I am in the process of changing over from an old PC running Windows XP to a new one running Windows 7, and my beloved HomeSite 5 HTML editor software won’t install on the new system.
Is there any way to get it to install and run under Win7? If not, can anyone recommend a good freeware/cheap replacement with similar functionality? (No way do I want to pay $400 for DreamWeaver, the official HomeSite replacement.)
Have you tried compatibility mode or Windows XP mode?
The problem is that it won’t even install without errors. The compatibility mode settings appear to be for an already installed program that won’t run properly.
If you just need the syntax highlighting and stuff, get notepad++. If you need the design stuff, get uh… maybe Visual Web Developer Express.
If you want a free WYSIWYG HTML editor, you might take a look at SeaMonkey Composer. It’s part of Mozilla’s SeaMonkey package. I can’t speak for how it stacks up against HomeSite, as I haven’t used either (or any WYSIWYG HTML editor), but I strongly suspect it will produce much better HTML output than an editor that is so out of date it can’t even be installed on Windows 7. 
I second Notepad++ if you are just looking for context highlights. I am a long-time Homesite user (Homesite 4) and I’ve pretty much ditched it for Notepad ++. It’s just much lighter.
No recommendations for a WYSIWYG tho. I could never get that part of Homesite to work.
Never mind - I found a couple of fixes to solve the HomeSite install error problem, and then the subsequent startup error problem.
If anyone else is interested, the fixes are at http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/000/7a2b08bb.html and http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/402/kb402832.html.
Mods - this thread can be closed now.
For lightweight, but functional software, I like CoffeeCup products.
They have a decent HTML editor (with preview) and integrated FTP, and a decent WYSIWYG editor as well which works ok 98% of the time for everything I use it for.
They also have free trials for everything, so you can give it a run.
Before you do that… I’m curious, how modern is the last version of Homesite? Does it support things like CSS2 (or 3), XHTML, PHP, etc.?
I’m getting a bit tired of Dreamweaver’s bloat and never really use the WYSIWYG features anyway. wouldn’t mind going back to a code-only editor.
**Palooka/Stealth Potato/Khendrask **- I’ll check these out - they look like they might be useful replacements if needed.
**Reply **- the last HomeSite version 5.5 release was in 2003 (although it was continued as the HTML editor component of DreamWeaver for a number of years). It includes TopStyle Lite as a CSS editor (CSS1 only, from what I can determine), and includes XHTML 1.0 support and PHP support (I haven’t used these, and some functions seem to require separate plug-ins to be added).
No WYSIWYG, although you can switch between code view and an IE view, but I find it more convenient just to open the page in a separate browser window.