The value of a good editor is obvious, which editor is best however is not. This is due in part, to the constant quibbling over editors from within the industry itself. The debate over which editor is best will never end. I hope that I’m able to provide some good information that will assist anyone, beit someone editing their personal website or small business online presence to long term professional web designers.I doubt that I will not be entirely non-biased in my presentation of various editors. Hopefully I can be at least fair.

Lets layout a few major editors (If I do not mention your favourite editor I apologise.). There are hundreds out there, and I encourage you to explore others. Here we go:

WYSIWYG EDITORS

WYSIWYG (explain) stands for “What you see is what you get” this is an editor that generally works very much like a word processing application. It is visual in nature and lends itself well to those who are unfamiliar with the HTML language. .

Microsoft FrontPage

In most general circles FrontPage is the first website editor that comes to mind. It comes with many versions of MS Office so most people have at least heard of it. Microsoft FrontPage was created for individuals and small business owners, who are unfamiliar with HTML to be able to create a simple website with all the basic functionality they need.

Although a decent product and easy to use, Microsoft Word and FrontPage both have a habit of creating a lot of unnecessary code in your site. This code can cause issues with search engine compatibility and accessibility.

FrontPage though decent is not recommended for use on business sites. Microsoft actually has a product called Visual Development Studio which is meant as an enterprise level development tool for the creation of websites. It’s code is of a much higher level, however you do need to know what you’re doing.

Adobe GoLive®

Adobe GoLive is another popular product. I haven’t personally checked out the latest version CS2 however from all accounts I can’t recommend this product for any professional website. GoLive is notorious for creating it’s own custom code in the HTML, code which has been proven to cause issues with cross browser display of sites, and with search engine indexing. CS2 may work more like Dreamweaver though, as Adobe acquired Macromedia over the last year.

Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Dreamweaver

By far and away, Dreamweaver is renowned as the premier product for web design in most circles. Nothing is perfect but (IMHO) nothing is better.

There is a strong contingent of designers out there that swear by handcoding. While I’ve used several text editors and WYSIWYG editors I’ve yet to find one that works as well as Dreamweaver. Whether you use it as a WYSIWYG editor, a text editor or like myself switch back and forth from one to the other (love split mode) Dreamweaver produces good, clean code and has many many extra features which can make your job much easier.

Dreamweaver is actually part of the Adobe product line now. We all hope and pray that Adobe stays true to the Macromedia product line in the future.

TEXT EDITORS

Text editors (explain) are generally used by professionals who are familiar with HTML and prefer to hand-code. Many use simply notepad but there are many reasons to use a proper editor.

NotePad

Good ole Windows Notepad. This is the most basic of text editors. It doesn’t do anything, you do it all. I don’t recommend it as there are many many text editors out there which have tools to assist any designer at any level create better code.

HTML-Kit

HTML-Kit is a full-featured, highly customizable and free development environment that can be used to create, edit, validate, preview and publish web pages and scripts. HTML-Kit offers a great environment and text to program in many languages. Simple to use yet highly customizable with the ability to create coding templates, and customize how it implements tags this is a great text editor to add to your design tools.

CoffeeCup HTML Editor

CoffeeCup includes a visual (wysiwyg) and text editor in one. I’m only familiar with it’s use as a text editor and it holds up fairly well. CoffeeCup is a very popular tool and has been around since 1996.

Text Editors note: By and large text editors that are created for the purpose of coding HTML offer many varied features. Find one that offers good coding hints, and proper layout assistance and you’ll be well served.

Most important find an editor or editors that you are comfortable with and get to know it/them. None of us like to do it, however it’s a good idea to read the help files and tutorials so you can get the most out of any editor. It can also be a good idea to take a course in HTML to learn the basics of good coding and how to get even more out of your chosen editor(s).