BlueVoda

Infobox Software
name = Bluevoda Website Builder



caption = Bluevoda
developer = Bluevoda
latest_release_version = 9.22 for Microsoft Windows
latest_release_date = 21 January, 2008
operating_systems = Microsoft Windows 95 to XP
genre = Website builder
license = Proprietary
website = [http://www.bluevoda.com/ Bluevoda's homepage] |unnecessary

BlueVoda full name BlueVoda Website Builder is a HTML editor and website builder and works and acts as a website builder designed to hide the code of web building. It is offered as a free download but requires a VodaHost account to publish the website to. BlueVoda looks very similar to Microsoft Office's interface, like most WYSIWYG editors HTML code is hidden allowing the user to create websites without knowing code and having components such as tables, text formatting and the rest. BlueVoda includes features not found in other WYSIWYG editors for example its dragging and dropping ability, this feature allows users to drag and drops items without using table layouts. However, it is a typical editor with an interface similar to Microsoft Word that is designed for the novice building their first website offering a range of tools to create a simple multipage website. "'

BlueVoda's Description

According to the creators website BlueVoda is described as.

"BlueVoda is a drag & drop free Website Builder that enables a user with little or no experience to build a Web site. No HTML or coding knowledge is required. With BlueVoda you can create everything from a simple homepage to beautiful multi-page website. Included are pre-designed website templates, 'One Click Publishing', an image library where you will be able to download hundreds of free logos, templates, webpage backgrounds and website headers. BlueVoda also provides a built-in help system, a community forum as well as step-by-step video tutorials that will have you designing your new web site in record time."

Website Builder

BlueVoda is web authoring software designed for the novice to build their first website offering a range tools to build it. The builder itself is simple - it looks like and acts like an advanced word processor and offers extra tools like multimedia, forms, tables, photo galleries and more. It allows users to Drag and drop items on screen without having to use tables or complex layouts, however building websites this way usually does not allow proper alignment of objects on screen and every object is in their own layer thus making complex pages and longer load up times in browsers. There is some speculation that the creators of this software copied ideas from other HTML editors such as Microsoft FrontPage or NetObjects Fusion. It lacks some features already seen in other free HTML editors.

BlueVoda can maintain a small website but not larger websites, there is also criticism that users can really build one page at a time and have to duplicate that page to make other pages. There are no tools to create large but easy to maintain websites; for instance Microsoft FrontPage uses its term "Shared Borders" or "Dynamic web templates" to give the look and feel of a website so users don't have to edit each page individually. BlueVoda only provides basic tools for building a website, but all of the work has to be done by the user. Users can only create websites in plain HTML rather than CSS. Users can only edit their sites in WYSIWYG and not in code. This is criticized by many web developers who are unable to clean up or edit excess code and causing certain browsers to perform poorly.

Publishing

Publishing is relatively easy for novice users, however users will quickly find out that they can only publish to a select number of IP addresses namely to those of the hosting company associated named VodaHost, users saving webpages tend to be saved in .bvp files or BlueVoda files this will cause users to publish to VodaHost's servers. However, there are a number of ways to bypass this step and one is to simply copy the HTML code from the BlueVoda, and then pasting it to e.g. Windows notepad and saving it as HTML file, allows the user to possibly publish your site to the hosting service of your choice. The problem with this is that many of the advanced features only work with a VodaHost account.

Features

What is there or what you can do
*Able to insert multimedia objects like Windows Media Player, QuickTime, Flash Player and Real Player as well as audio.
*Insert controls such as ActiveX and other objects
*Make Photo galleries, rollover images, banners, pop up windows, forms and inline frames
*Drag and drop items without using tables anywhere on screen.
*Typing text and other components such as buttons on their own layer for dragging and dropping.
*Locking items on screen to prevent the user from accidentally moving an object
*Make stylish drop down menus and buttons

What isn't there or what you can't do
*To create online websites specializing in, blogging, constant updating and keeping a large site on the fly
*To create a navigation system or keep a uniform look and feel on each webpage.
*Creating search pages etc.
*To be accessible to people who may be physically disabled or visually impaired.
*Doesn't not make pages in Unicode format so any other code formatting such as Hebrew may not be supported

However because it is a simple website builder it is not really designed to have all these features but could be included.

Pros and Cons

Pros

*Simple and effective for first timers
*Requires minimum effort
*Includes all basic tools to create a website
*Works on most versions of Microsoft Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 ,Windows XPand Windows Vista
*Drag and drop functionality
*Uncluttered interface
*Ablility to insert HTML components and scripts
*Includes its own File Transfer Program but only to their webhost
*Is a very light program at over 4 Megabytes
*E-commerce enabled unlike other proprietary software
*Help tutorials on most features in Bluevoda in Video screen capture
*Easy enough for children to build websites
*User friendly and Microsoft Office like GUI interface
*Publishing is quick and easy

Cons

*The website builder itself is not very effective on large website creating
*It is only designed for Microsoft Windows
*Drag and drop functionality tend to lead to error in alignment in objects like graphics and tables and other elements
*All objects on screen are in their own layer and have to load individually
*There is hardly any option to edit in code
*Users can only create HTML rather CSS based websites
*Has some alignment problems and does not look the same in all screen resolutions and operating systems
*Modern technologies such as CSS, XML, ASP.NET or PHP etc and many other technologies are not supported
*The overall builder is awkward such copying text from a webpage and pasting it in BlueVoda for example if there are any links in the webpage BlueVoda does not render the text properly and will show the complete URL and not the text that is hyper linked.
*Can only publish to VodaHost's servers.
*You have to pay to access its full features.

See also

*List of HTML editors
*Comparison of HTML editors

External links

* [http://www.bluevoda.com/ BlueVoda's homepage]
* [http://www.vodahost.com/ Vodahost's website]
* [http://www.download.com/BlueVoda-Website-Builder/3000-2048_4-10546742.html Download.com's download section]
* [http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2048-10380081.html ZDNET's short review and download link]