. It is missing key features like:
- HTML and CSS validators
- True WYSIWYG (preview is not the same as WYSIWYG)
- HTML and CSS color coding and tag completion
- Accurate HTML templates including doctypes
- Optional templates
- Search and replace
- Secure FTP (It has FTP, but not FTPS)
A Few Annoyances
The biggest annoyance I had with this software was how it saves to the device. Every time I did a device save, I ended up with another copy of the file. After just a few days of working with it, I had 10 copies of index.php, 5 copies of index.html, and 3 of about.htm. And these were just 3 files.
I also didn't like how it handled special characters. When I tried to type some HTML tags using < it just deleted them completely from my HTML. Not what I expected or wanted.
Finally, the tag buttons are really useful, but only until you open more than one. Then you'll notice that all you see is "Close Close Close" where the buttons were. You don't know which tag you're going to close until you click the button.
