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When was the last time that you wished that a copyright notice could be added in all your web pages at once? Or perhaps if you want to ensure that all your web pages contain the same header and footer on them. You also have the option of using the databases for creating the dynamic content as well as the standard content across your web pages. But the biggest drawback of using almost all o these systems is that they are quite expensive.

There is an option of using the HTML pre-processor, which is an application that runs majorly on your servers and has the ability to filter the HTML before sending it to the browser. They can be used in a variety of ways, but they become invaluable for all the web developers as they can create dynamic pages using common elements. It is a common practice to run the pre-processors only after the data files have been created. Your web pages can be easily updated by running the pre-processor for converting the data files into HTML. Some pre-processors such as the hypertext database work in this fashion while the others such as Cold Fusion work on the fly as the web pages are accessed.

But there are many pre-processors available in the market, which are not only freeware but also quite easy to use and set up.

• PHP: Hypertext Processor: It is also known as the open source HTML pre-processor. However, its role is just not restricted to a pre-processor, it acts much more than that. It also functions as an HTML scripting tool and helps in including logic in HTML as well as the other programming functions. This hypertext processor runs on the web server. It comes in the Windows binary distribution and also the source code for compiling on other platforms. It is an Open source freeware.
• GTML: GTML enables you to group all your web pages into Projects or replace capabilities and instant search across the whole project. Macros of different sections which are to be reused, of your site can be created. GTML simply builds the HTML for you by just putting in one word representation of the entire code. GTML is basically a Perl script and runs on any platform that would support Perl. Open Source freeware.
• Htmlppl – The HTML Pre-processor: This html pre-processor also has quite a few of the similar features as mentioned in the other pre-processors. But one of the most amazing facts here is that the Perl code can be embedded and the output can be included on your HTML pages. This pre-processor can also be used for querying flat file databases as well. GNU Open Source freeware.
• HPP: This is quite an interesting looking Perl script which is still under development, which helps in processing directives sent to it through GET requests within the web pages. For example, if you would be writing your PHP enabled web page and then accessing it on the command line of your browser. This ultimately helps you in giving a lot of freedom for including the results of the Perl Scripts dynamically in your web pages. Alpha level open source freeware.