I’ve been working with HTML for years, but I’ve never actually used an HTML/Website editor. Currently, I still use just Notepad, which is a pain in the ass when dealing with a lot of documents and/or complicated codes, tables etc.
I figure a good HTML editor might make my life easier, but I know nothing about them. Are there any good (hopefully free) programs out there?
Ideally, I’d like something where I can define a webpage’s width, create tables with ease, drop in photos where I want, and has an easy-to-read source code so I can manually edit it, and a built-in spell-checker.
Are there any programs that come close to fitting this niche? Thanks!
Either Nvu or Dreamweaver will do this for you, Nvu being a prominent open-source app and Dreamweaver the prime professional (and suitably priced) app.
I actually still use 4.5 (pre-Macromedia) because I like it so much.
Great color-coding and some nice wizards. I used the wizards a ton when I was first starting out. The Special Characters map and Document Weight and Validation tools are awesome.
(I still use the frameset wizard to get me going on frames. Don’t tell anyone…)
Homesite hasn’t been updated in many years, unfortunately. It’s a bit lacking in utilising some of the newer coding methods and languages. However, it is an excellent app for fast and convenient editing of HTML.
Dreamweaver, or any other WYSIWYG apps, are not recommended.
Professional web designer chiming in here. Dreamweaver is an excellent, stellar application. It’s got a WYSIWYG window, but code appears right above so you can watch both and fix it on the rare occassion Dreamweaver messes up the code. Nowadays, though, that’s rare.
I’d also encourage all of you talking about frames and tables to explore the wonderful world of CSS based layouts if you take web design seriously at all. Framesets can be duplicated in a nearly identical way using CSS, but with fewer files, faster download time, less annoyance, better bookmarking/back/forward issues, accessibility, easier updates… Table based layouts have some of the same issues.
So long story short, make sure the HTML editor you get can handle CSS as well. Dreamweaver does it brilliantly.
I use Visual Studio only because I have a free copy of it and I program with ASP. But in truth I use it like a fancy text editor. I think anything that can color code and indent nicely, find missing parentheses (my nemesis) and work with modern technologies like css and xml would do well. I don’t have a specific name of one for you though.
Also not to hijack too much, I agree that CSS is great, but I had to revert back to a table layout after trying to use css on a website. I was trying to use css with divs and size everything dynamically on the screen. This involved using javascript to find the size of the window and then moving things around which invoked the scroll bars to appear which meant that everything had to be resized again. It was working OK for most, but had trouble in some specific browsers. The exact situation is hard to describe, obviously, but I think I found the only possible situation where tables worked better than CSS for layout!
I have yet to find anything that I couldnt get HomeSite to do… I do wish (and they probably exist out there as plugins) that it had a little stronger support for J2EE (parsers and validators, maybe even a JavaCompiler built in)… but it still suffices to do basic JSP work.
As for CSS, it used to, and maybe still does, ship with a program called “TopStyle”… does what I needs it to do.
FTR, been in the game since “Internet in a box” and “Trumpet Winsock”… there has never been a WYSIWYG editor that is worth its salt.