Cyberstudio to raise curtain

Web publishing software maker gonet plans next month to release Cyberstudio, a Web design and publishing tool that the company says will give NetObjects' popular Fusion tool a run for its money on the Macintosh side.

To compete, gonet will have to play catch-up, as Fusion for Macintosh is due to ship by the end of the year. Gonet will demonstrate Cyberstudio at the upcoming Macworld trade show in San Francisco, but the product won't go into beta until the end of January.

The product is based on five viewing modes that a user can tab through according to the task involved. The modes are Layout, Frames, Outline HTML Editor, Source Code HTML Editor, and Preview.

The two editing modes give designers some flexibility in HTML creation.

The layout mode, which uses a grid for easier page placement, also plays multimedia items without switching to preview mode. It runs Netscape Communications plug-ins as well as Shockwave.

Cyberstudio will eventually ship for a suggested retail price of $349. No price has been announced for Fusion for Mac, but the new version for Windows will have a SRP of $695.