Favorite web authoring apps

[cflorin]

I am interested in moving on from FrontPage 2003 (I know, it sucks big time) to another application.
So far I've seen Dreamweaver MX and I like it very much, but before handing out the cash I want to see what other apps can compete.
Can you please give me some hints?
Thank you!

[AaronW]

I'd recommend saving your money and learning how to build sites without crutches/"time savers" like WYSIWYG editors. I'm not sure what functionality you'll gain from using Dreamweaver/FP but I know it can be probably be easily achieved with PHP/ASP/JSP and a Database.

Depending on your intended use though (do you make sites for a living or is it a hobby?) you may not benefit as greatly by learning how to get on without these editors. You may already know and just want to save time. Learning how to do it all 'manually' certainly wouldn't be a bad thing, and using Dreamweaver/FP doesn't really leave room to grow your skills and improve on the way your sites will work.

I suppose if I had to recommend one, it'd be DreamWeaver. The only other one I've heard of is some open-source (I think) app which I found greatly lacking in many areas. DWMX2004 I think has support for CSS-P layouts which I guess is nice, but nothing a browser can't replace.

A really nice text editor is UltraEdit, though ;)

[cflorin]

I know I would be better off learning php - and I have started learning it. But I am a begginer and I want to concentrate on marketing my site for now.

I know that WYSIWYG is not a good answer but I really can't stop building and developing my site till I learn to code. Also, even when I'll code perfectly I will still use Dreamweaver (or another) and then just clean it up.

Thnaks for the feedback! :thumbsup:

[Daf]

Hi,

I use TopStyle Pro 3 - http://www.bradsoft.com/topstyle/index.asp

This is not a wysiwyg - it's intended to aid in hand coding of both CSS and xhtml/html.

There is a support forum where Nick Bradbury (the developer) is very active. You may remember Nick as the creator of HomeSite (pre-Macromedia).

I highly recommend TopStyle. It's a great bargain/tool at about $80 bucks.:)

Daf

[evo]

I've used TopStyle Pro 3.11 only too for over 3 years now.

Perfect. I am comfortable with using it. UI is really friendly under minimal, and I probably could build a site quicker than I would using Dreamweaver MX 2004.

Which reminds me, I'll probably be selling my license of MX 2004 Pro soon, so keep an eye out.

[JamieR]

So far I've seen Dreamweaver MX and I like it very much, but before handing out the cash I want to see what other apps can compete.
Can you please give me some hints?
Thank you!

When I moved on from Frontpage I got a copy of Dreamweaver MX 04 and played with that for a couple of months before acquiring a copy of Adobe GoLive CS. I use both DW and GL as well as Homesite and Notepad now.

However, continuing with WSIWYG editors isn't always the best. I now do a lot of hand coding, and achieve far better results with my work that way than I did when I used a WYSIWYG editor like DW or GL.

Jamie.

[gsnedders]

Quanta is the best text editor out there IMO... Only problem is I need to start up KDE to use it in OS X :( So, I use SubEthaEdit...

[JamieR]

Quanta is the best text editor out there IMO... Only problem is I need to start up KDE to use it in OS X :( So, I use SubEthaEdit...

I have BBedit on my mac....when I get it working again that is :mad:

[ClubCosmic]

i use crimson editor. free but not WYSIWYG.

[JamieR]

i use crimson editor. free but not WYSIWYG.
To be honest, I had never heard of that until just now - so I googled it and found it's website ;)

Anyhow, I stick to Homesite and notepad for hand coding, with a bit of other stuff here and there - like DW and GL.

[miggsy007]

I usually use good old Notepad. I used to use an editor that highlighted all your tags and stuff, but it didn't really make things much easier so I switched back to Notepad. The Composer included with Mozilla is quite useful sometimes.

Miggsy007

[evo]

Notepad is no way sufficient if you want to code fast. Syntax highlighting is crucial to help teeth type errors, nevermind incorrect code.

[JamieR]

I usually use notepad for fast editing, but for whole code development from scratch, then Macromedia Homesite all the way.:D

[Puffin the Erb]

TopStyle Pro and HomeSite are excellent if you're on Windows.
I particularly like the way you can teach HomeSite new languages so you don't get tied in to an endless cycle of upgrades.

However, because I find myself on Linux most of the time I use a combination of Quanta, Vim, Emacs, Kate and Komodo depending on what the task is and where I am at the time.

None of the above are WYSIWYG.

Dreamweaver currently comes with a version of HomeSite (HomeSite+) but it looks like Macromedia are absorbing it in to Dreamweaver so it won't be stand alone for long. :(

Just wait till Microsoft absorb Macromedia.

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

thats pretty much the reason y i use dreamweaver for the syntax highlighting, built in validator, target browser checker, built in ftp, its convenient when you are trying to manage more than one site, dreamweaver does have the ability to display just code, its not only a WYSIWYG. I dont ever use the design view on dreamweaver because we are coding for browsers not for a silly view inside of a program. I dont use the overloaded swap image javascript that dreamweaver has, i just write my own, i can get a full css site completed within 2 to 5 days, and it all validates and looks good in all of the browsers, so i guess it depends on how much you know and can pull off the top of your head without having to resort to books every time you wanna now how to center something without using the deprecated center tag, and i still use notepad also its quicker than opening dreamweaver all of the time, half the time i just leave dreamweaver open, because when im not doing homework, going to school, or partying, im here at my laptop coding away

[JamieR]

thats pretty much the reason y i use dreamweaver for the syntax highlighting, built in validator, target browser checker, built in ftp, its convenient when you are trying to manage more than one site, dreamweaver does have the ability to display just code, its not only a WYSIWYG. I dont ever use the design view on dreamweaver because we are coding for browsers not for a silly view inside of a program. I dont use the overloaded swap image javascript that dreamweaver has, i just write my own, i can get a full css site completed within 2 to 5 days, and it all validates and looks good in all of the browsers, so i guess it depends on how much you know and can pull off the top of your head without having to resort to books every time you wanna now how to center something without using the deprecated center tag, and i still use notepad also its quicker than opening dreamweaver all of the time, half the time i just leave dreamweaver open, because when im not doing homework, going to school, or partying, im here at my laptop coding away

Dreamweaver is very handy in terms of it having built in FTP etc. I don't like the design view, as there a lot of viewing differences between DW's design view and FF/IEvil. DW's built in image swap, flash text and flash buttons etc aren't exactly interesting, so i steer clear of them. I use code view anyway when I use DW.

[cflorin]

Thanks for all the feedback. Here is what I'm going to do:

1. Start using DW MX 2004 to continue my work until I:
2. Learn PHP and MySQL.

I don't think I am ever going to stop using DW or some sort of pro web authoring application because it just saves time. Syntax highlight and code snippets are and will always be useful in my opinion.

Again, thank you for all the feedback!

[AaronW]

If all you want is syntax highlighting and snippets (for what?) then there are many more affordable solutions. UltraEdit + WebDrive is what I use. I mount my site as a drive on my computer using WebDrive, then I edit the files and save as usual using UltraEdit. WebDrive's pretty awesome.

On a side note, has anyone seen something like WebDrive, but free? http://www.southrivertech.com/index.php?pg=./products/webdrive/index

[redhead]

Editplus (http://www.editplus.com) is well worth checking out... It rocks :cool:

The syntax highlighting is good, the general usability is much more straightforward than any of the (many) other program that I've tried.

I edit all my html, css, php, etc in there and its all fine :)

To be fair to dreamweaver - some of its features such as templates are useful and timesaving, but now I use database driven systems and loads of CSS anyway so its not so much of a problem keeping everything consistent

Hope that helps...

[cflorin]

If all you want is syntax highlighting and snippets (for what?) then there are many more affordable solutions. UltraEdit + WebDrive is what I use.

Well, that's not all that I want. As I've said before, I don't know anything about coding so I must have some sort of WYSIWYG software that will help me do my work. At least until I learn PHP.

What I wanted to say is that I will still be using Dreamweaver even after I learn how to code. I have to buy it for what work I have to do now, and I'm not going to stop using it all together. After all, that code view will still work :p (I hope)!

[JamieR]

Well, that's not all that I want. As I've said before, I don't know anything about coding so I must have some sort of WYSIWYG software that will help me do my work. At least until I learn PHP.

What I wanted to say is that I will still be using Dreamweaver even after I learn how to code. I have to buy it for what work I have to do now, and I'm not going to stop using it all together. After all, that code view will still work :p (I hope)!

I say learn XHTML/CSS before diving into PHP. However, I'm still learning all 3 in one go:p

[grubesteak]

I hand code everything, but I prefer to use Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver has that wonderful feature where it adds the end tag once you close the first one. BBEdit doesn't have that and I'm unsure about GoLive. I don't use the WYSIWYG portion of Dreamweaver, because I'm more of a purists. But when it comes to coding, the auto close feature saves a lot of time on redundant tags.

And, if you're a student or teacher, you can get it super cheap at www.academicsuperstore.com. Rawk.

[Daf]

Dreamweaver has that wonderful feature where it adds the end tag once you close the first one.

TopStyle has that same feature. ;)

Daf

[grubesteak]

TopStyle has that same feature. ;)

Daf

Yep, on a PC. If you're using a Mac, Dreamweaver is the only one I'm aware of with this same feature. But if I ever decide to design on a PC outside of my day job, I'll give TopStyle a look.

[Daf]

Good point. I tend to think in "PC" terms not owning a Mac myself.

Daf

[grubesteak]

It's OK. I believe we can peacefully co-exist. I do it every day (although it's pretty much an internal co-existing :) )

[whackaxe]

another good freebie for all you windows users is HTML-kit. it has syntax higlighting, it has FTP and favorite folders, it has lots of helpful littel tools extened by a plugin system. it doesn't have tag closing (i used homesite 4.5.2 before :) ) and its file manager has got a few things that could do with improving.

[gsnedders]

Good point. I tend to think in "PC" terms not owning a Mac myself.

DafMacs are PCs.

[Daf]

yep... I know. The quotes surrounding the term, in my post, were suppose to indicate the generalized use of the 2 letters to distinquish the Apple computers and all others. Sorry if that went by you. ;)

Daf

[gsnedders]

Nope, I'm just pointing out, how about calling it... Windows?

[Daf]

Ah - thanks for the heads up then :) But I will probably continue to call the "non-Apple" variety PCs - just out of stubborn habit I'm sure. Besides - Windows is not the only alternative to the OS series for personal computers.

Hopefully this does not offend any Apple users as I have nothing against the computers. In fact I started out on an old Apple IIE - loved that thing! Could do spread sheets and all kinds of good stuff back then - that was big time back in "the day". Didn't switch away from Apple until I got hit with the gaming bug.

Daf