Now that I’ve started working on TopStyle Pro 3.11, one of the big questions I’m asking myself is whether to continue TopStyle Lite. If you’re not familiar with TopStyle Lite, it’s an extremely scaled down version of TopStyle Pro (it’s basically Notepad for CSS) that I give away for free.
There are several reasons for my considering this, but here are the primary ones:
- TopStyle Lite was originally created for inclusion in HomeSite 4.5, thanks to a deal I had with Allaire. Basically, HomeSite customers benefited from improved CSS features, Allaire benefited from not having to code their own CSS tool, and I benefited from the obvious exposure. However, since that time Allaire has been purchased by Macromedia, and HomeSite’s future has been up in the air ever since. At this point, I get little benefit from having the Lite version bundled with HomeSite.
- I had similar deals with other HTML editors, but most of them no longer exist.
- Now that TopStyle Pro is a full-blown HTML editor, there’s little need for integration with third-party HTML editors anyway.
- Despite the fact the TopStyle Lite displays a great big message about the Pro version, I’m constantly hearing from people who think TopStyle Lite is TopStyle (I see similar messages in newsgroups, too).
- It’s obvious from support questions that the vast majority of those who use TopStyle Lite will never purchase the Pro version.
I realize many people won’t wish TopStyle Lite to disappear, but from a business standpoint it’s not making much sense anymore. Comments?