DOM Inspector

Right now I am reading up on how to manage the DOM using JavaScript. My textbook referred me to a site where I can get a DOM Inspector. That is a tool which shows my HTML in a DOM-like graphic tree. I was expecting something free. However the textbook steered me to a commercial site.

I downloaded a product called IE WebDeveloper. It was previously called the IE DOM Inspector. They have a free 15 day trial period. I am glad I did the trial first. The thing does integrate with Internet Explorer. You see the tree in a toolbar that takes up the bottom half of the browser screen. However I was disappointed with the tree layout. I did not see nodes for my text.

Turns out Internet Explorer version 8 has a built-in DOM Explorer of sorts. You can access it by choosing the Developer Tools submenu under the Tools menu. This brings up a separate window with a better tree that represents the DOM tree I was expecting from the book.

Time to uninstall the IE WebDeveloper trial software. The thing costs $119 for a license. I think I will stick with IE Developer Tools. That's too bad because I liked the integrated interface.