Today Software WithStyle released a beta version of XML WithStyle. XML WithStyle is a WYSIWYG XML content editor with the 'look' of the published page and the 'feel' of a word processor. For more information on XML WithStyle, please see xmlwithstyle.com.

We are keen for you to put XML WithStyle through its paces and report bugs to us as well as any comments you may have on its features and usability. To this end, we have established the XML WithStyle Beta Program.

The beta program provides you with an early preview of the XML WithStyle product prior to the commercial release of version 1.0. It allows you to:

1. conduct beta testing of the software to assist us in identifying defects,
2. provide constructive feedback about the product to help us better serve your needs, and
3. conduct a preliminary evaluation of the product prior to the 1.0 release.

If you're not a technical person and don't know anything about XML, don't worry! XML WithStyle is actually designed for you! It is targeted at non-technical business users. To make things straight-forward, it offers a familiar word processor-style user interface with a rich, WYSIWYG workspace. This makes editing just like typing straight into a published web page or printed document (subject to the look and feel used).

XML WithStyle does differ from the word processor and HTML editors you might be familiar with because it is a structured editor. This means that it ensures your content is structured according to pre-configured rules - according to the XML vocabulary you are using. This means that you can focus on the structure of your content and what it means rather than what it looks like. This can be a big paradigm shift if you are used to being creative with fonts and colors but working this way has big payoffs for organizations that want to maximize the value of the content their staff author.

For the more technically minded, XML WithStyle showcases the breadth of the WithStyle UI technology including deep structured editing capabilities as well as CSS-base rendering. Aside from several commodity components such as HTML Tidy and ASpell, all of XML WithStyle is written in VisualWorks Smalltalk.

Largely because of the additional work to port the APIs to non-Smalltalk components across to other platforms, the XML WithStyle beta is available for Windows operating systems only at this stage. We intend to make the product available for additional platforms in the future as this is one of the big strengths of VisualWorks Smalltalk. In fact, I'm using the XML editing functionality of XML WithStyle right now - in the guise of Bottom Line - to type these words on Mac OS 10.4. See our case study on Bottom Line to learn about how that application benefits from the same XML editing technology as XML WithStyle.

Although we have a good deal of work to do before the commercial 1.0 release, we feel that XML WithStyle provides a rich set of functionality at this point in a market space that continues to lack genuinely usable and cost-effective products for non-technical users.

We hope that you take the time to download the XML WithStyle beta and send us your comments. This will help us to make the commercial release even better and tailored to your needs.

Download now and enjoy using our latest creation!

-- From Rowan Bunning, Product Manager of XML WithStyle.