[rant] In the mood for some visual interaction, I fired up my Beta copy of Microsoft Image Composer only to be greeted with the ominous dialog "The evaluation license for this software has expired." It's humiliating. I'm well aware of the fact that I haven't paid for the software, but suddenly making a useful tool on my hard drive a pile of unusable bits without providing an obvious way to purchase the software is rubbing my nose in it.

The Digest uses Image Composer not only because it's useful, but it belongs to a rare category of software that requires no documentation. Some earnest poking around in the interface yields answers to most questions. So, what the hell, I'm going to buy it. Who wants my credit card number?

I point my browser to Microsoft's site and after some tricky navigation I end up at the Image Composer site. As expected, Microsoft is well aware that hoards of frustrated Beta users will show up, "Free beta download opportunity ends -- To purchase Image Composer, see availability information on the Microsoft FrontPage 97 or Microsoft Visual InterDev sites."

And here is where the rant begins.

I'm familiar with the FrontPage package (although I'm surprised it hasn't been renamed Visual FrontPage), but I've no idea what the Visual InterDev product is. A click to the site and I still have no clue. Microsoft touts the product as being an "Integrated Web Application Development System" which does nothing to narrow down the possibilities. Is the product an HTML editor? A site management tool? A web server? And what happened to Image Composer, anyway?

The answers to all of the above questions is "Yes". Visual InterDev is all of that AND bag of chips. Problem is, Microsoft has given the reins to the marketing folks who have not only come up with a useless techno-babble name for the product, but their "product" is a suite of "All Things Internet That Exist At Microsoft." There is absolutely no focus.

It's unfair to rip on Visual InterDev without a trial run of the software, but the product (which, incidentally, was renamed at least three times during its production) gives me the impression that Microsoft has tried to apply it's Office strategy to its Internet tool product line -- throw everything in a box and let the end user figure it out. The strategy worked well for Office only because the product line had matured to the point that users knew what to expect.

Internet tools are in a state of flux. No one is quite sure what the premiere HTML editor is going to look like or what additional tools are necessary to make the product more useful. Most current Web developement suites are a mish-mash of tools ranging from text editors to shareware image editors. Visual InterDev is trying to unify this hodge-podge of tools under one banner, but no one is going to purchase a product without knowing what they're going to get.

[sift this] In the early days of Netscape's existence, updates to their Navigator software appeared on their web page almost daily. Failure to check their site on a regular basis approached instant HTML obsolescence. Regardless, even with a surprisingly limber Microsoft breathing down their neck, time between Netscape's releases has continually grown with the complexity of their browser.

In the most recent version of the browser, Netscape first dodges a version number battle with Microsoft and has stuffed the browser into a group-ware package: confusingly known as Communicator. The Web public has come to expect revolution in each version of Netscape's browser, but in Communicator, the initial gains in functionality appear to be in the mail and news components. Dig a little deeper� the browser still contains a revolution.

Since the introduction of the IMAGE tag in NCSA Mosaic, graphic designers have been demanding functionality in HTML that mimics behavior in such designing tools as Adobe Illustrator. Namely, the ability to precisely place objects on a pag, as well as the ability to stack or layer objects.

The new LAYER tag in Communicator is the answer for both features and suddenly, a whole new genre of web pages can be created. Layering allows designers to place any arrangement of text images, and backgrounds in precise locations. With the addition of a little JavaScript, authors can create animations and transitions that will bring a new level of creativity to sites and the cost is minimal. No bandwidth hogs such as Java or Plug-ins, just HTML.

The particularly wondrous aspect of the LAYER tag really doesn't lie in what it can provide to developers, but the innovative ways Web sites will push the tag to create effects and pages that no one has ever seen.