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This is a great list, but does any one of these other editors come close to offering the features and ease of use that DreamWeaver does? I don’t know of any professional web designer/developer that uses anything other than DreamWeaver.

Another great cross platform tool is Aptana

I used FrontPage a couple of years ago when I was just starting with web design but I was so annoyed with its code that I quit WYSIWYG editors. But judging by the list, I’d give Nvu a shot..

Nice summary. CODA should also be mentioned: http://www.panic.com/coda/

I don’t know of any professional web designer/developer that uses anything other than DreamWeaver.

Are you serious!?!?!

How about mentioning some of the professional programs used by professionals on here, like Eclipse, Netbeans, .NET, etc…. Real professionals use a development environment that helps and supports the coding language your writing. Sure, cutting your teeth on dreamweaver or one of these other freebie toys is a great way learn the ropes. You need to move into textpad or something non-GUI based to really gain any real talent or skill.

A lot of big companies will ask you to hand write out some code for them as an example in an interview. If DOCTYPE and meta information wasn’t the first thing you thought of when reading that, your not even close yet to being a professional and should consider switching to a different development environment.

I mainly use CODA – given, it’s not exactly WYSIWYG (though you can preview files after you code them). When I’m looking for ease of use, I go with Dreamweaver CS3.

No WYSIWYG for me, but Aptana does the trick.

I’m with Gunnar, Aptana is just awesome, it’s a true IDE.

This is really more of a list + features, not a review.

You did miss Windows Live Writer:
http://get.live.com/writer/overview
A good choice for remote blog posting, via one of several blogger type API’s
-ty

Are you serious!?!?!

How about mentioning some of the professional programs used by professionals on here, like Eclipse, Netbeans, .NET, etc…. Real professionals use a development environment that helps and supports the coding language your writing. Sure, cutting your teeth on dreamweaver or one of these other freebie toys is a great way learn the ropes. You need to move into textpad or something non-GUI based to really gain any real talent or skill.

I hate to disagree here but I’m gonna have to. Just because some people prefer to use one solution over the other doesn’t mean they have no “real” talent or skill or that they aren’t professionals. It means that the program they are using works for them. That attitude reminds of a guy I used to work with who was MS certified who told me our company shouldn’t even consider using PHP because the language would be dead in a year (it’s now 3+ years later).

A lot of big companies will ask you to hand write out some code for them as an example in an interview. If DOCTYPE and meta information wasn’t the first thing you thought of when reading that, your not even close yet to being a professional and should consider switching to a different development environment.

Since I own my own company, I don’t have to worry about interviews but I’m of the opinion that just because I can’t write the DOCTYPE or meta info from memory doesn’t mean I’m not close to being a professional. It means that I have templates set-up with these things already in place to maximize my time and be able to make more money. Part of being a professional is good time management. If I have to repetitively type something because that makes me a “professional” then I’ll gladly call myself an amateur and pass on those savings to my clients—which I’m sure they appreciate a lot more than knowing if I can type all the code by hand.

“The last version was released in August 2008. Kompozer can be considered”

how come? :) released into the future? :))

Isn’t that somehow unrealistic? :)

PS: are the comments manually-approved or my previous comment went spam?

WYSIWYG editors are generally terrible all around.

I would seriously consider any web designer who claims to adhere to (or understand) web standards and design and touts themselves as professional who uses almost any of these (from the ones I have actually used and heard of) as suspect .

Web design and WYSIWYG do not mix. Period.

That’s like calling Contribute a CMS, which is how it is all too often sold as.

I have worked much with DreamWeaver and Contribute (my old employer refused to stray from it), and the amount of work you need to put into it just to ensure that the user won’t break the styles is hard enough, never mind attempting to validate the output semantically.

The only issue with Dreamweaver is that some/many-times it doesn’t matches the final real output. In the beggining I used to work a lot with it, and for laying out text and applying classes is ok.
While I’m writing this, I realized that the topic is WYSIWYG, not coding, not IDE. For w…, Dreamweaver with its integration with other products is the king. However, Fireworks is more w… than DW, DW tries to reach for the code too and that’s its falldown. Fireworks should’ve been in this list as the better wysiwyg.

I used to use Dreamweaver, but now that I’m very advanced in xHTML/CSS, I don’t need it since its a resource hog and the FTP sucks sometimes. Now I just use Notepad++ and Filezilla for F T P.

I tried Aptana, but they were missing some features such as anonymous FTP login (for work on internal servers), and some other features.

If you’re using PHP then I would strongly recommend using Zend, built by “the” PHP company. Best advice here is learn HTML first then use a WYSIWYG editor. I can’t tell you how much crap I’ve had to fix for somebody else that was auto-generated by a lame editor.

Just spent 20 minutes fiddling around with the Coda trial.

I can understand the positive energy. Very light, very fast, with tight integration of a quality FTP client. My only issue being that there’s no popup CSS code hints. Like others with a good understanding of CSS, I want to write directly into the document (single line font and background declarations, especially) and not have to resort to filling out forms. It seems to be aimed at pros, so I figure they should have such a feature.

I have to agree with the prevailing feeling. WYSIWYG editors are the bane to a well formed web. It teaches laziness and bad coding methodologies. Not to mention the bigger ones use templates to keep websites with them from editor to editor. Best thing for a newbie to do is to learn by hand as painful as the process can be. At least it is cheaper.

Another notepad user here. When I started building sites dreamweaver and frontpage were common place as were the bloated unintelligable code the output. I haven’t tried DW since, so maybe I’ll take a look.
But I get on fine using my own templates, notepad for tweaking and Topstyle (http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/TopStyle/Default.aspx) for PHP and CSS coding (cause of the hints and layout help with the code). It sometimes gets a look in on HTML coding, but thats almost always started off in notepad.

Off to torrent DW ;)

I do all the pages with notepad++, with css it’s very easy and fast to code a xhtml and css valid webpage. First I design the webpage in Photoshop for showing the client to have a generic ideia. After aproval, I take about 2 to 3 hours to create all the xhtml and css code. I used dreamweaver before, but when codding all manually i have absoluty 100% control of the webpage, also since the webpages i create use template codding, for example, i don’t repeat the header and the footer, i put in different php files and then grab then, it’s much more simple to me viewing the code, i remember sometimes dreamweaver stucked when showing some css div’s.

Coding all the page with a normal notepad with a sintax highlighter have improved to evolve to the next level.

(Sorry the bad english)

i also code with notepad++, quanta plus or aptana… human code is always better than generated one

What great timing! I just guest-blogged on the importance of freelance writers having their own website, and there are some great tools listed here that will help folks do just that. I used Rapidweaver for my first site, but have switched to a Wordpress-hosted site that I tweak by hand in Textwrangler (Mac text editor).

I can also recognize this is the kind of article that can drive a design professional crazy since it points to all sorts of ways a nondesigner can do a mediocre job on their own. Unlike most nondesigners, though, I recognize the limits of my talents and do intend to hire a pro when my budget allows!

I tried DW, but once you learn how to hand-code your sites with Coda, you’ll never go back.

I agree with Ed, I am a Rapidweaver user and fully believe that is the best. From being able to create custom templets, to the great plugins. Its easy for non-experienced users, and great for some who are advance in html, css, php, or whatever you want just about.
Hands down it is the best app for web design!

I’ll have to 2nd Zend, as a user that moves between M$, Linux, and OS X. Zend is the ideal editor.

Funny… I always thought Nvu was pronounced “envy you” – as in the end product/design. Apparently I hadn’t read up on the package before briefly using it.

I can’t believe Coda got mentioned so many times. I used Dreamweaver for years until Mac got their intels and I didn’t feel like spending the money to upgrade Dreamweaver as well. I ended up with Coda and I was worried that I would get stuck with the code, but I didn’t and I wouldn’t want to switch back now. I really like Coda!! It’s not a WYSIWYG, but that preview mode is great . Why don’t you guys make a list about apps like Coda, Rapidweaver, CSSEdit etc. I don’t think there are many designers that read these posts that don’t have a single clue about html or other code and I feel like this post is a little too basic. Even those that are using Dreamweaver are most likely using the code view for work not design view.

“Im a geek i code by hand and refresh. wysiwyg is for lazy. real developers use .net and need intelisense…” man why do people get so edgy about this stuff. obviously some tools work better for others. I use dreamweaver to manage files, and quickly edit pages. I code by hand or use there tools when its faster. Code a table by hand vs a wysiwyg (and before you go on about tables I mean for tabular use you standards compliant nazi freaks).

At the end of the day- for PHP, Ruby or .net programming or whatever you need a different tool. for whipping a up a quick 10 page website that you charge $5K for and want done in 2 days- you need a streamlines approach, easy tools, and XHTML&CSS knowledge. not this tool or that tool.

I was hoping to read about a wysiwyg editor that:
– warns me of problomatic CSS- ie bugs, x-browser rendering differeces. Not because i don’t know, but because i have a life outside of work and forget over the years all the bugs. monday after a big weekend and a websites due nothings worse than looking at some code knowing you’ve solved the problem before and can’t remember.

- has intellegent CSS design. has lightbox and sifr and grids and ajax stuff inbuild, and updatable from their website like an rss feed or something. I read and keep up to date on the latest and greatest ninja code techniques but i got other things on my mind too, im trying to learn motion design, get out of the house more and I can’t keep on top of new knoweldge forever. – maybe thats why some people get so anus over discussions like this, they have invested so much time into the knowledge its become part of their identity and they feel the need to let everyone know what they know. I know someone else who was bursting to express himself: Seung-Hui Cho. yeah. didn’t work out so good.

I think some of you need to go for a walk and calm down. Just because someone doesn’t develop/code/design/build the same way you do doesn’t mean you’re right or they are right.

we can all be right.

except frontpage/sharepoint designer lovers. Can you believe that I can’t even force MOSS to be standards compliant and SharePoint Designer has the nerve to tell me I’m writing bad code.

Notepad is the only way to edit any web content. If you aren’t fluent with HTML, XSLT, etc, you have no business doing any kind of web design. Learn your server model languages and get bck to us actual web professionals. Syntax coloring and dynamic validation is for ignorant pussies.

Coda for Mac+CSS Edit=Amazing. Please include these programs next time!

maybe Aptana is the best editor too.

As i said, i use notepad++ to code everything, sintax highlight helps to seperate the vars and it’s quick to find specific code. I feel sad that some people says that coding is professional and using wysiwug software is for newbies, it has nothing to do with it. Being professional is all about the final result, not the tools you use to reach the goals. Even coding could demonstrate a bigger knowledge than someone using software, it doesnt mean the final result will be better ;)

I use Quanta Plus, it’s not really WYSIWYG editor. I like it because it offers a comfortable code editor for XHTML and CSS, and syntax highlight for JavaScript. However, sometimes a prefer using Aptana for JavaScript and PHP.
I think if a developer cares about web standards, accessibility etc, handcoding will be his/her natural choice, even with Dreamweaver (argh!!!).

I can make a site in notepad too!

I’m so cool. it’s the outcome not the tool.

tools

I always use Dreamweaver. you can split the screen, so you can code by hand and see what you’ve written. by the way i really like the code highlighting and the ftp-thing. You don’t have to work WYSIWYG with Dreamweaver, just use it as an editor.

Tim you are a twat

is there any list out there to read trough for photoshop plugins, what they do or photoshop actions to make the life easier?

my editor is notepad++. i switched from dreamweaver after a loving relationship for more then 4 years. notepad++ looks good, gives me everything i need, can be pimped with new colour-shemes and make it unique ( for design-lovers only ) but too use and handle this free tool is outstanding.

again a great and useful article. and maybe someone can hel me with my question from above ;)

Up next week, “25 WYSIWYG Word Processors Reviewed”

Of course, we all know that real writers use LaTeX. Hand written in Notepad. :)

What does “concorcium” mean?

some professional web designers just use a good non WYSIWYG editor like UltraEdit and page opnened in several browsers to cut the design coming from PSD or AI but this is about WYSIWYG :)

Oh!….

Why Still some of the developers to develop thier pages without using the WYSISWYG editors.
Its waste of time & Energy

Choose better WYSIWYG editor suitable to your project. save your time.

IMHO the best WYSIWYG editor for web is a set of Photoshop + Aptana/Eclipse + browsers’ dev tools.

Where is CODA? :)

I started web design in 1997 using notepad. Moved on to Hotdog pro (anyone remember that?). For the last 6 years I’ve been using dreamweaver simply because it cuts out a lot of the gunk and the speed I create pages is so fast. I can hand code HTML and CSS with my eyes shut but I would never hand code simply because it takes too much time.

Good post but looking at this lot I’ll still be using DreamWeaver (Visual studio 2008 has got a lot better for the front end designer but still DW is the best imho).

Agree it would be nice to see a review of text/code editors. And I’d love for you to find out from Adobe why one of the best editors out there – HomeSite – has been left to rot. I believe it’s because they put all their eggs in DW, but it would be nice to know for sure.

don’t care what anyone says… i love the GoLive.. and i was happy with at least a v. 9 that did come out with some really great tools that i hope one day would make it into dreamweaver. until my golive 9 dies i refuse to make the switch the interface is so much easier than dreamweaver.

goliver since 6.0!

dreamweaver for me is the best! ^^

25 editors and you miss Coda, how dare you!

Yuriy, you are off target on a few points.

A) DreamWeaver does not have a “real” code folding algorithm at all, and does a pathetic attempt at doing such. For instance, you have “code fold” anything you can highlight. So, I could, if I wanted to, code fold “DreamWeaver” to “+D..R”. Yeah, that’s not what code folding is.

B) DW is a huge memory hog. Running files up to 600 lines of code or more seriously begin to choke the system you are running. Having color syntax highlighting and “code folding” even adds more salt to this wound.

C) It requires a hefty 800mb to install and most of this is for the WYSIWYG aspects of the install. So, if you are claiming that you only use it for the basic features of projects and FTP because you code by hand, why would you go through all of this rather than switching to one of the ridiculously fast and light weight alternatives that include these features? Maybe you are a masochist? I don’t want to assume.

D) Perhaps you are using the DWT template feature? If this is so, don’t get me started about how flawed that is.

E) Well, to be honest I lost track of all of the reasons I have come up with over the years as to why DW is bad. And yes, I have used CS3 and none of these issues have been addressed.

In summary, if you claim to use DW like a “real designer” should (who knows anything about standards and proper web design), then you are either a masochist or really are using some aspect you are not claiming to when you consider that any decent aspect that the “IDE” offers you is available in various free software that runs 100% faster and more reliably.

lol! ACK!! k guys. I’m what you’d call a “potential client”:)

To quote a part of the article; “Sometimes you need to provide your clients with some simple tools to edit or update their web-sites. And this is where the utility of WYSIWYG-editors comes in. As a web-professional you need to provide your clients with some sophisticated advice and offer a simple yet effective tool — e.g. a WYSIWYG-editor.”

Seems some of you are missing the point here! Might not be about what editor YOU use as a professional but what you can provide your clients to use to update and maintain their own sites. Times are tough as I’m sure we all know! I for one as a potential client couldn’t really afford to hire a designer/coder much less purchase software such as DW!! Throw your clients a bone now and again and they’ll refer you to their contacts which could very well = some good income for you;)

BTW…being someone that needs a site done but due to the lack of any extra funds…PERIOD. I appreciate this list! As a potential client speaking IF I were to be able to pay someone to do a site for me I sure wouldn’t care HOW on earth they did it as long as it was functional, I loved it AND I got some more bang for my buck by being introduced to one of these wysiwyg editors by my web guy to make changes and updates on my own, whenever I found the need to:)

Another vote for microsoft’s Visual Web Developer. It’s free, and good.

thanks people..i was facing some editors issues

it gonna help me a lot

I code and design all of my sites in my mind. If anyone actually needs to use a computer to code, design, or even view Web Pages, they’re clearly an amateur and have no place in the 21st Century. If I was transported to 1843 I could still code web sites using a hammer and chisel. Alright? So even if you use Notepad or a notepad, keep in mind that real web professionals rely on their wit and self-satisfaction and wouldn’t touch a computer with a ten-foot pole.

For Potential Client:
You will always find designers who are willing to work for less, and it always shows.
The way every client out there needs to look at it is this: any one can write a book, but it doesn’t mean it will be done well. So, the real issue is this: are you the kind of client who just don’t care about who writes their book or if it’s well done, or are you the kind who sees the value in what it really is?
There are plenty out there who just see their web site as just a page everyone will view in Internet Explorer, like it’s some necessity for the web. Like putting their little flag in soil. That’s fine. It will show and reflect poorly on their business.
On the other hand, there are plenty of clients out there who realise the importance of the web and various things that come with a web site done well, and they will pay for it. After all, it’s not just a web site that mentions your business, it’s part of your presence and branding. Would you pay just any schmuck to build you office?

A

Dreamweaver? Are you goddam crazy? It makes bad code, it messes up style sheets, it sends files across by FTP when you don’t want it to.

I used it for a couple of years but dumped it for a code editor as soon as I got proficient.

Don’t rely on it!

Akiva Levy,

RE A) DreamWeaver’s “fake” code folding is actually the best feature it has. Using the select+fold method I can fold anything I want, whether it’s a block of code, a big comment, several helper functions, whatever. I love this feature and seriously miss it wherever “real” code folding is implemented. I do not want to be restricted to only folding the data between { and }, as is the case with many editors.

RE B) I have never noticed any memory hogging problems with Dreamweaver. I often have several files of several *thousand* lines open, among with a couple smaller ones, and I have never experienced any problems with speed. Furthermore, if I have Dreamweaver open, chances are I’m also running Photoshop (which is using anywhere from 500mb – 1.5GB of RAM), Firefox (don’t even get me started), and a bunch of other apps. I’m using an Intel E4300 (1.8GHZ C2D) with 4GB of DDR2 and very rarely experience any kind of lag. And face it, this hardware is dirt cheap and commonly available.

RE C) You’re complaining about hard drive space… in 2008? A 500GB drive (of which I have 4) costs $100… The only problem here is that CS3 takes forever to install, but that’s a one time process (and if you make a ghost image of your clean system + CS3, it’s the last time you go through it).

The FTP feature is great because sometimes I get work which had to be done on a remote server through F T P. I would much rather hit CTRL+S and have the file automatically uploaded than save it, alt-tab to another FTP client (which, by now, has probably dropped the connection), upload the new file and then choose “YES” in the replace-existing-file dialog… Dreamweaver’s F T P feature all the way!

RE D) Never looked at it, never used it. I have custom (independent from Dreamweaver) snippets of code for everything I commonly use.

RE E) Your reasons over the years cannot possibly be relevant today. Dreamweaver has gone through a couple big updates in the CS series and is a wonderful editor for many reasons. I don’t consider it as a WYSIWYG editor. I look at it as a powerful and convenient development environment. Some of my favourite features (custom code folding, code completion, code prediction, built-in FTP, etc) are flat out not supported by 90% of the other editors. And the ones that DO support these features are plain unusable due to their horrible interfaces. If I can’t look at an editor for longer than 10 minutes, I’m not going to use it.

The only feature (and I’m probably just missing something here) that Dreamweaver lacks and that I want is customizable themes. I like dark themes such as Blackboard for Textmate (which I’ve been recently using with e Text Editor), and the several dark themes which are available for gedit on Linux.

In summary, I *do* use Dreamweaver like a “real” designer, and a developer. As it happens I do much more coding (front end – xhtml/css/javascript and back end – php/mysql/cms systems) than actual design, and I love Dreamweaver for every aspect of the development process.

As it so happens, I despise WYSIWYG editors and their results. If I have to install one for a client’s CMS project (most often Drupal), it will be TinyMCE because I can configure every aspect of it.

It’s quite foolish to associate certain software with “professionals” and other software with “beginners”. I know professionals who use notepad, and I know complete beginners (and idiots) who use ZendStudio. It’s not what you use, it’s what you produce.

@Akiva:

You simply don’t ENTER new data into the design view. It would be silly, because there’s no way to select exactly at what line you want to insert a div, etc. However, the ability to, in code view, insert a div with a given class “around selection” or “at selection point” or whatever it says (it’s so automatic for me, hehehe) … that’s a real time saver for me, and a perfectly valid use of code and features.

I have made use of the myriad of DW features… like having a library of snippets I’ve created, for CSS layouts and their corresponding CSS selectors… I manage multiple clients via the “Sites”, etc.

I don’t believe DreamWeaver was intended to be “primarily a WYSIWYG editor” and I challenge you to find that Macromedia or Adobe intended for most work to be done in the design view. I do all my work in split screen or code view, but I appreciate the design window, for sure. You can see when divs butt against each other without enough padding, when something that should have a background simply doesnt, etc. The design view, without having to preview in a browser on a localhost, is a significantly useful feature.

I think you have to really use Dreamweaver for an extended period of time to appreciate the features it offers the professional. I also think it is elitist and unnecessary for those who use code editors to condemn its use without giving the CS3 release a test drive.

John:

Dreamweaver? Are you goddam crazy? It makes bad code, it messes up style sheets, it sends files across by FTP when you don’t want it to.

I used it for a couple of years but dumped it for a code editor as soon as I got proficient.

Don’t rely on it!

I’d have to say that I am indeed god damn crazy! Dreamweaver only makes bad code if you use it in design view only and then, the code isn’t so bad. Any site that I develop is done in Dreamweaver and when they are handed over to the client, they ALL validate as XHTML Strict. As far as my continued use of DW? I was proficient in coding before turning to DW. Everyone just seems to assume that if you’re using DW, you’re totally negating the Code view aspect of the app, when that is indeed where I do all my hand-coding with the design view split so I can see how the site lays out as I’m coding by hand. Seems pretty straight-forward to me and if that makes me god damn crazy, then I’ll make a shirt and wave some banners.

Akiva:

We haven’t even begun to address other bloat produced by DW, such as all the lock and note files. I have had many wonderful moments with DW downloading sites that should have been ~1,000 files altogether but actually consisted of ~4,000 due to such files.

.lck files are no substitute for real design tools such as Subversion.

Using the “Ftp” is buggy, and extremely bandwidth expensive.

If you claim to be a real design and rely on the page rendering in DW alone, a real designer you are not. If you are falling back and checking other browsers, concerning yourself with this aspect of DW as a reason not to leave it is not very legitimate.

I beg to differ Akiva. All these “extra files” you are referring to is because someone never set-up their preferences not to have them or they created the sites as templates with only certain areas editable. The power of Dreamweaver is in the preferences. You can set the app up to pretty much render any way you want to. Which includes not using the FTP if not needed. I prefer to use Fetch instead of the built-in function in DW.

Lastly, as far as your claims of being a “real designer” and using the Dreamweaver design view area to see how your design is rendering, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I’ve just saved myself 2 steps by using the split view in the app. I also am proficient enough in my coding to know, if it renders correctly in design view, the only browser I’m going to have issues with is IE 6. You’re also assuming that “professional designers” are only relying on the Design view screen to test their site. Sorry, not true. I’ve got a Mac and a PC for browser testing purposes.

I recommend for those that are game, installing ubuntu, setting up 6 desktops on the cube, installing the IE viewer in Wine, on screen 1, so thats 3 ies 5, 5.5 and 6, on screen 2, opera, on 3 Firefox, on 4 Konqueror and on 5 Quanta+ or whatever your editor of choice, then you can test until your brain implodes. justr watch out for those IE`s if they stay open too long they will kill anything.

maybe we should make a difference between design a webpage and cut the markup
how many designers are using a WYSIWYG editor instead of Photoshop or Illustrator? no idea

in any case nothing is more WYSIWYG than chaeck the page in a browser, not in an editor window

I write software. Sometimes its for the Web. From the “writing more code”-perspective I prefer Microsofts “Visual Web Developer” (standalone free Express version or commercial as a part of visual studio) over Expression Web. Additionally to be named are features like the source control integration, ability to write add-Ins…

Pointing to your next review of course it has great coding features ;-)

bleh I cant use wysiwyg unless im updating my blog, my development its a crutch.

Very nice! This helps a lot. Thanks!

Jamie, it is more of a break away from comfort zone when we designers have to move from Dreamweaver to something new, we may use plain notepad but don’t ask us to use Visual Studio :))

Myself have been using Dreamweaver from the very first version.

I am not sure if anyone can beat Dreamweaver – I agree with the last post. I’ve been on it for years and love it so much (or set in my way) – It’s very hard to make myself migrate to a new software.

I have tried a few WYSIWYG editors in my time, and have experienced bloated code and some were hard to optimize for the search engines. Recently, I have found out about a new online editor at http://www.Sitemasher.com- kicked it around under a demo account and was surprised how much better it is than the ones in the past I tested – they are getting better.

I think it is also my comfort zone, and I have in the back of my mind, that if I learn a WYSIYG editor and design a site I can benefit from it. If I do, atleast I can hand over the site maintenance to my clients and not have to deal with the pain in the butt text edits they call me to do…because they will never learn Dreamweaver and I will never incorporate Contribute as it is not good…. I may be sold on these new editors, we’ll see….

Photoshop and Illustrator is for design for professionals. HTML and CSS just needs a good Texteditor. Aptana with Eclipse is one of them. Its not the big thing to write HTML, Javascript and CSS in source code when you have to do it almost every week.

aptana is an open-source extension of the eclipse Java Editor. It’s a programmer’s editor morphed into web development, and it may be exactly what you’re looking for. It has syntax coloring and code completion for HTML /XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and many AJAX libraries built in. It has a feature for previewing your page instantly, ability to work directly with an FTP server, and lots of plugins. The community edition is open source and completely free, with all the features you need. I used it extensively with my book, though I also use the Firefox web developer toolbar’s css editor (also free) to edit CSS in real time. This has the advantage of writing your own code but seeing the results immediately.

As a noob, I learned more from the comments here, than from the article!

I’m starting with just a text editor. I’m a GNU/Linux fan, use Debian (KDE), and currently using the KWrite text editor. It’s become obvious to me the best way to learn is writing code by hand with a text editor (thanks for this tip!, it makes sense). It’s also astonishing how much bad advice there is for a ‘noob’. WYSIWYG for a noob? Morons.

As I get better, I’ll probably move up to a better editor, like bluefish.

When I start learning PHP, I’ll probably move up to Quanta Plus.

I find it hard to believe anyone would actually PAY MONEY for a tool, when there are many great tools available for free!

Funny that NetObjects Fusion didn’t get a fair shake in this review. It’s a great tool and produces very pro results. When you need a pin-point accuracy in terms of object placements on a page, NOF is the tool. The code got better too over time. NOF isn’t really the best thing for those who pride themselves on using Notepad to produce a 100-page site. But for a designer who works lots in InDesign or Photoshop, NOF makes lots of sense. Anywho, if using Windows, I strongly prefer NetObjects Fusion or GoLive. With Mac OS X, I prefer working with Freeway Pro but also frequently use Sandvox and RapidWeaver.

I use textmate for mac. It’s a pretty awesome tool. Check out the videos on their site. Google it.

“Some of you people need to stop being so self-righteous. The problem isn’t the editor, it is the person doing the editing.”

I agree with Lynsey. Reading half of these comments would make you sick. Each to their own in my opinion. Its the end result that matters, not how you did it. If your client is happy that is all that matters. Also DW is a brilliant DESIGN tool. I was forced to use Notepad recently, which I havent had to use for a few years, to mock up a page. It took 10 times the amount of time to do it than if I had used DW. I can hard code and did have to but why do it when half if not all of the work is done for you in something as powerful and graphical as DW?

i am using dreamweaver, it’s very comfortable to me but please list out the good html and css editor software and also this list is very useful to me, thanks a lot ……

I use Mozilla Firefox 3. I’ve added two great Add-Ons, Codetch & FireFTP.
Even though I have Dreamweaver, I still prefer to use Codetch over Dreamweaver. I’m not much for WYSIWYG editors unless there’s something in the code that I can’t figure out, after I’ve read many tutorials on that matter.

second that. wysywyg editor is horrible. for abs. beg. only

I use whatever works-
html when necessary
templates when necessary
cut and paste html
notepad, PSPad, etc.

Whatever works.
Then again, my primary output to the universe is a typepad blog whose html and css I occasionally tweak: *impulse

IAdditionally, I have coded for a few friends and for a few artists, but nothing extensive. My viewpoint is more one of principle than of practice.

It is almost certain that eventually a WYSIWYG editor will be developed that integrates everything nicely and outputs compliant code…this will work fine for a few years and will wipe out notepad coders until it falls into obsolescence, and then there will be a renaissance of coding. Didn’t this sort of already happen?

Paul

Everyone misses the point…it’s nothing to do with the editor.. it’s the webmaster that makes the site… just because you use a particular editor does not make you the better web designer, coding, design or seo or whatever it may be.. you might be good at one and not at the others or any combination.

The smart people use the tools that get the job done, whatever they may be. They also continue to learn and never stop.

I started designing web pages with Netobjects Fusion, when it was version 2.0, maybe 10 years ago. I can say that it’s not a tool that can be compared with Dreamweaver. But it’s perfect for beginners, who has no idea about coding. I don’t think that, the quality of the code is so important for a very small business or a dummy user who try to preapare a static web site of 10 pages. It has a very attractive feature that you can design a web page easily like you are working on your desktop. You can drag anything in the screen, and it’s really extremely easy for beginners. And this feature is really deserving respect because they made that many years ago.
I don’t have idea about the code quality of the latest version.
But I really recommend that product for users who don’t have any idea about coding, and who are not interested to know what’s happening in the background.
And for people who likes technology, I suggest them to download the trial and to take a look at the interface and features just for fun.
I like Smashing Magazine really so much, and mostly I agree with their reviews, but this time I think Fusion deserves more than that..

As a designer of 8 years I use DW every day but began my career coding my first web sites in Notepad. Learning the basics is necessary but DW is just the job for me using xhtml and css.
I also tutor a web design class and we teach them xhtml strict and css. Later in the year we introduce them to DW. Surprisingly, almost all the students last year preferred to hard code in PSPad and wanted to master it and use it to build their end of year projects before learning DW.

Getting more desperate as time goes by, I have raised the reward to $100. This is nothing compared to the amount of business Im losing every day from lost revenue due to my sites not being completed. If you have the answer Im looking for please reply Urgently!

Thank you.
Marko

I tried NVU, but it seems to be lacking a bit. :(

Marko, I don’t want your money, but I think I can suggest a solution to your problem. I understand your desperation. I built sites professionally from 1998-2003 with Dreamweaver but newer technology has left me behind. For those of us who do not have the time to learn html, xml, dhtml etc., it is hard to find a good, user friendly wysiwyg programme. There are a lot of very bad wysiwyg web site builders out there.

I personally cannot afford to pay someone to build a site for me. I’ve wasted too much money on useless software. I will not even trial software that is sold with a licence for a single site and escalating costs for extra site licences. I like to own the software for which I pay and use it any way I wish so I have not tried any site builders that sell their software with these strings attached.

I’ve been in exactly the same position as you. Frustrated with the poor performance or steep learning curve required by available wysiwyg software and completely overwhelmed by the progression from tables based layouts I built in DW 4 and 6, to new standards compliance css based ones after being away from building sites for the past five years.

I don’t want to learn html. I have a life to lead away from a computer screen, but I do want to share information with like minded people worldwide and present it myself instead of relying on a third person to keep my site fresh and up to date.

I’ve recently tried all the wysiwyg stuff. I bought many of them including updating to Dreamweaver MX a couple of years ago. No doubt that DW is a good piece of software but MX was very confusing to learn to use despite feeling comfortable with previous versions and I’m not about to blow the budget on Adobe’s latest version.

Expressions Web is surprisingly good and easier to learn to use than DW but you must be prepared to learn css and I struggle with that. It has a few problems still and if you need to input data in a table, it will not do so unless you import from Excel.

I own the latest Web Easy Pro, WYSIWYG Web Builder and Namo. All these are nasty and build code bloated, amateurish sites.

I still have Komposer installed but it has severe limitations, is old fashioned in what it can do and does not suit my purposes.

The smallest learning curve for outstanding results can be found with Antenna: http://www.stormdance.net/software/antenna/software%20overview.htm

I’m surprised Antenna Web Design Studio, wysiwyg software from Stormdance was not mentioned in this article. It can produce very nice websites with reasonably tight code. It is a little quirky and hasn’t been updated for over two years. Apparently a new version is on the way, but I’m not holding my breath for it! There is a very helpful and active user community forum who seem able to answer any questions and solve any little problems. Their patience seems limitless and nobody there will make you feel foolish for asking the most basic questions.

I suggest you have a look at the Stormdance Online Community Forum before you download the miserly 15 day trial of Antenna. It will give you a feel for the software. There are lots of very nice web templates available for $10- $20 from Antenna enthusiasts which include forums and e-commerce if you prefer not to design your own. You can find these via the Forum.

Antenna is not a template based heap of junk like some of the other wysiwyg web builders. It automatically writes nice clean style but you cannot attach external style sheets. You don’t have to use an existing template. You can build your own site from scratch very easily and achieve professional looking results. You can insert Flash, javascript etc., if you require them.

It’s not perfect, but of the 30 or so wysiwyg web site builders I’ve tried, this is the simplest to use, gives the best results and is the most affordable. I’m anxiously awaiting the update. I have no affiliation with Stormdance Software. I’m just a consumer.

It is not just professionals who avidly read Smashing. Old fogies like me also enjoy this magazine.

Good luck.

By the way, PageSpinner is not some new fly-by-night program. It was mentioned in Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman back in 2001.

There’s a new WYSIWYG editor being developed called BlueGriffon. It’s open source.

Marko, if you can get to a Mac, download and try Freeway 5.

I started repairing cars and writing programs in the late sixties, I had a hand-push lawn mower and a twin-tub washing machine. Times have moved on! I’ve heard all these programming/coding arguments before. The more destructive the argument gets, the more you know that they are on their way out. As many people have said, look at the quality of the product – a website is to be viewed, not dismantled!

How about xSite Pro?

This is an interesting list! I loved the opening paragraph(s) that helped to setup the purpose of the list. It seems that many commenters missed the point: this isn’t about what is BEST, but about discovering some new tools you might recommend to clients when appropriate… In short, knowing more.

Personally, I used DreamWeaver (in code view) for years and thought it was great. At the time, I was working primarily on ASP.VB, CSS and HTML projects. A few years ago, I began using VisualStudio to start transitioning from ASP.VB to ASP.NET – and have learned that (depending on your tasks) VisualStudio is a truly powerful and helpful tool.

For anyone interested, I would recommend the free download of Visual Web Developer 2008 from the Mircrosoft.com website. I haven’t yet encountered a feature missing from the free version that I need/use in the paid-for version.

Most surprising (because it’s an M$ tool): this is the best CSS editor I’ve ever encountered! A full list of IntelliSense (code-hinting) tips prompt at every new class attribute with additional hinting about what each of the attributes does… very cool!

On the other hand, this is not a WYSIWYG editor. I personally use the browser(s) to preview my work.

I used Dreamweaver, but i want to change for something other..
DW is always overwrite my new files with the older one on the f t p. So i have enough of it.. I only use the ftp function in DW..
Now i try Aptana…

Yet another vote for the free MS Visual Web Developer. I use Visual Studio at work but VWD on my notebook and it is quite good. The css support is very good. I especially love the visual cues for margin and padding. You can even visually drag the margins and padding around with your mouse. Great stuff that. I have recommended it to several people.

he he he.. so funny people… please don’t mix web designing (graphics) and developing.

PS : DreamWeaver is unbeatable for WEB DESIGNING.

good list

I used Webbuilder (version 5, now on 6) to produce a 50 page site that earns me around $4,000 a month.

I guess I should go back to notepad huh? Please.

Give it a try – and keep playing with it, as there’s a huge list of options and features available.

AC

Life is too short to write code unless you’re a programmer personality and think code is fun.

I could learn HTML if I had to. In the early 80s, before WYSIWYG, I wrote a manual on how to embed typesetter format codes in word processor files. I have used a couple different music counterparts of the word processor (notation software), one of which was code-driven. I got good at it, but no way would I go back after learning Sibelius (= WYSIWYG).

I want to see right away what my page looks like and don’t have time to get a master’s degree in HTML. God bless the creators of all these WYSIWYG programs!

If only I can find one that works reliably and doesn’t have a steep learning curve (like DW). Most I’ve tried are pretty imperfect.

Visual Studio 2008 / Visual Web Developer Express Edition(Free) + Intellisense + WYSIWYG + CSS Editor + IDE = A Very Powerful tool for ASP.NET Development.
Dreamweaver may be good just for designing but if you thinking of other features like debugging and programming language support (VB.NET/C#/JavaScript/XML) it does not match up. Plus it too has full FTP support like Filezilla. I started with DW but moved to VS. And i just can’t agree that how can you create a professional looking website just using the design view. Unless you know your html and css , you can’t create anything nice whatever tool you may use.
I would like to see Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition in this list if you guys think that it is a WYSIWYG editor.

Do you have an opinion on Site Studio (from Effective Studios now Sitoo)? I got it in 2004 primarily because you could buy once and create multiple web sites off the templates it came with. Now the new version 6 wants you to buy a new copy for every web site you create. :-(

I am interested in products I can use to create web sites for others quickly or can embed into the hosting service I provide and allow the customer to upkeep their own site, whether as an add-on service or reseller, or something I can install on a server for use by multiple customers.

Any ideas?

I’m with Wyman. This thread is dripping with arrogance from cowardly designers hiding behind their IPs, and it’s pathetic. Grow up. If I needed a web designer and he/she had the same attitude that I’ve seen here, I sure as heck wouldn’t hire that person.

Thanks for the list.

PS It occurs to me we don’t have this debate about inDesign and Illustrator vs ex-acto knives and pencils. Now I can draw-i’m a professional artist, but if you can’t compose a painting my guess is you let bad web design layout slip through too… dare i suggest you notepad ninjas (not my words!) need to allow for the fact that there’s more than one way to skin a cat-so long as you know what a skinned cat should look like? (Now theres an image… ugh.

The best WYSIWYG editor is WYSIWYG web builder, really it´s no properly a web editor, it´s a web builder or web generator. The code is totally clean or 95 % clean

My comment above did just what I did not want to happen. It converted the (b) text (/b) to the word “text” in bold. Are there any wysiwyg editors that only apply the formatting when coming from the command line and not from the text itself?

So many comments here and elsewhere are so laughably pathetic. “DW is for beginners!. . . All you need is Notepad!. . .” Or, just as worse, “I use DW, but I NEVER use Design View!” Eliticism at its worst. Reminds me of Linux community hobbyists who claim that all you need is make, vim (command line, of course), build, and gcc. Smacks of “in the old days, I had to walk 12 miles in the snow, uphill. . .etc.”
For real pros, there comes a time when you need to produce, and produce NOW. For most, this means doing a mock-up in something like DW (even in Design View), showing it to a client, and then cleaning the code in Code View. And that’s just for code generation, not mentioning the many other features designed to streamline the site design/development process. In the end, it’s about the final code that is produced – not the process of generating the code. You want to hand-code, great! You want to design first, then hand-fix the code, fine also! Get off your high horses, and just let people use the tools they want. Ultimately, we’re all judged by the quality of the work, not our tools.

Why Antenna Web Design Studio, wysiwyg software from Stormdance was not mentioned in this article. It can produce very nice websites oriented to designers and graphic artist, it¨s not for begginers (they can use this with great results) but I think, the designers not developers o programmers have an excelent option to fly with their imagination. this is not a HTML/VISUAL editor this a WYSIWYG website builder that´s the difference.

Was looking for exactly the same for my article.
Best of this Web – Blog Spot

for all those who scoff at the lazy noobes,
just remember there are people out there that are far from geeks and pros and just want to get something on to the web. we want it to look ok and do its job in saying its message. It would be great if we could do that with the tightest most efficient code that you all might admire. BUT that is not what we are about, the content is THE thing. If we have to be dirty and easy under the surface we can live with that, we havent the skill or the time to learn it, nor the money to pay someone else. That is what the internet is about – letting the plebains have their say. So if our charge over the techno barriers is untidy, please don’t mock, just smile and feel good that you know better. We are grateful for the people that review these sort of programs because they are the ones we can use.