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Today I will rant about a new online HTML editor named Texty. Yesterday I read a review about Texty on Techcrunch titled, "Dead Simple Content Creation and Editing". The TechCrunch review missed a few key points so here is my take on Texty.

What do we need Texty for?

Texty rides the WYSIWYG-wave (What You See Is What You Get) which started back in 1997/98 when WYSIWYG was what HTML editors were all about. I still remember the more well-known titles including Frontpage, Dreamweaver, and Hotmetal Pro (!!!). In short, a WYSIWYG HTML editor allows you to create HTML pages without the hassle of learning what the tags are for and this concept is still very prominent today.

Here is the idea behind Texty. Texty suggests that it provides you with a method to create formated text for a website (for free) so you will never have to learn HTML and never have to touch FTP ever (again).

To start off, let's give them credit - creating text is very easy. The system will also create an account on Texty for you (semi-automatic) where all your documents are saved and are easily retrieved. This part couldn't be any easier.

What's the catch?

If you don't run a blog/cms software, or don't use a hosted something-interface, how are you going to get this on your server? Even services like MySpace do not allow any JavaScript to be used, and neither does Facebook. So unless you run your own show and have all the access, you probably won't be able to use Texty.

Then again, if you have your own blog software, using Texty becomes pointless.

My second question for Texty is - what made you think that entering JavaScript code somewhere else is easier than a couple HTML tags?

Last but not least, a question raised in multiple places - what happens when Texty is gone tomorrow? Or maybe not gone, but down for updates and so on. All your pages will cease to exist, be it temporarily or forever.

Too many questions - no answers. Apparently the folks at Texty did not have time (yet) to finish their "contact us" page - but still had plenty of time to get down with Techcrunch for a review.

More facts about Texty:

1. Almost any blogging software provides you with the same features (for free)
2. Texty uses the open source editor Tiny MCE (also part of Wordpress, for example) - anyone can do it

This article was provided by Till Klampäckel who has been online for over ten years. He contributes to open source software, is addicted to geo-tagging and enjoys blogging and coffee (always and at any time of the day).

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 11:30 am and is filed under TechCrunch, html, Reviews, Texty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.