What's the best html editor?

Fot this site I stopped using HTML editors (because they were screwing up the template driven php pages). I used notepad for the most part and wordpad when notepad was giving me blobk style formatting.

As to WYSIWYG editors:

I used to use Frontpage and recommend it for beginners. Dreamweaver is better for advanced coders but loads slowly. I don't use either of them now because notepad opens instantly while they take ages.

Frontpage does little more than html and css editing while Dreamweaver can handle dynamic scripting like ASP and PHP.

I haven't created any complex pages for for basic HTML I prefer plain old Wordpad. The Web development packages all seem to want to force you to do things their way and I always end up spending more time fighting with them than actually creating the pages I want.

The biggest advantage I found to Frontpage and similar programs is that they are great teaching tools. You can generate simple pages and then look at the source code.

Once you learn the commands it just seems easier to generate the pages using a text editor and the commands themselves though.

I like Net Objects MX and also Frontpage.

Frontpage, because it's both extremely user friendly and the common denominator with a great many sites and designers; but, for the best HTML editing and design software, Dreamweaver is the one.

For almost everyone who wants a highly reliable and easy to use program, Frontpage is all that most will ever need and require. Dreamweaver is for advanced issues, along with the simple, and offers far more detail flexibility than any others I've used.

A cautionary note: there's a tiny HTML editor that is well promoted by various sites, called "Coffee Cup," and it contains spyware (produced by the same people who offer "Comet Cursor") -- both these programs create registry entries and they're really irritating because of that.

Best to avoid them altogether and just buy Frontpage, if you want to get started with the near best, right away.

Look here for a list I compiled a few months ago:

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=18903

I use NetObjects Fusion sometimes as well, but I find that I always revert back to Notepad for nice clean scripting.

I have also heard people that have great success with Macromedia Homesite. I've wanted to try it. Has anyone used this?

I have used it but much prefer notepad. If I use a code editor at all I'll use a Macromedia Suite that syncs to a testing sever.

As I recall, Homesite lacks the WYSIWYG features of Dreamweaver and in fact, may be discontinued now that Allaire is part of Macromedia.

A new product called Macromedia Contribute appears promising for web site maintenance by non-web-experts, although it apparently doesn't let you create NEW web sites with it. You need to first create a site template using FP, DW, or other HTML editor.

I'd personally reccomend DreamWeaver MX

If you are the technical type, I put in a vote for emacs.

It is a techie based text-editor. It has a bunch of neat features that have been added over the years. For example it displays your tags in different colors and automatically matches parens, braces etc. (this helps identify errors quickly).

If you take the time to learn it, it makes coding very fast.

Best of all, it is free!

When I want WYSIWYG I use Amaya. This is a Open Source HTML editor that is pretty good -- and also available for free!

Can you see a trend here? Of course I use both of these programs on Linux, but they are both available on Windows as well.

Some of these powerful tools need a bit more time to master, but I find the flexibility and the little extra "helps" well worth the time.

What exactly is spyware????

Vivien,

I haven't seen spyware mentioned in this topic.

Is your question about spyware in the context of this topic or about spyware in general?

If it's about spyware in general please start a new topic in the computers forum and I'll answer it when I take a break.

WYSIWYG? Don't believe in it.

I believe in WYGIWYG.

Craven prolly didna notice this. .


Vivien, "spyware" is tracking software advertising companies like to install on your system which continuously "calls home" using your Internet connection and reports statistical data to the mothership.

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I use Dreamweaver, but rarely leave the HTML code edit section. I'll usually only switch to design view for setting up big tables quickly. Dreamweaver, however, is among the finest out there for generating nice clean HTML through a WYSIWYG editor. Prolly the worst way in the world to generate HTML is saving a document as a web page in Microsoft Word. Really nasty code it throws up!

Yeah I did miss that.

Monger is right about Word.

Word generates the ugliest code on earth (it's mostly not html).

Excel does the same thing but they at least do worksheets in an interesting way.

Update on what I use:

I now switch between notepad and wordpad and never use Dreamweaver (I have Macromedia Studio MX) or Front Page.

I prefer notepad but sometimes all the white space is sompressed so I'll open the code in wordpad.

A cautionary note: there's a tiny HTML editor that is well promoted by various sites, called "Coffee Cup," and it contains spyware (produced by the same people who offer "Comet Cursor") -- both these programs create registry entries and they're really irritating because of that.

Craven it was mentioned in the quote above on the previous page of this thread.

Monger - thanks for the explanation.

Yup, sorry Vivien, I scanned the thread and didn't see it.