So you want to create a web site? Great idea! There are few things in
this world as satisfying as creating a good web site and having other
people look at it, comment on it and like it.
You have many choices in the tools that you use to perform this act of
creation. If you already know HTML or if you are a "purist", you can just
use the simplest, most basic program of all - Notepad. In fact, many
webmasters do just that, and many of the best looking web sites are
created completely by hand with no help at all from any other tool.
Some of the editors that I have used over the years are listed below,
with a few brief comments about each. There are many other editors on the
market, some good, some bad.
- Notepad [Free with operating system]
- Many people just use Notepad to edit their HTML files. What is
Notepad? It's the text editing program that comes with all versions of
Windows. Notepad is extremely simple, which more or less means you get
to do everything (and I mean everything) by hand. Personally, I like to
use Notepad occasionally to make quick and dirty edits to my web site
when Dreamweaver or Frontpage 2000 won't do the job.
- NoteTab Light[Freeware]
- NoteTab Light is a replacement for Notepad which is intended to
include some extensions to make editing HTML easier. It's simple and
easy to use, but not extraordinarily powerful.
-
Arachnophilia [Careware]
- This is an excellent HTML editor with many features. If you like
editing HTML and don't really want a
WYSIWYG interface, then this is probably the editor for you. Highly
recommended. By the way, this product is "care ware", meaning if you
keep it you must "care" for a short time.
- NoteTab
Pro [Shareware - inexpensive]
- This is a very powerful and cheap HTML editor. It has a dictionary,
clipart, a handy global-replacement feature and lots of other things to
help make the webmaster's life easier.
- FrontPage 2000 [Very
expensive]
- If you just want to get your site up and running in the minimum
amount of time and don't want to bother learning HTML, then FrontPage
2000 is the editor for you. This editor has just about everything you
could ever want, including full
WYSIWYG support, dynamic HTML, forms and so on. On the downside,
FrontPage 2000 does not support CGI, SSI or PHP at all - in fact, if
your site uses CGI then you will note be able to use FrontPage 2000's
upload capabilities. Use caution when choosing this editor - while it's
great for getting a site up fast, it can be very frustrating for more
advanced users, and if you take advantage of the templates you will
certainly be labeled an amateur. Also, using any FrontPage special
features such as forms requires that your web host have FrontPage
extensions installed, which limits your choice of providers.
- FrontPage XP [Very expensive]
- This is a product which I cannot recommend. Frontpage 2000 was
tolerable, FrontPage XP is simply bulky and awkward. I would say
Microsoft has made a large step backwards with this product. Out of
everything on this list, this is probably the only editor which I would
state is not recommended for any application.
- Dreamweaver [Very expensive]
- Another good choice is Dreamweaver, which in many ways is the best
editor of them all (at least so far). You can actually combine the two (Frontpage
and Dreamweaver) to take advantage of the best features of each product.
This is fairly expensive, however. On the downside, Dreamweaver has a
very high learning curve for most users and it can be cumbersome to
perform simple tasks.
-
Out of all of these editors, probably the most useful all-around
program is Arachnophilia. Simple to learn, easy to use, quick to get
things up and running. Dreamweaver is highly recommended if you want a
WYSIWYG editor, although it can be a difficult program to learn.
FrontPage 2000 is acceptable, but stay away from any extensions, templates
or special features.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.
