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]
http://www.notetab.com/
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]
http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.html
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]
http://www.notetab.com/ntp.htm
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.
About the Author
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at
http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read
over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your
internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.