ZD Software Library are one of the most respected sources of shareware - at least I
certainly respect them after they awarded AscToHTM 
(5 stars - their highest award).
So far all reviews have been highly complimentary. If you've said nice things about AscToHTM, let us know so we can add a link to you on this page. Our users say even nicer things, and one day (modesty permitting) we'll assemble a page of their comments.
Please note, all emphasis of key phrases in the reviews is my own.
ZDNet
Web Attack
Virtual Promote
PC Magazine
LockerGnome
TUCOWS shareware
webmaster-resources.com
Christian Computing Magazine
Shareware Junkies
Shareware Update
Shareware Shop
ReallyBig.com
Free Download Center
PC Answers magazine
Rocket Download
Shareware Addict
Boot It reviews
File Dudes
@Macarlo
DanWorld
File Transit
File Hungry
5-Star shareware
A1 Yippee
Bill's software picks
SoftList
Softwatcher
About.com
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ZD Software Library are one of the most respected sources of shareware - at least I
certainly respect them after they awarded AscToHTM |
According to ZDNet, 5 stars represents
Outstanding in all respects. Among the best of its class
Here's some of what they said:-
AscToHTM is an unbelievably fast text-to-HTML conversion utility with an astounding array of features and configuration options. You can choose from many output options ...
The translator, which can operate stand-alone or in a DOS command line, recognizes a wide range of formatting and modifications to text ...
The interface is simple and straightforward -- just browse for the text file you want to convert, choose an output directory, click Convert, and you'll instantly have clean, good-looking HTML.
A View Results button allows you to load the file into your default browser for inspection.
Novice homepage developers and overworked Web professional alike will go ga ga over AscToHTM's copious features and outstanding performance.
Read the ZDNet review of AscToHTM in full. (Note, this review has been updated a few times since, but at all times retaining the 5 star award).
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The WebAttack site reviewed AscToHTM and awarded it 10/10 in all 5 review categories (Performance, Ease of use, Documentation, Interface and Bang for the buck), and named it a Gold Editor's pick. Here's some of what they said :- |
I have tried many of those so called Text to HTML converters, and while they all do a more or less decent job, a lot of times, it "just doesn't look right".
ASCtoHTM however is different, I have never seen anything that comes close. The HTML that is generated can actually be considered a real web page, with nice formatting, colors, links, the works!
It's not only fast and easy to use, it's also fun to run. I played with it on some of my text files and was amazed with the results it produced.
Basic operation couldn't be easier, you simply pick one or more text files and click "convert".
...
Since ASCtoHTM will link multiple pages, you can create entire web sites or intranets including Meta Data, just by using existing text files.
Bottom Line: The best Text to HTML converter I've seen. It'll save endless hours of coding and let's you publish nice looking (text) pages in no time.
is a tremendously useful site full of information on how to promote web pages. They produce a weekly Gazette and place a HTML version on the web. This last task is now done by AscToHTM for which VirtualPromote have designated AscToHTM a "Jim Tool".
Here's the word according to Jim (my emphasis) :-
For those of you that have been with the Gazette for a while, you probably remember how long it used to take for the HTML version to appear on the server each week. No longer. I have finally found the right tool for the job. Before getting the right tool, I would sit with the Gazette text file and convert it into HTML by hand. Lots of hand work and took up to 3 hours to get each issue done.
No longer. I can now do the entire process in about 15 minutes. I use AscToHTM
Once I had AscToHTM set up, it takes the text file of the Gazette, pastes in all of the code at the beginning and the end that sets up the HTML format and the table that wraps the whole page. It puts in all of the line breaks and blank lines, bullet lists, URL tags and email tags. All I have to do is read through the page in my browser and tweak things here and there. 15 minutes. It is well worth the $35 US price for any publisher.
Another JimTool that has earned an icon on my Windows desktop. I tested over 25 different programs looking for the best text-to-html converter. This was the best I found. It saves me several hours each week. I know that many of the discussion list moderators and newsletter editors have stopped publishing HTML archive versions because of the amount of added work. I suggest they look at this program.
You can read the full review at http://virtualpromote.com/reviews/asctohtml.html
PC Magazine operate an online magazine as a partner to their well know high street magazine which is one of most widely respected Ziff Davis (ZD) magazines. The magazine is available in the US and the UK (and possibly elsewhere). The web site is - of course - available everywhere :-)
AscToHTM was reviewed in their "first looks" section. Here's some of what they said.
Say you want to convert those hundreds of text files on your hard disk that you've accumulated over the years to formatted Web pages ... You can laboriously reformat each file in a word processor and output it in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) format. Or you can download JafSoft's AscToHTM utility and watch it convert thousands of text files into HTML while you sit back in your chair.
Unless you format your text files specifically for use with the program, these conversions are rarely perfect the first time, but the program is surprisingly successful with an enormous variety of files.
In our tests, AscToHTM usually produced better-looking output than Microsoft Word's AutoFormat feature -- and Word has no equivalent of AscToHTM's batch mode, which converts a directory full of text files in a single operation.
AscToHTM does a better job of converting ordinary text files than do word processors and high-end conversion software for one-tenth the price
The review raised a couple of (valid) criticisms. As the article itself suggests, these have all now been addressed as of version 3.2.05
You can read the full review at
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/stories/firstlooks/0,6763,2396245,00.html
LockerGnome is a daily newsletter edited by Chris Pirillo. It's a very popular newsletter (over 200,000 subscribers; many more by the time you read this) written in a friendly style by Chris, and featuring software reviews, useful tips and all sorts of other goodies. I'm happy to report that I was a subscriber long before LockerGnome featured AscToHTM with the following report.
The hypertext markup language is nothing more than vanilla text with tags interspersed. Notepad can be employed to edit any ASCII file, but when it comes to translating your text creations into something ready for the Web, that's a different story. Do you honestly wanna convert anything by hand? Fine, break your back. Or use the most robust converter on the planet (AscToHTM); there's no stronger alternative.
TUCOWS are a popular, but selective site (just over 1,000 titles only) that stores internet related software. They have a large number of mirror sites around the world. They rated AscToHTM 4 cows and selected it as the "Head of the Herd" for the week of 13 December 1999.
Here's some of what they said
Have you ever had a large text document you wanted to publish on-line but didn't feel like putting in paragraph and break tags? Pretty much all of us have had this problem at one time or another. AscToHTM is the answer! It does an incredible job of converting these files to .html files. With it's simple yet ultra-configurable interface, it's powerful yet easy to use.
Use the default settings or plunge into the deep depths of it's configuration options, it's up to you. Either way this program will put out great results. You can customize it to do anything from automatically link web addresses to detect and make links to numbered lists.
Read the TUCOWS review in full.
www.webmaster-resources.com is a site dedicated to articles, resources and tools that make the life of a busy webmaster a little easier. To that end they also run a weekly newsletter packed with relevant information (you can read archives of this for yourself on their site).
AscToHTM is listed in their "tools" section where they list utilities webmasters should consider adding to their toolkit. The January 14, 1999 version (number 26) of their newsletter contained the following mini review:-
This is the best Text to HTML converter currently available. It has more options then you can shake a stick at, and is a big time saver if you want to put newsletter archives online. ... Trust me, this program is a tremendous time saver and well worth the registration fee. Give it a try.
Christian Computing is an online magazine. In July '99 they listed three essential applications, so naturally AscToHTM was one of them (one of the others was Winzip).
Here's some of what they said
The simplest way to put up a web page is with AscToHTM. Hands down, there is no easier way. This program will take any text file and transform it into a decent looking page.
You can format your text if you want more control over the output. You can even set up advanced rules to customize how the program codes your pages.
If I were still creating web pages for a living I would quit. No one would want to pay me to do something as easy as AscToHtm makes it.
Read the Christian Computing review in full
The Shareware Junkies site reviewed AscToHTM, awarding it 5 stars for user friendliness and 4 stars in all other categories.
Here's some of what they said:-
The policy feature enables you to have more control over your the outcome of the conversion. You can put things [...] in the policies so they will be automatically included in the converted document.
Using the policies can make this program really powerful for all you who are power users. At the same time it is very simple to use for the novice users.
Read the Shareware Junkies review of AscToHTM in full
The Shareware Update site offers almost daily in depth reviews of new shareware products. The site is run by David Burton who reviewed over 5,000 programs over a ten year stint at ZDNet. Here's some of what he said:-
I've looked at a number of text-to-HTML converters, and frankly they were either too simple (and turned out files that took as much work to fix as if I'd done the work manually), or they were so complicated I just gave up trying to figure them out.
AscToHTM is sort of the Goldilocks of these converters: not too simple, not too complex, but just right.
Using the "Simple conversion" option, you'll probably be able to get 95% of the files you want to convert ready for the Web without changing a single option. However, if you have a complex file or need some extra control over the output, there are plenty of additional options available.
The "Simple conversion" option is, well, simple. Pick the text file to convert, give the output file a name and define the folder it should be saved to, and click "Convert" to create an HTML file ready to preview in your browser.
If your original file is more complex, or you want to have extra control over formatting and appearance, there are a plethora of configuration options ... Some of the more complex options will require careful reading of the author's documentation, but in general they're awfully easy to use. With a little judicious practice, you can turn out a complete multi-page Web site completely from regular text files without having to know a lick of HTML.
The Shareware Shop awarded AscToHTM an overall score of 85, and also awarded 85 in almost every review category.
On Shareware Shop's rating system a value in the range 71 to 85 means
Fantastic. Top in its category. Would recommend to register
Here's some of what they said:-
If you want more control over the output document the options are there.
Just click on Policies and click on output conversion options and it will bring up a window offering a lot of options such entering a title, description, keywords, background image, colours, style sheets, and more.
You can even save the settings you choose to use on future conversions. With the policies you can tweak away to get exactly the document you want.
If you have any trouble there is documentation you can download from the internet or you can contact the author who will readily help you.
All in all this is a great program and the authors eagerness to help with and improve his program is a definite plus. The program is really easy to use though so you probably won't need his help.
Read the Shareware Shop review of AscToHTM in full.
ReallyBig are a site dedicated to listing the "Complete Resource for All Web Builders". The resources they list will help beginners and experts alike. As such they list over 3000 resources (at time of writing) including development tools such as AscToHTM, other resource sites (e.g. for fonts, free Java applets) and sites that will be of interest to web builders. They also have a news section that contains articles of interest to web developers.
In October 1998 ReallyBig listed AscToHTM as one of their Featured Sites
Free Download Center is a software site that reviews two titles each day, making the site worth a regular visit. Here's what they said about AscToHTM.
Those who use computers mainly for work are grateful to be relieved of tedious routine calculations and other tasks. Converting plain text to HTML pages might be considered one such time-consuming task. Luckily, now we have AscToHTM to do that for us.
PC Answers is a magazine published in the UK by Future publishing. The September 2001 issue featured AscToHTM and included it on its cover disk. Here's some of what they said in the accompanying article:-
The first time you run the program you'd be forgiven for thinking there really isn't a lot to it, but under the bonnet of this quiet beast lies a jet engine ready to blast your plain text into the Internet age.
Rocket Download are a large shareware archive that hosts the files themselves as self-extracting archives (meaning users don't need to worry about handling .zip files). As they say, for a program to be included in their archive says that it is well planned, well-implemented, high quality software regardless of the rating it received. That said they awarded AscToHTM 4 emoticons (smileys) which on their scale is
"Outrageous!"
Here's some of what they said :-
At its simplest, you can specify a plain text (TXT) file and click a button to produce the HTML. If you look closer, you'll find dozens of excellent and intuitive features. ... AscToHTM builds an exact structure of your original document and makes it navigable from a Web browser.
In fact, AscToHTM is ideal for creating content for your Internet or Intranet site. First, it'll provide a hyperlinked contents list for accessing sections of a particularly large document.
Shareware Addict is a site run for shareware addicts, which aims to provide a library of top-quality shareware and freeware listings. The selected AscToHTM as an Addict's Choice - their highest rating - which is described as follows:-
One of the tops in its class. Performs exceptionally well and as advertised, and then some. Software Addicts lay awake at night thinking about the beauty of this software. A must have at all costs..
Boot It is the home of the "No Bull Software Reviews". They run a monthly newsletter (also posted to key USENET newsgroups) offering straight talking reviews of applications.
They are fiercely independant, and are not afraid to recommend relatively obscure packages over their more famous, much hyped rivals. As they themselves point out
It's not Quantity but Quality that counts
According to Boot It, 5 stars means
Out of this world
AscToHTM was awarded 5 "dudes" at www.filedudes.com. According to the Dudes, 5 dudes means:-
Programs that do exactly as they're intended to do. They provide advanced features not found on similar products, are easy to use, have an attractive user interface. These are must downloads.
(Note: Sadly filedudes is no longer with us)
@Macarlo is a colourful site that was founded by a Systems Analyst who now lives in Brazil as a monk. He maintains a lively site, part of which is dedicated to testing software for suitability for the Windows 2000 platform. He awarded AscToHTM 5 butterflies (the highest award) which makes a nice change from stars :-).
Here's some of what he said about AscToHTM...
I ... installed it in seconds without problems. No reboot is needed and I immediately started this software in order to work with a giant article sent me in MS Word format by a writer. In seconds I transformed this problematic page into a nice page without any problem!! For all webmasters that are working with much text like me I sincerely recommend AscToHTM.
(Note, AscToHTM doesn't convert Word files, but it will convert them if you "Save As" text first)
AscToHTM was awarded 5 "globes" (their highest score) at www.danworld.com. According to DanWorld's rating system 5 "globes" means
Excellent application; an absolutely critical, must-have program
File Transit awarded AscToHTM 5 stars (their highest score). There's no review as such on their site though.
File Hungry awarded AscToHTM 5 stars. There's no review as such on their site though.
5-star shareware are selective about who they take, and have rated AscToHTM
which according to them means
good
which is succinct and to the point.
A1 Yippee provides fast download speeds and a review team of real computer users dedicated to giving honest reviews of the shareware and freeware software on this site. They rated AscToHTM 4 stars. Here's what they said
AscToHTM is a very useful utility that converts plain text (ASCII) to HTML. It makes the odd formatting error (that is easily fixed by editing the HTML document), but otherwise it performs very well. The interface is simple and easy to operate - simply select your input and output files and away you go. If you use the program a lot for a specific task that is repeatedly similar, you can configure it to have a better response. Impressive!
Bill's software picks awarded AscToHTM 4 stars. There's no review as such on their site though.
SoftList is a site that list shareware in Russian and English. They awarded AscToHTM a WOW! rating. Recently they moved to a star rating, and this is now 4.5 stars.
SoftWatcher are a site that monitors and collates announcements of new software releases, so that users can easily get timely notification of new versions of their favourite software. As well as displaying tables of recent updates and releases, they offer an email notification service.
Recently Softwatcher has listed AscToHTM as one of its "hot picks" in its "Comms/Internet" section, although in the nature of the site its unclear if this is a permanent listing or a time-based listing.
www.about.com (previously the Mining Co), maintain a large search engine with "human guides" who are expert in various topics. AscToHTM was selected as "tip of the day" in the HTML section on 7-Oct-1999 and again six weeks later on 20-Nov-1999.
About.com's HTML page (not a direct link to the AscToHTM "tip") can be found at http://html.about.com/library/bl_whatsnew.htm
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