Choosing a Web Page Editor

Software Choices	HTML is HTML is HTML. You can open and work on any web page in any text editor or web page editor. There are three basic categories of software you can choose from when you start to create web pages: Text Editors HTML Editors WYSIWYG Editors
Text Editors	A text editor is simple word processing software that creates plain text in ASCII format. Such editors save your file with the txt extension. Windows 95/98/XP comes with Notepad, a simple text editor. To create a web page in Notepad: Type your contents and use raw code (i.e., HTML tags enclosed in angle brackets) to make your page visible in a browser. Save your file as a text file but when you name the file, use the .htm extension. Take a tour of Notepad
HTML Editors	An HTML editor is a program that creates macros (i.e., shortcuts) to save you the tedium of typing raw HTML code. The best known HTML editor is HomeSite v. 1.2 is freeware v. 4.0 is the most recent commercial version of HomeSite HomeSite 4.0 includes an internal browser and a WYSIWYG feature. It refers to itself as "the WYSIWYN (What You See Is What You Need) solution." A comparable HTML editor for the Mac platform is BBEdit.
WYSIWYG Editors	The most popular HTML editors are WYSIWYG editors. Higher end word processing programs such as Microsoft Word are capable of saving documents as HTML files. Some WYSIWYG editors are freeware: AOL Press Arachnophilia Mozilla Composer, bundled in the Mozilla browser suite Nvu, an offshoot of Mozilla Composer There are also many commercial WYSIWYG editors. The most popular is Dreamweaver.	NOTE: WYSIWYG (pronounced whizzy-wig) stands for What You See Is What You Get
	Your choice of software is a matter of personal preference. You should consider several factors: budget hard drive space available RAM complexity of your web pages tolerance for learning program features size of your web site desire to use sophisticated layout and/or CGI scripts and Java applets
Rules of Thumb	You will be much more successful with your choice of software if you first learn how to code a page directly with HTML. A knowledge of HTML has several significant advantages: understanding of the tagging language ability to read the source code of a web page whose design or colors you would like to emulate ability to troubleshoot the design of your own pages ability to add HTML on the fly to discussion forums, email messages, and instant messages
	Learn enough HTML to be able to create a basic web page with features such as: headlines aligned text variety of fonts and font sizes line and paragraph breaks color absolute, relative, and internal hyperlinks email links lists simple tables images
	Move to an HTML editor to save the aggravation of typing HTML. Use freeware WYSIWYG software such as Netscape Composer to save time. Move to commercial WYSIWYG software such as FrontPage 98/2000 when: you start to use sophisticated table design to control the layout of your pages you start to create and manage web sites with multiple folders and sections of pages Most people need/want a commercial WYSIWYG editor to help them with forms and with applets such as time stamps, counters, marquees, and hover buttons.
Comparisons	Remember that differences in monitors and quirks in browsers as well as personal preferences set by your site visitor will affect the way your web pages are actually displayed. HTML gives you the most control over your web pages. However, even HTML is not interpreted exactly the same in even the more recent versions of Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer, by far the two most popular browsers.
	Freeware is free and generally simple enough to learn quickly in one session. Commercial software can be expensive and often has a significant learning curve. It also takes up lots of RAM and lots of hard drive space.
HomeSite 1.2	HomeSite 1.2 is a very robust freeware program. Advantages: clean HTML advanced features such as forms and a Frames Wizard Disadvantages: requires thorough knowledge of HTML, both the tags and their attributes and values requires an external browser can open only one file at a time Take a tour of HomeSite 1.2
Mozilla Composer and Nvu	Mozilla Composer and Nvu are excellent freeware WYSIWYG programs. The two programs are similar; Nvu is based on Composer and is probably a better choice as it is more likely to be upgraded more frequently. Advantages: Easy to learn; very similar to word processing Easy to create simple tables Easy to preview in a browser Disadvantages: Not much support for cascading style sheets No frames or forms capability Difficult to create sophisticated tables Take a tour of Mozilla Composer. Take a tour of Nvu.
Commercial Software	All common commercial WYSIWYG software has advanced features that creators of large web sites will find most useful: spell checking folder views navigation views and ability to use navigation views to change a web site's structure ability to check and update hyperlinks ability to create advanced and sophisticated tables with ease ability to create page templates ability to simplify the insertion of applets such as counters wizards to aid in the creation of frames and forms However, the more advanced features a program has, the longer the learning curve to learn how to use those features
FrontPage	Once one of the most accessible popular commercial WYSIWYG software programs, FrontPage is no longer being supported by Microsoft. However, many people continue to use this program. Advantages: As a Microsoft product, it has a large user base and lots of technical support Uses familiar Microsoft toolbars and menus Compatible with other Microsoft software such as Word, Excel, and Access Can use shared borders to create site navigation Ability to save custom colors Ability to paint formats Disadvantages: HTML code is not particularly clean Makes assumptions that often cause the user to point to an incorrect hyperlink or save a page to the wrong folder Microsoft themes are easily recognizable to the web surfer; using them labels you as a net newbie; also if your pages are part of a larger site, your theme affects the entire site. Take a tour of FrontPage 2000 Microsoft has replaced FrontPage with a program called Expression Web. Students can download Expression Web as part of Expression Studio by going to Microsoft Dreamspark. Take a tour of Expression Web
Dreamweaver	Dreamweaver tends to get the highest marks in comparisons done by professional web page editors. Advantages: Creates very clean HTML code Provides an array of typical cascading style sheet templates Supports other tagging languages such as Cold Fusion Allows the use of layers to create very sophisticated tables Disadvantages: Interface buttons, and menu bars are unfamiliar to users with experience with Microsoft products. Requires some knowledge of HTML Take a tour of Dreamweaver 8
	Regardless of the editor you use, you must: design for a standard 1024 x 768 pixel monitor preview your pages in both Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer
	More information about HTML, reviews of software, and tutorials for a variety of web page editors are available in many locations, including: CNET Webmonkey Web Design from About.com Web Design Center