Overview

Kupu is an open source application, written in JavaScript, which implements a flexible, full-featured HTML editor that runs in a web page without any special plug-ins. Its primary use is as an embedded editor in content management systems, where it allows users to create their own web pages. Its design is flexible enough so that users can embed it into pretty much any web application without too much difficulty. A quick review of the application shows that it provides an intuitive user interface, and easy-to-use functions like editing texts, images and tables. The limitations of the applications include the lack of a help file and the incapability of inserting images from a local computer.

1. Kupu Interface

A demo of the online application can be found at http://debris.demon.nl:7080/kupu_nightly/kupu/common/kupu.cgi. The web page shows the interface of Kupu. The application can also be downloaded from http://kupu.oscom.org/download/. If the application is downloaded to a local computer, the Kupu interface can be obtained by typing in <your local address>\kupu\ common\kupu.html in a browser. Almost everything in this application seems intuitive and straightforward. A sample interface is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. A Sample Interface of Kupu.

As can be seen from Figure 1, there are three parts on the initial interface: the tool bar on the top, the panel on the bottom right-hand side; and the editing window on the bottom left-hand side. The top toolbar contains icons for the standard functions users expect to find in an editor. Almost all the icons are similar to those in MS Word, which most users are familiar with. With these icons, users can not only format texts, inserts objects, but also preview the page and view the source codes of the page. The panel to the right contains blocks for certain functions that require additional information. The panel to the left is the actual window for editing document.

However, some terminologies are not intuitive to novice users, such as “cleanup expressions” and “debug log”. Therefore, it is of great necessity for this application to provide a help file.

2. Edit Texts

It is very easy to edit texts in Kupu. The text editing function is almost exactly like that in MS Word. To insert some texts, users can put the mouse cursor to the place where the texts are to be inserted and type in the words. To delete texts, users can first highlight the texts to be deleted and hit the delete key or click on the icon for deleting. To format texts, users can first highlight the texts and then use all the formatting icons on the toolbar to either change the color, style, alignment, or adding bullets. Compared to MS Word, one disadvantage is that it does not provide a function for changing fonts. To create a link based on the texts, users can first highlight the texts and click on the icon to insert either an internal or external link.

3. Edit Images

Kupu provides an easy way to insert and edit images. To insert an image, users can first put the mouse cursor to the place for the image and then click at the image icon to bring up a dialog window to pick the image to be inserted. One problem with the current version of Kupu is that users can only select images from some default folders in Kupu or an image online. It is not known to me whether other images can be inserted a document. An alternative way to insert an image is to make use of the panel on the right. On the tab for images, users can set the alignment of the image, choose the location of the image, etc (Figure 2). To delete an image, users can first select the image and click on the delete key or the icon for deleting.

Figure 2. Insert an image in Kupu

4. Edit Tables

Kupu provides an excellent way to edit tables. To insert a table, users can first put the mouse cursor to the place where the table is to be inserted and then click on the table icon. To edit a table, users can use the table tab on the panel on the right-hand side (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Edit a Table in Kupu.

As can be seen from Figure 3, users can change the table format, table alignment, add rows or columns, and remove rows or columns. However, the terminology of “fix” is not clear to users.