HTML Edtior Survey - Which do you recommend?

Ok, I would like to graduate from FrontPage and need some recommendation on a text editor/tool for html, css, etc. I am curious to know what you experts out there use for your site development tool? Please let me know a good one.
Tom

I do have a copy of Visual Studio, will this work?

I have worked at two places that have used Macromedia DreamWeaver. It seems to be popular and if you want to be marketable, that may be a good one to go with.

I myself prefer TextPad, a simple editor.

Personally I recommend Macromedia's Dreamweaver. It is a WYSIWYG kind of editor with lots of (automatic) features which you can use to customise your pages. I think you'll find it very handy to work with, though at first, you'll find it a bit awkward -- it's just a matter of getting used to it, don't worry.

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>> I myself prefer TextPad, a simple editor.

What I find great about Dreamweaver (especially the new MX version) is the fact that you can be working in a Textpad kind of way (editing the code) and, at the click of a button, you can switch to a sort of 'preview-the-page' mode where you can, not only see how the page looks like, but also apply changes directly in it without bothering much.

There is only one thing about Dreamweaver I really dislike (something they've not been able to improve in this new MX version) -- the way the visual editor lets you work with layers. I just can't stand it...

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moved

most programmers write html and/or xhtml in whatever IDE they're using to develop the back-end programming. For instance, I'll do html in Eclipse if I'm working w/ Java/JSP/Struts, in Zend Studio if I'm working w/ PHP, and in Dreamweaver MX if I'm working w/ ColdFusion (which is a rarity these days ).

If you're really looking to graduate to the next level, pick a server-side applications language to study - such as PHP, Java/JSP, Perl, Python, etc - first ... your html/xhtml editor is almost superfluous once you're concentrating on the back-end app logic.

Hey thanks all, I appreciate it so much. I located an incredibly useful tool for only $50 bucks with unlimited upgradesa and tech support, it is called Coffee Cup. Regarding FrontPage, I do a ton of asp and only use its text editor , and not the drag and drop. In other words, I am coding 99% of the time, but if you walk into an interview and say you use FP, you're dead...

Well, if you're doing a ton of ASP, the Visual Studio .NET is probably the best route to go, if you don't mind shelling out the $$$ to purchase a license for it.

CoffeeCup sounds interesting - it also sounds like a Java IDE, though. Is it just a text editor, or is it specifically for ASP development?

You're totally right about mentioning FrontPage on a resume or in an interview; but, that's really because it isn't a professional tool, and the code it generates is sub-par. Frontpage is the kiss of death for both your project and your image .

Would you really advise me to work in Visual Studio? Would you still recommend it to someone who, not only works with ASP, but also works with HTML? In your opinion, what HTML editor, kind of like WYSIWYG, would you recommend?
Totally agree. Like you pointed out and well, FP is not a professional tool.

I'll be waiting for your reply, Doc.

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Don't know for WYSIWYG. I was pretty sure that VS.NET had a wysiwyg editor for HTML built-in (in fact, its probably the same one built-in for frontpage ...). I'm not a wysiwyg kinda developer; I either use an (X)HTML templating engine (i.e., Smarty for PHP, or my own code that accomplishes this) or I do it myself.

If all you're doing is ASP, VS.NET is a great app. Yes, I would recommend it. If you're doing ASP, Java, PHP, etc., you're probably better off either using a separate IDE for each (which can be costly for an independant developer) or finding a good 'generic' IDE such as ultraedit or Eclipse that can handle multiple environments.

Have you seen coffeecup.com's product?

no, i haven't ... i'll try to find some time to look at it.

I have heard of it... but not worked with it though. Compared to Dreamweaver and Visual Studio .Net, how would you class it?

|=shAm4n

I haven't dwelved into the vs.net product yet, but really like what I see in coffeecup, esp. for $50 bucks! Whats the dif tween DW and FP anyway, aren't they comparable in that they both are wsiwygs?

>>What's the dif tween DW and FP anyway, aren't they comparable in that they both are wsiwygs?

Don't even try to compare FP with DW -- they're worlds apart from eachother.

But I've tried one of the Coffee Cup's products (Visual Studio, I think) and liked it. It generates Webpages by creating layers (and not tables), which was most satisfactive to know. Also I loved the easyness with which you can apply effects/changes to elements in the page. As a WYSIWYG (visual) editor, it is far better than DW (and I won't even mention FP). DW has other functionalities that none of Coffee Cup's products have (for what I could see anyway).


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I have never encountered a wysiwyg editor that is able to do get the advanced scripting, CSS and other things I need. Use the text editor you think is best and you are better off. Personally I mostly use vim.