Best HTML Editor?

[hamburglar]

Im starting to create a personal web page. Which HTML editor is best for my needs? Dreamweaver, Frontpage, CoffeeCup, etc. I want a lot of features on my site, such as animation, cool buttons etc. Does anybody know the pros and cons of each editor? I was thinking Dreamweaver, but im not sure if learnign this will help me in the future. Is Dreamweaver a marketable skill? Also, are any of these hard to learn. There's just so many editors, I don't know which is better. Thanks in advance!

 

[Chaotic42]

I know that I'm going to get flamed for this, but it still rings true. The only way that you are going to really learn about this stuff, if that is what you want to do, is to make it by hand.

I'm not trying to be preachy, just hand out advice. Being able to make a web page by hand that looks professional *is* a marketable skill, and I'd hope you'd want to know what's going on if you are going to go into web development.

I mean this in the nicest, most supportive way possible.

 

[TheVrolok]

When I first began designing websites I used nothing but plain old Windows Notepad. I used an HTML tutorial book that I purchased as a reference and hard coder everything by hand. I have to agree with Chaotic42 about doing it by hand, it will give you a much firmer base on which to build your development skills. I now use Dreamweaver for most of my work, with some touch-ups in Notebad. I'll use Fireworks/Flash for some extras and I'll write perl/java with basic editors.

 

[adlep]

Dremweaver 4.0.....
The is bunch of free extensions for it, and the interface is very easy to learn + it does make a clean lookin HTML in contrast to
FrontPage which uses a bunch of properietary HTML code extensions...

 

[Superwormy]

Dreamweaver, although the first two dudes were right, you REALLY SHOULD LEARN TO HAND CODE HTML!

No "What You See Is What You Get" editor is going to be as nice as hand coded html. Check out Macromedia Homesite as well for hand-coding HTML, its very nice.

 

[TheWart]

the best html editor i have EVER used (although i didnt try all the features of dreamweaver and golive that "plugin" to like flash or outside coding) is Evrsoft 1stPage2000. and it is FREE!

 

[Chooco]

i vote for 1stPage2000

i've been using that to manualy edit stuff for over a year, the color coding is fantastic, the guides are informative and like dude said - it's free!

 

[dukdukgoos]

Homesite's good for learning to hand-code. That's what we use at my job.

 

[hoihtah]

i started out using notepad.
but once i got a good grasp of html...
i decided not to waste time and use frontpage.
but it didn't take me too long before finding the errors in frontpage. (cross browser problems... which they solved in FP XP)
so i went back to notepad.
but while i was using notepad... i was introduced to 1stPage2000.
so i've used that for awhile.

but now that Front Page XP's got their issues solved... i just might move back.

all in all... if i had to choose one...
i'd go with either dreamweaver or a text editor.
dreamweaver rocks.

 

[Chooco]

i use dream weaver to create my site but then i edit stuff manualy, check things and add java using 1stpage2000

instead of learning on notepad or 1stpage, just create the site with dreamweaver or netscape then read through the HTML when you tamper with it.....you tend to just notice things and remember them such as

first colum	second column
first column second row

 

[badxcow]

def as they stated, LEARN WITH NOTEPAD. it's the best way to learn the simple syntax and tags. however once you are experienced, hand coding can take a while. i use dreamweaver for complex tables and homesite to check syntax if dreamweaver gets sloppy. try not to use any wysiwyg editors, they add a bunch of crap code.

 

[FOBSIDE]

using a graphic html editor is fine, but be able to check your actual code. i like HTML Kit. its freeware and they update it all the time.

 

[Chooco]

i just use the graphic editor then manualy change stuff and ask you guys what to do when i don't know what to do. you guys told me how to:
-make a link open in a new window target="_blank"
-add text that shows up when you leave the cursor on a picture alt="check out the new ShawnServer website"
-change the sizes of tables into pixels so they are always the same size

and several other things.......why learn on a text editor? it gets very discouraging after doing HOURS and HOURS of work and getting no result. click on that page in my signature....it took me over 5 hours to do that (time to get the pictures, time to get the links right, get the hex for the shades of grey, tamper with sizes of the tables so they are aligned properly, think of the setup, write all the text) think of how long that would take to do in notepad.......you would never get there.