What Editor Should i use...?

[Squintz]

Im told that FrontPage doesnt write very clean code yet its very simple to use....

Iv never even seen DreamWeaver but i wanted to get some opinions on what Editor i should use while trying to create good sites for my Future customers....(I plan on starting a Web Design Business)

[boxer_1]

What editor you use is largely a matter of personal preference. I'd suggest going with something that allows you to have complete control over your source code (no cryptic, heavy coding added), yet has shortcut features and integrations that will allow you to create code fast enough to be practical.

For starters, you might want to check out HTML-Kit. It's not a WYSIWYG editor and it's not notepad, but rather somewhere in between, with some very nice features to ensure proper syntax...well, I'll let you check it out. No point in listing all the features here when you can just visit the website ;).

http://www.chami.com/html-kit/

[Mhtml]

I used to use FrontPage but I got out of it when I was told to be a true designer I should be able to write it using notepad. Now I'm using Dreamweaver and Notepad. I use Dreamweaver for the creation of the page, and when ever I need to change something minor like a script I use notepad.

Dreamweaver has everything I need, and it's good for the setting up of websites which use lots of tables.

But it doesn't just come down to the scripting tools you use when starting your business.

You need to have good image tools as well. I use Xara X for almost every image. I make my websites as images (menus and stuff) and the slice it using Adobe ImageReady 3.0 which is a lighter version of photoshop and is good for optimizing images and slicing my sites (menus etc;) and exporting.

Also make sure that you consider the legal side of setting up your business. I'm not sure what country you are from but here in Australia we can't trade unless we are a registered business. I'm in the proccess of registering my business and there are so many things you have to do, including your business plan.

In the end it comes down to what you are comfortable with.
PS: Could you include a url for an example of your capabilities?

[webmarkart]

I'm not a big fan of either Frontpage or Dreamweaver. I know Dreamweaver has its loyal supporters but it didn't do anything for me. I don't like WYSIWYG editors at all. I use Macromedia Homesite 5. It's definitely an advenced editor so if you're just starting it probably has a lot more than you will need right now. It supports most languages html,asp,perl,ect...

[Mhtml]

Homesite 5 ? I have never heard of it. I don't mind text editors but I have never found one that has support for asp and php . I'll have to look at it.

[Catman]

I checked out HTML-Kit last night -- quite impressive. I had been dreading converting some very old files using tag attributes to using CSS, and the conversion utility handled the job quite nicely.

I've tried a variety of editors over the years but have always gone back to using emacs and Notepad. One evening's experience isn't enough to say I'll stick with this, but so far, I'm liking what I see.

[msimmons]

My favorite is EditPlus (text editor but colors the code 99% of the time). I havent used a WSIWYG since I first learned how to write HTML but am thinking of trying on again for cross browser purposes since I am stuck in my IE only way.
Michael

[boxer_1]

Originally posted by Catman
I checked out HTML-Kit last night -- quite impressive. I had been dreading converting some very old files using tag attributes to using CSS, and the conversion utility handled the job quite nicely.

I've tried a variety of editors over the years but have always gone back to using emacs and Notepad. One evening's experience isn't enough to say I'll stick with this, but so far, I'm liking what I see.

I especially like the integration of HTML Tidy and the quick conversion to XHTML. Also, check out the available plug-ins: http://www.chami.com/html-kit/plugins/ ; the list is quite impressive ;).

[QuackHead]

EditPlus gets my vote for favourite text editor...

I've used tons of them, and so far EditPlus is the one I've stuck with.

Check it out for yourself.

www.editplus.com

~Quack

[jscript_junkie]

I use EditPlus, too. All I care about is syntax coloring. Especially when you can customize the coloring and fonts in the editor. Anything else is extra. I don't use a lot of the features, I just use the HTML toolbar. On it, I just have the following functions: New File, Open file button, The Comment Inserter, non-breaking space inserter, Save All, Find/Replace, and Preview In Browser. I also love the Word Wrap function. Most editors I've tried don't support this.

EditPlus is pretty much like a spiffed up version of Notepad to me.

<edit my="post" />Wow, this forum didn't display the text for the nonbreaking space I put in the above paragraph. That's weird. I replaced it with the words "non-breaking space"

[allida77]

If all your going to do are html files than dreamweaver would do. I am not a fan but it will get the job done. If you are going to do any programming than I would editplus too.

[Catman]

Not that I use Macs, but I work in a department where Macs reign supreme (please don't ask how this happened). Any recommendations on editors for this situation?

[redhead]

I do it all in either Edit-Plus or HTML-Kit... i stay well away from wysiwyg editors...

[jscript_junkie]

Wow, it seems like EditPlus is really popular among users of this thread! :D

[Cam]

I used a couple of text editors, Notetab light and a couple of others. I've also used Arachnophilia, which is kind of neat.
I've also used Amaya, which I didnt' care for much.

They work fine, but I eventuall switched to HTML-kit. I like the use of the tabbed toolbar to paste bits of CSS, HTML etc. as well as the tools like the 'color picker'. Speeds things up for me. That and the integration of tools like HTML Tidy as previously mentioned.

My only experience with Front page is trying to edit a site that had been written by it. It was such a nightmare to edit , I just stripped the HTML entirely and start over.

I've found that using text based editor or a variant like HTML kit has given me a better handle on how things work and I find I can generally trouble shoot a *lot* faster than when I used to use WSIWYG's many moons ago.

Cheers


Cam

[Roy Sinclair]

I guess I'd better put a plug in for UltraEdit UltraEdit (http://www.ultraedit.com) which is my favorite tool. It's a programmer's editor with an amazing features list, useful for editing a whole range of languages and you can even define new langauges if it doesn't cover yours. It also has HTML Tidy built in so you can validate your pages to catch HTML errors.

[edgework]

Regarding Macs, the best editor hands-down is BBEdit. I use it for all Mac editing, and Edit Plus when I'm in Windows.

Learned straight coding at the outset and found Dreamweaver 4 limiting. It refused to display some of my pages that had complex nested CSS layouts (which may well have been clumsy design as well). But lately I've been working with MX and so far it seems to have a lot going for it. Both quick layouts and finicky coding are possible. Its CSS handling is quite robust and it displays things as they should be displayed. Haven't gotten too involved with the actions, but the coding window has excellent formatting for all the languages that I've worked with so far, even Java. And it's not bad in the site mangement area as well.

[QuackHead]

:thumbsup: EditPlus :thumbsup:

[oracleguy]

Originally posted by webmarkart
I'm not a big fan of either Frontpage or Dreamweaver. I know Dreamweaver has its loyal supporters but it didn't do anything for me. I don't like WYSIWYG editors at all. I use Macromedia Homesite 5. It's definitely an advenced editor so if you're just starting it probably has a lot more than you will need right now. It supports most languages html,asp,perl,ect...

Hey... i think i have that... i got it for free with the Macromedia Web Design Studio 4. I've never used it very much... I'm gonna have to check that out. I use Dreamweaver to design the pages then i use Mircosoft InterDev or Web Matrix for ASP/ASP .NET coding. And notepad helps out quite a bit too. Once the site is done, i stick to notepad to update it.

And to make images and stuff I use Photoshop 7/ImageReady/Fireworks 4.

[RadarBob]

Not that I use Macs, but I work in a department where Macs reign supreme (please don't ask how this happened). Any recommendations on editors for this situation?

I bring my Macintosh iBook to work and used BBEdit v7.0 because I'm so tired of the PC editors.

On the PC I've tried Text-Edit, Homesite 5, PFE, and lately HTML-Kit. All byte in some way or another.

Here's some of the things I like about BBEdit:
* Solid Macintosh interface makes it a great editor. I've used it for C, C++, COBOL, and web development. Little things like double-click drag to highlight words and just how it grabs them.
* Hilite text and then select a tag from the menu and the tag is put around the text - it doesn't replace it. Love that! Works great for building quick lists.
* built in GREP
* Can save files w/ Mac, Unix, or DOS line returns.
* Highlights the text when matching HTML tags.
* Can undo changes even if I saved.
* Built in FTP at the open & save dialogs.
* Can properly color code ASP, Javascript, HTML, VBScript simultaneously.
* SUPERIOR find and replace. I especially like find all. You can "quick search" to hide all the bells and whistles if you want. Beats heck out of any PC text editor or word processor I've ever used.
* Screen display and printing can be different fonts.
* Buttons on the window. One lists all the "functions" it sees in javascript (for example).
* Built in HTML syntax checking
* built in "find differences"
* Reliable. All the features WORK. By contrast: HTML-Kit is free-ware and it shows in many ways. In the Mac world NO ONE would use it. Goes to show the expectations. Sorry PC only users. That's the facts Jack.
* Scriptable. AppleScript that is.
* Extensible with plugins.
* Integrates with Metrowerks C/C++ compiler, Perl, dreamweaver, and some version control software.

[zoobie]

I'm using the new Crimson text editor. Supports word wrap, any language, colors, tabs, etc. Tiny at 780kb...Check it out. :D

[krycek]

Originally posted by zoobie
I'm using the new Crimson text editor. Supports word wrap, any language, colors, tabs, etc. Tiny at 780kb...Check it out. :D

...the link is http://www.crimsoneditor.com if anyone was wondering ;)

::] krycek [::

[Grant Palin]

I've found 1stPage 2000 to be a good html editing program too; it supports HTML, Javascript, CSS, PHP, ASP, etc. Check it out at http://www.evrsoft.com/.

I really like the new look of Dreamweaver MX. It's a really powerful program to use for web editing. One thing I really like about it is its' mass search and replace function. That feature is EXTRTEMELY useful if you want to change something on every page of your site, which could otherwise take a good while.

[zoobie]

Heh heh...Thanks Krycek...I figured they'd search google if interested.

Anyway, I tried 1st Page and DW...both huge. You'd better have at least a 400 mHz clock to handle them...which I didn't @ the time. :eek:

PS - I just read where the French named the "@" symbol. I think they've decided to call it "Fred". :cool: