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Introduction
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Most professional designers and web developers use an advanced WYSIWYG editor, such as DreamWeaver, but quite a few just use a simple text editor and take a certain pride in doing so. HTML text editors are fine for programmers or those who are comfortable coding raw html, but many users have no interest in this. They just want an editor that allows them to produce web pages quickly in a WYSIWYG environment. |
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Discussion
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Whether code-based or WYSIWYG, the ideal HTML editor should be able to validate that the html is standards-compliant, include a FTP client, preview the page in different browsers, support meta-tags and provide basic image editing, while still being free. |
HTML WYSIWYG Editors |
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Let's look at a few of the top WYSIWYG editors.
KompoZer's last full release was in August, 2008, but there is a beta in active development as of mid-May 2009. |
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Amaya lets users both browse and author web pages, which enables easy copying and pasting of information from other web pages and easy creation of links to other websites. You can seamlessly upload your web pages onto a server from within Amaya as well. There are about 3 Amaya releases each year. |
HTML Text Editors |
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Over the years, HTML-Kit has attracted a large community, so the support forums are very good. The website is full of video tutorials and resources like plugins. HTML-Kit is compatible with Vista and is also portable. HTML-Kit is a great choice for serious coders, offering support for file types including HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, XSL, JavaScript, VBScript, ASP, PHP, JSP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, VB, C/C++, .NET C#, Delphi / Pascal, Lisp, SQL, and more |
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It features optimizations for Javascript, HTML, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, PHP, CSS and many others. Aptana Studio plugins enable source control and over 1,000 other third-party extensions. |
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Finally, for advanced users who work in various programming environments, there is PSPad. It's a general-purpose programming editor with html syntax highlighting. This small tool has simple controls and handles plain text, yet is extremely capable. Saying you use PSPad for your coding scores you immediate points for technical machismo. |
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Related Products and Links
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You might want to check out these articles too: |
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Editor
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This software category is in need of an editor. If you are interested in taking it over, please email Elizabeth, our editorial co-ordinator with a little bit about your background and in particular, whether you have any commercial affiliation with products in this category. If you are currently logged in, you can contact Elizabeth directly by clicking here, if not then click here. |
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VIM! how could you guys forget vim??? Vim made my life 1000 times better. Using only the keyboard to edit documents was extremely freeing. it however does have a steep learning curve, stick with it for like a week (month even better) make it your default editor, and take the tutor (30mins in length) and with all that done, you'll probably start to get the hang of it.
Then you'll recognize how awesome it is to be able to push 3 letters to replace the contents the insides of tags or being able to do things that where hard (turning a horribly formated list into a HTML table?) easy as cake.
Gah there is sooo much to offer that no editor (except perhaps emacs) can do. it is hard to learn BUT it's worth it!.
http://www.vim.org/
Indico o Notepad++
No UTF, so it sucks.
There is a problem with the Quick Selection Guide..
Has anybody tried Screem html/xml editor? It seems currently to be only for linux:
http://www.screem.org
HTML-Kit 292 is *not* available in a 64 bit version nor in a portable version. HTML-Tools, the latest version of HTML-Kit, *is* available as a portable application but is not free.
So noted! Thanks for your input.
I've never seen any mention of DFM2HTML here. So check it out:
http://www.dfm2html.com/
;)
Tried dfml2html. I prefer the ability to open up any HTML file when I want to update it, instead of exporting to it later.
Any free WYSIWYG editors with FrontaPage style "Design time includes" ? Huge Plus would also be if it could actually import FrontPage generated sites.
Please check out Migajek Software's HateML Pro. Features list:
Download link:
http://www.migajek.com/ (9.2Mb)
Michal Gajek is still working on version 2.0... Hopefully developing is still ongoing.
Microsoft had made Sharepoint 2007 free. Sharepoint 2007 is a capable html editor which can also be used to create asp.net applications.
Sharepoint Designer 2007 is indeed a free download now. But back when Microsoft discontinued Front Page, they created two products to replace it: Sharepoint Designer and Expression Web. Sharepoint Designer is specifically targeted to those who work with sites that run on Windows Sharepoint Server (WSS) and/or Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS). Expression Web is the product targeted to non-Sharepoint web sites. The Microsoft Sharepoint Designer Team Blog has a good explanation of both products.
While they didn't vary much initially, Expression Web 2 now has many features that aren't in Sharepoint, such as Silverlight and native PHP support.
By releasing Sharepoint Designer 2007, Microsoft is promoting custom solutions built on Sharepoint. Some users of FrontPage may find Sharepoint Designer 2007 familiar though.
What about Serif web plus?
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/WebPlus/default.asp
Hi.
I hoghly recommend to try Codelobster PHP Edition
It is free PHP IDE including free HTML, CSS, JavaScript editor.
Regards.
Stas.
KompoZer updated!!!
2009-04-06
http://www.majorgeeks.com/KompoZer_d5797.html
Tried this latest version. The HTML code view is quite buggy and doesn't usually let you edit it. The CSS button is handy, only it deleted all the ID tags. Twice. (oops)
Nice clean interface but it messes up your work, so I'd stay away.
Turned out it wasn't deleting the ID tags, it was changing the view. What it WAS doing is adding "*|" in front of every selector in the stylesheet. This of course broke it. Serious bug - not sure if it's in opening the stylesheet in Kompozer or simply what it does. Bad news when a program changes code without asking.
In another program, a quick Find and replace fixed it.
How about NetObjects Fusion Essentials?
http://www.netobjects.com/html/essentials.html
If you like doing it the Netobjects way. Lots of features, drag and drop but better if you start with it rather than bringing something else in.
I like to start people with templates and a good WYSIWYG, then they can learn and be productive faster.
Has anyone tried the free version of Pagebreeze? (http://www.pagebreeze.com/)
Yes I have tried this and I like it very much. It seems easy enough for the beginner but advanced enough to get into heavy stuff as well. I would recommend this editor to beginners.
Here are free two editors I use:
Arachnophilia - http://arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.php (I use the Windows version - found in the revision history section - more than the Java version) I have been using this since 1998, when I designed my first site with it.
PHPEdit - http://phpedit.com.ua/
But I will see about using the two editors mentioned by chris.p, as I have had a need in the last two months to rapidly design a site which took more time than it should have, due to me trying to figure out how to correctly implement CSS.
I am also leary of using anything from Microsoft or anything from 'big' companies for that matter.
Arachnophilia is a very unusual editor (license-wise it has a 'careware' license - no money but do a good deed, have a good thought, for a moment of one day etc!!) due to its Author and his philosophy.
Enjoy.
Christopher
Sorry, forgot this info.
With PHP Edit click on the x in the top right corner to close that reg screen and use the program.
Christopher
PSPad has an ftp function: you can log on to your server, edit a live page, and save to update. This is great for quick adjustments and tweaks.
codelobster is good:
http://www.codelobster.com/details_phped.html
not wysiwyg but you can preview your works and its support php too
There is also another approach to HTML page creation that people may be interested in: the 'fast layout app' approach. It's what many of us use to create a 1st-step page that is used for design discussions and/or further action.
You need a specialist wysiwyg editor for this. These major on the fact that you can create the most complex and detailed page layout in seconds. However they have 2 disadvantages:
1. They are always one-way editors as they don't work in HTML, it's impossible to do this job in pure HTML. You create the page in the layout editor, export it to HTML, and kick it around from there.
2. They don't produce valid code, due to being outdated etc.
However they are unbeatable at one of the tricky jobs that many people can't get right: putting any page element anywhere on the page exactly where you want it, immediately. Once it's exported to HTML you can take the code and use it as the basis for further work. It's all in divs (layers) and CSS of course as that's (a) how this fast system works, and (b) the only way to code now in any case.
Here are two of these rapid-layout apps (both free):
WebDwarf
CoolPage
A very sophisticated commercial version of these, up-to-date but complex, is SiteSpinner. This worked in divs and CSS (the modern way to code pages in layers) years before DreamWeaver etc had heard of that.
As I say, fast layout apps will get you over the 'how to make the page layout right' stage but the code is poor by modern standards.
chris.p
Where is the HTML-Kit 292 portable you refer in article ??? How about a DL URL ? I used version provided in it's site, and after a registry search I can tell installer creates 969 keys in registry. DL URL please ?
I think this site also needs to review what "portable" means. Currently, there are all sorts of "portable" flavours. Maybe a "stealth" indicator would help ?
This page currently has no editor. Therefore updates etc are not being fully taken care of. If you look at the page editor detail, it says 'site.editor'. That is our code for a review that has been written but the editor dropped out or took on another category. Volunteer needed.
chris.p
Yeah, I saw that to, I just don't think that is an excuse to post wrong info (there is no 'Kit portable). The other "portable" problem I refer extents to ALL the site, it is not specific of this page.
A new version of KompoZer(0.8a1) was released on February 6, 2009.
Here's the link to its download page at SourceForge.net:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=170132
Went to above link.
Downloaded and unzipped kompozer-20090206-win32.zip. Copied to Program Files. Wouldn't start.
SO...deleted above and
I tried kompozer-20090206a-win32.zip....etc. Wouldn't start.
"Release Name: 0.8a1
Notes: This version is built upon Gecko 1.8.1. Many bugs are solved, a few cool features have been added, but it's only an alpha release. Do NOT use for production, you WILL loose data. The Linux version comes first. A Windows build has just been added but it's untested. Update: two Micosoft DLLs are missing in the kompozer-20090206-win32.zip archive, please use kompozer-20090206a-win32.zip instead."
The other kompozer download is kompozer-20090206.tar.gz. I assume this one's for Linux?
"A Windows build has just been added but it's untested." Right. They didn't even attempt to START it let alone test it. :o)
Has anyone gotten the windoes ver. up and running?
Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?
Deemarie
My apologies, I totally missed the "alpha" designation on this release.
The most recent stable release is version 0.7.10 dated August 30, 2007 and you can find download links here: http://kompozer.net/download.php.
Clearly though, this product is still in development which is good news ... and it should get even better with the next stable release, whenever that is.
Thank you very much.
I tried the bluevoda tool and it is quite promising. Here below is the link:
www.bluevoda.com (freeware)
ekadim
I've heard that bluevoda is good but you can only publish to vodahost servers?
Technically yes. However, when you preview the page, an html page is created temporarily in one of temp directories. This is one workaround way.
Another workaround is that when you complete your page design, you can go to the html tab and copy the whole code to another web tool.
I tried many free web tools but none of them including Kompozer has been as powerful as this one. I have yet the Microsoft Express Web Designer to test.
ekadim
Notetab (www.notetab.com) is my favorite free text editor. It has a set of libraries for coding HTML and many other functions, plus you can create your own. Fab for automating the creation of HTML or entire web pages. The PRO version is great value, with enhancements for HTML coding such as coloured HTML tags.
Yes, it's my favourite text editor too. I use it on a page after building it in a fast layout app.
Nice syntax highlighting, libraries, and an especially good clipboard feature for building permanent clips. For example I have a range of DocTypes as clips that can just be pasted into a page.
So if you want to build a really fast page that's so simple you don't need the wysiwyg editor - for example a custom error page with no gfx - you can do it very quickly in NoteTab, and it will validate as well. Ace, when you need to maintain site quality.
chris.p
And what would be the best html editor for a Mac? Particularly looking for something that a youngster who's getting comfortable with html could grow with. Thx. - NY Mac parent
Try Freeway and iWeb.
I'm not a Mac guy but those are what Mac people I know use. Unfortunately I've no idea if they are free or not.
One piece of advice that seems to be sorely lacking just about everywhere: do NOT load an HTML page onto a website without checking to see if the code is anywhere near right. Use the W3C online validator at:
http://validator.w3.org
If you're going to start learning to code, either by hand, or via wysiwyg, then this is the second step after creating a page. It's also the most important for any number of reasons.
chris.p
Other people have mentioned it also but what about Visual Web Developer Express Edition?
http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/
Any idea which of these "free" editors might support vertical editing? I only saw one that listed it as a feature (not free however) but many of these editors don't have a feature listing.
Notepad++ is very similar to PSPad in that it is a general text/multi-language editor. It is open source and seems to have pretty regular updates. There are also some plugins for it and lots of customization options.
I use it for HTML and other Web and general programming, and when just typing up little notes here and there. It does text highlighting based on the language you're using and can do autocomplete if you have that turned on. It also allows for folding (hiding of intermediate sections) of any and ALL levels of indented text to a point that more "professional" programming editors like Visual C++ Express 2005 do not allow. That is to say that every single level of indenting groupings can be folded closed or compressed and then re-expanded, versus just higher-level sections, which is extremely helpful when dealing with very long files with lots of loops and trying to get an overview. Additionally, if you are running into errors because of a missing bracket or similar, you can easily find the problem by folding all your sections together and seeing where a section compresses in the wrong spot--and it can save you a lot of time.
You can download it at http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net.
I use Trellian with Vista and found it to be really good, apart from the ftp publishing. So i imported CoreFTP into Trellian to publish, and it works fine. I have used NVU and Kompozer but they have caused problems and they are outdated now. Trellian is continually updated.
This site is excellent. Thank you
R.Pimm
what about visual web developer express? it doesnt support all protocols, but it damn good for html css javascript and asp.net
Do you know if Trellian is working well in Vista?
I tried it but then I want to write something in Editor it just freezes for a few seconds, writes a few letters, freezes again and so on.
I'd like to recommend another one, which I am surprised is not mentioned here! This tool is very well known by programmers and is Visual Web Developer Express Edition (http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/). While this tool does way more than just html (and xml and css and javascript, etc.) editing, it also contains absolutely all of the features mentioned here plus many more plus within a powerful environment.
I was using PSPAD and Nvu before, PSPAD for html editing and Nvu only for automatic html generation (Nvu is unusable for other purposes as full of bugs and with that crazy habit of modifying your code whenever you update it from the wysiwyg area). I switched very happily plus started coding in ASP.NET as well when Microsoft made that great tool free.
Visual Web Developer Express is awesome, but I doubt the average Joe is capable of using it. Online installation is a bit tricky, in several occasions I couldn't tell if the window was frozen. It is not designed to be easy for novice and it does require knowledge of HTML and CSS to use. Interface could be more intuitive. Power tool for advanced users.
Please consider adding ewisoftDOTcom (New version 4.3.4.22 released June 2008) It's totally free and looks really easy to use.
-Herb
[link edited out by chris.p - this is payware unless you can prove otherwise]
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