I am using DreamWeaver for web development and so far there is no problem for me :) Thanks for the useful info and list.

This is a great list, but does any one of these other editors come close to offering the features and ease of use that DreamWeaver does? I don’t know of any professional web designer/developer that uses anything other than DreamWeaver.

I’ve been using Dreamweaver for years, but I only ever use it in code view and stuck with it because I sometimes need a code hint .. and I have a useable management, ftp and diff system going on with it (using winmerge).

But I feel daft using a WYSIWYG app to simply type markup, especially when I’m sure there must be a hundred and one better scripting/coding interfaces, yet I’ve never managed to find one that works particularly well for me. Only a cluster of apps which must be used together.

I’d be interested in Smashing Magazine’s overview of the non-wysiwyg authoring options available to me that provide site management, code-hints, ftp, diff tools.
What is the ‘pro-tool’ for all these things.

Another great cross platform tool is Link [www.aptana.com]

I use Link [www.panic.com] (Mac only) and sometimes Dreamweaver, but each one have its lacks, I’m still searching for THE EDITOR. Now I’m also testing CSSEdit for css, looks fine. but I would like to have only one app to code html, css, javascript, php…. jejeje, too much!?

Bye!

How could you miss Coda? (http://www.panic.com/coda/)

I used FrontPage a couple of years ago when I was just starting with web design but I was so annoyed with its code that I quit WYSIWYG editors. But judging by the list, I’d give Nvu a shot..

@Angstrom - I’d check out Coda (as doug just mentioned). It’s an all-in-one app that really is a dream to work in. It’s Mac only though, so if you’re a PC guy…dunno.

@doug - Coda isn’t a WYSIWYG editor. You get a great inline real browser view of your page, but you still code everything by hand (except for CSS, which can be more WYSIWYG like).

Nice summary. CODA should also be mentioned: Link [www.panic.com]

I don’t know of any professional web designer/developer that uses anything other than DreamWeaver.

Are you serious!?!?!

How about mentioning some of the professional programs used by professionals on here, like Eclipse, Netbeans, .NET, etc…. Real professionals use a development environment that helps and supports the coding language your writing. Sure, cutting your teeth on dreamweaver or one of these other freebie toys is a great way learn the ropes. You need to move into textpad or something non-GUI based to really gain any real talent or skill.

A lot of big companies will ask you to hand write out some code for them as an example in an interview. If DOCTYPE and meta information wasn’t the first thing you thought of when reading that, your not even close yet to being a professional and should consider switching to a different development environment.

I’m a Mac user and a huge fan of RapidWeaver. I used to use DW back in the v4 days but I find RW so much easier to use for my purposes.

Its 3rd Party support with Themes and Plug-Ins make the base application a pleasure to work.

I mainly use CODA - given, it’s not exactly WYSIWYG (though you can preview files after you code them). When I’m looking for ease of use, I go with Dreamweaver CS3.

Before posting about Aptana, Eclipse, etc please remember this about WYSIWYG editors.

Good list btw

No WYSIWYG for me, but Aptana does the trick.

The point of a list is keeping it categorized, if you want to see some editors that are not WYSIWYG, then you probably won’t see them on this list ;)
The post did a great job of finding some doozies.
I use Expression Web, they even rolled php into the latest version.
Now if there were a way to add ExpressionEngine code snippets to a tool, maybe Aptana Studio could handle it, but again not WYSIWYG.
A list of auto-completion or intellisense code editors that allow creating snippets, working with PHP and other languages roundup would be nice ;)
Thanks gang.

I’m with Gunnar, Aptana is just awesome, it’s a true IDE.

This is really more of a list + features, not a review.

I’m a Mac User and a diehard fan of RapidWeaver. I used to use DW back in the day, but for my purposes now RW it the tool for me.

What I most enjoy is the Extendibility of the Base app. 3rd party support of additional Themes and Plug-Ins is great.

You did miss Windows Live Writer:
Link [get.live.com]
A good choice for remote blog posting, via one of several blogger type API’s
-ty

Skedit is also a nice Mac OS X editor. It has SCM (Subversion) support that I miss in Coda.

You also missed Textmate.

Cheers

Are you serious!?!?!

How about mentioning some of the professional programs used by professionals on here, like Eclipse, Netbeans, .NET, etc…. Real professionals use a development environment that helps and supports the coding language your writing. Sure, cutting your teeth on dreamweaver or one of these other freebie toys is a great way learn the ropes. You need to move into textpad or something non-GUI based to really gain any real talent or skill.

I hate to disagree here but I’m gonna have to. Just because some people prefer to use one solution over the other doesn’t mean they have no “real” talent or skill or that they aren’t professionals. It means that the program they are using works for them. That attitude reminds of a guy I used to work with who was MS certified who told me our company shouldn’t even consider using PHP because the language would be dead in a year (it’s now 3+ years later).

A lot of big companies will ask you to hand write out some code for them as an example in an interview. If DOCTYPE and meta information wasn’t the first thing you thought of when reading that, your not even close yet to being a professional and should consider switching to a different development environment.

Since I own my own company, I don’t have to worry about interviews but I’m of the opinion that just because I can’t write the DOCTYPE or meta info from memory doesn’t mean I’m not close to being a professional. It means that I have templates set-up with these things already in place to maximize my time and be able to make more money. Part of being a professional is good time management. If I have to repetitively type something because that makes me a “professional” then I’ll gladly call myself an amateur and pass on those savings to my clients—which I’m sure they appreciate a lot more than knowing if I can type all the code by hand.

Once upon a time, back in the mid -1990’s, I powered up Notepad, typed out and built my first web site. It took forever, but I learned HTML, which is still the core of the web. If you don’t know HTML, forget about WYSIWYG editors for now. Check out this tutorial Link [www.pagetutor.com] - and follow the lessons. It’s sooo easy! You’ll soon be better than 99% of the so-called web-designers out there.

To make a long story even longer, during this time of learning HTML I was working for an online advertising company that wanted to branch out into building sites for some of their clients. I was tasked with the job since I had build a few sites at that point. I powered up Notepad, typed and built some client sites. Dreamweaver was beginning to become popular but I refused to use it because “real sites are coded by hand”. My boss at the time asked me to use it, but I still refused, saying that “I can build a better site by hand”. Well, he told me that if I didn’t use it I’d be fired. Well, needless to say, I installed it & I haven’t looked back since. I still do a lot of hand coding, but DW saves hours of time and produces results that can be tweaked until the end product is perfect.

To summarize - learn HTML first, then install Dreamweaver.

“The last version was released in August 2008. Kompozer can be considered”

how come? :) released into the future? :))

As the guy above says, WTSIWYG editors are not a good thing for people starting out. It teaches laziness. Just get used to ALT + TAB then hit F5 in your favourite browser while using a text editor like notepad++ or something.

Isn’t that somehow unrealistic? :)

PS: are the comments manually-approved or my previous comment went spam?

vi or die! ;)

I swear by Dreamweaver, and there is no product better for DESIGNING websites. However, it is not an ideal tool for development. Until DW gets better with development-related intellisense and variable recognition, it will be a limited development tool.

WYSIWYG editors are generally terrible all around.

I would seriously consider any web designer who claims to adhere to (or understand) web standards and design and touts themselves as professional who uses almost any of these (from the ones I have actually used and heard of) as suspect .

Web design and WYSIWYG do not mix. Period.

That’s like calling Contribute a CMS, which is how it is all too often sold as.

I have worked much with DreamWeaver and Contribute (my old employer refused to stray from it), and the amount of work you need to put into it just to ensure that the user won’t break the styles is hard enough, never mind attempting to validate the output semantically.

No dreamweaver (I already used it some years ago) and no WYSIWYG editors for web.
For me, code is by hand (PSPAD or Aptana).

The only issue with Dreamweaver is that some/many-times it doesn’t matches the final real output. In the beggining I used to work a lot with it, and for laying out text and applying classes is ok.
While I’m writing this, I realized that the topic is WYSIWYG, not coding, not IDE. For w…, Dreamweaver with its integration with other products is the king. However, Fireworks is more w… than DW, DW tries to reach for the code too and that’s its falldown. Fireworks should’ve been in this list as the better wysiwyg.

I’m a fan of the lastest versions of Microsoft’s Visual Studio and Visual Web Developer Express… the latter is free to download and still pretty powerful.

I used to use Dreamweaver, but now that I’m very advanced in xHTML/CSS, I don’t need it since its a resource hog and the FTP sucks sometimes. Now I just use Notepad++ and Filezilla for Link [FTP].

I tried Aptana, but they were missing some features such as anonymous FTP login (for work on internal servers), and some other features.

Except for Dreamweaver, Nvu / Kompozer / Seamonkey Composer and maybe Web Expression, they all suck. Especially the “WYSIWYG Web Editor”. Built my first site with it. It was rubbish.

In conclusion, one can say: The benefits of these products are best put to use by professionals, who are adept at coding anyway, and not by newbies, who often manage to make a complete mess of things. They would definitely be better off learning the “hard way”.

If you’re using PHP then I would strongly recommend using Zend, built by “the” PHP company. Best advice here is learn HTML first then use a WYSIWYG editor. I can’t tell you how much crap I’ve had to fix for somebody else that was auto-generated by a lame editor.

I was expecting to see some new editor and more familiar ones. I am quite shock that only one of these I have actually heard of before.

I glad I just didn’t assume that I already knew the information that was contained in this post. I would have missed out on a very enlightening post.

Just spent 20 minutes fiddling around with the Coda trial.

I can understand the positive energy. Very light, very fast, with tight integration of a quality FTP client. My only issue being that there’s no popup CSS code hints. Like others with a good understanding of CSS, I want to write directly into the document (single line font and background declarations, especially) and not have to resort to filling out forms. It seems to be aimed at pros, so I figure they should have such a feature.

Akiva Levy,

Just because one uses a software which is capable of WYSIWYG, does not mean the individual does not know code standards. I have been using Dreamweaver for years, but not once have I used the WYSIWYG features.

I use Dreamweaver for it’s simple project manager.
I use Dreamweaver for it’s code highlighting.
I use Dreamweaver for it’s excellent interface.
I use Dreamweaver for it’s code completion.
I use Dreamweaver for it’s code folding.
I use Dreamweaver for it’s built-in Link [FTP].

… and when I’m doing front-end work, it’s always valid XHTML/CSS.

I’m sure there are many like me :).

Link [yubastudios.com]

I have to agree with the prevailing feeling. WYSIWYG editors are the bane to a well formed web. It teaches laziness and bad coding methodologies. Not to mention the bigger ones use templates to keep websites with them from editor to editor. Best thing for a newbie to do is to learn by hand as painful as the process can be. At least it is cheaper.

I’ve worked some time ago with DreamWeaver and tried it again some days ago (it was CS3), I have to say I’m little disappointed, I think an WYSIWYG editor is good for a beginners to make the first steps in writing code by hand.
In my day to day work I use PSPAD which is a great free software. Now I will try Aptana as I saw it recommended up here by some guys.

Another notepad user here. When I started building sites dreamweaver and frontpage were common place as were the bloated unintelligable code the output. I haven’t tried DW since, so maybe I’ll take a look.
But I get on fine using my own templates, notepad for tweaking and Topstyle (http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/TopStyle/Default.aspx) for PHP and CSS coding (cause of the hints and layout help with the code). It sometimes gets a look in on HTML coding, but thats almost always started off in notepad.

Off to torrent DW ;)

How about some suggestions for editors that can be integrated with a CMS like tinyMCE or Expression Engine for example.

I do all the pages with notepad++, with css it’s very easy and fast to code a xhtml and css valid webpage. First I design the webpage in Photoshop for showing the client to have a generic ideia. After aproval, I take about 2 to 3 hours to create all the xhtml and css code. I used dreamweaver before, but when codding all manually i have absoluty 100% control of the webpage, also since the webpages i create use template codding, for example, i don’t repeat the header and the footer, i put in different php files and then grab then, it’s much more simple to me viewing the code, i remember sometimes dreamweaver stucked when showing some css div’s.

Coding all the page with a normal notepad with a sintax highlighter have improved to evolve to the next level.

(Sorry the bad english)

It looks like you reviewed the first version of Expression Web because there’s no mention of the big new features in version 2 which was just released on May 1 with rich support for PHP, easy PHP previewing in browser, ASP.NET AJAX, and Photoshop import.

Anna

i also code with notepad++, quanta plus or aptana… human code is always better than generated one

In my experience, I’ve found that WYSIWYG editors are no match for Notepad. :)

What great timing! I just Link [www.freelancewritinggigs.com] on the importance of freelance writers having their own website, and there are some great tools listed here that will help folks do just that. I used Rapidweaver for my first site, but have switched to a Wordpress-hosted site that I tweak by hand in Textwrangler (Mac text editor).

I can also recognize this is the kind of article that can drive a design professional crazy since it points to all sorts of ways a nondesigner can do a mediocre job on their own. Unlike most nondesigners, though, I recognize the limits of my talents and do intend to hire a pro when my budget allows!

I use Link [www.scintilla.org] for all of my server-side and client-side coding. WYSIWYG editors serve absolutely no purpose for me. You simply can’t beat the coding syntax’s in SciTE, and virtually every aspect of the editor can be customized in the SciTEGlobal.properties file. When you put SciTE and Notepad++ side by side, SciTE always comes out on top for me. Other editors like PHP Designer, TextPad, and UltraEdit don’t even come close in my book.

Now I know I’m very opinionated and many here will probably disagree with me, but anyone who claims to be a web professional has no reason whatsoever to be using ANY form of a WYSIWYG editor. I don’t care how valid and standards compliant the output code may be, WYSIWYG editors do not provide nor allow for an effective and efficient work flow. And for the good honest folk who actually have a legal copy of Dreamweaver, I hate to break it to you but you’ve wasted several hundred dollars that could’ve be spent on a bigger monitor or something (lol).

I tried DW, but once you learn how to hand-code your sites with Coda, you’ll never go back.

I use Dreamweaver - it’s cos I’m so used to it. I’ve never used the WYSIWYG features; I’m only responding cos it annoys me how people can say you have ‘no real talent’ and such just for using a tool which makes life easier. I use it for code snippets, auto-completing (I type

I agree with Ed, I am a Rapidweaver user and fully believe that is the best. From being able to create custom templets, to the great plugins. Its easy for non-experienced users, and great for some who are advance in html, css, php, or whatever you want just about.
Hands down it is the best app for web design!

a mi el que mas me ha gustado para programar en win ha si Dreamweaver. antiguamente bloc de nota puro era de la vieja escuela.

I’m of the opinion that just because I can’t write the DOCTYPE or meta info from memory doesn’t mean I’m not close to being a professional. It means that I have templates set-up with these things already in place to maximize my time and be able to make more money.

I agree. I used to use a text editor for all my work but even then I didn’t type out doctypes out by hand - the editor came with its own inbuilt templates which included doctypes etc.

Now I use Dreamweaver and again, it lets you create templates with the doctypes already included. I still only use DW in code view though (sometimes use split view for quickly adding content like lists, anchors etc) and wouldn’t recommend anyone to try and work with CSS using DW in design view as it makes a mess of how it displays positioned elements.

But as a tool that saves the amount of characters you type, I think it’s great and anyone who thinks they’re a better coder because they actually type every single byte of code they produce, rather than using tools that speed up that process and reduce production time, is misguided.

I’ll have to 2nd Zend, as a user that moves between M$, Linux, and OS X. Zend is the ideal editor.

What Dreamweaver needs is a better way to work with dynamic websites. Not just plug-ins like Link [gosdot.com] but it should truly incorporate ways to work with CMS’ like Wordpress and Drupal

I am using Textmat in Mac and in Win Link [], I think more practical

Funny… I always thought Nvu was pronounced “envy you” - as in the end product/design. Apparently I hadn’t read up on the package before briefly using it.

In sum, WYSIWYG are just for beginners. And when it comes to front-end web development, its always best to use Code Editors (Coda, PsPad, Notepad++, etc.) for advance developers.

I use Dreamweaver and always on the Code View, most of the time I only switch in Design View when locating DIVs for long coded pages. DW snippets are useful too and so I use them. Together w/ DW I use PsPad for more of the coding part, where line highlights are very much useful for me.

I can’t believe Coda got mentioned so many times. I used Dreamweaver for years until Mac got their intels and I didn’t feel like spending the money to upgrade Dreamweaver as well. I ended up with Coda and I was worried that I would get stuck with the code, but I didn’t and I wouldn’t want to switch back now. I really like Coda!! It’s not a WYSIWYG, but that preview mode is great . Why don’t you guys make a list about apps like Coda, Rapidweaver, CSSEdit etc. I don’t think there are many designers that read these posts that don’t have a single clue about html or other code and I feel like this post is a little too basic. Even those that are using Dreamweaver are most likely using the code view for work not design view.

I use a yellow Legal pad for my xhtml and a stenographers notebook for my CSS And always use a pen!
AJAX = Rolodex.

Your mac’s don’t impress me. I use mine as a paper weight.

“Im a geek i code by hand and refresh. wysiwyg is for lazy. real developers use .net and need intelisense…” man why do people get so edgy about this stuff. obviously some tools work better for others. I use dreamweaver to manage files, and quickly edit pages. I code by hand or use there tools when its faster. Code a table by hand vs a wysiwyg (and before you go on about tables I mean for tabular use you standards compliant nazi freaks).

At the end of the day- for PHP, Ruby or .net programming or whatever you need a different tool. for whipping a up a quick 10 page website that you charge $5K for and want done in 2 days- you need a streamlines approach, easy tools, and XHTML&CSS knowledge. not this tool or that tool.

I was hoping to read about a wysiwyg editor that:
- warns me of problomatic CSS- ie bugs, x-browser rendering differeces. Not because i don’t know, but because i have a life outside of work and forget over the years all the bugs. monday after a big weekend and a websites due nothings worse than looking at some code knowing you’ve solved the problem before and can’t remember.

- has intellegent CSS design. has lightbox and sifr and grids and ajax stuff inbuild, and updatable from their website like an rss feed or something. I read and keep up to date on the latest and greatest ninja code techniques but i got other things on my mind too, im trying to learn motion design, get out of the house more and I can’t keep on top of new knoweldge forever. - maybe thats why some people get so anus over discussions like this, they have invested so much time into the knowledge its become part of their identity and they feel the need to let everyone know what they know. I know someone else who was bursting to express himself: Seung-Hui Cho. yeah. didn’t work out so good.

I think some of you need to go for a walk and calm down. Just because someone doesn’t develop/code/design/build the same way you do doesn’t mean you’re right or they are right.

we can all be right.

except frontpage/sharepoint designer lovers. Can you believe that I can’t even force MOSS to be standards compliant and SharePoint Designer has the nerve to tell me I’m writing bad code.

Those who use Dreamweaver or other WYSIWYG editors are ussualy: lazy or noob. If you want a clean cut design with clean tableless code, you need to know your xHTML very well along with CSS.

I haven’t seen one WYSIWYG editor capable of displaying my hand-coded xHTML correctly. Visual editors are only good for simple website or web pages without any real obstacle…

Moreover with the web 2.0, alot of website use bits and pieces of AJAX and javascript which ussualy need a hand job. This is the reasons why I use notepad++

Notepad is the only way to edit any web content. If you aren’t fluent with HTML, XSLT, etc, you have no business doing any kind of web design. Learn your server model languages and get bck to us actual web professionals. Syntax coloring and dynamic validation is for ignorant pussies.

Just because you use Dreamweaver does not negate the use of being able to hand write code. I have only ever used DreamWeaver (ok HomeSite for 6 moths over 6 years ago… but that’s just DW without the wysiwyg… was bundled together as I recall).

However, i can write all my HTML and CSS in code view and simply look at the way the divs balance, etc, in split view. Just because a true professional wouldn’t *design* in DW’s “design view” … doesn’t mean it’s not the best balance of form and function.

Because I cut my teeth on HTML and CSS long before I learned PHP, Eclipse is not a comfortable environment to do my HTML/CSS… and certainly the FTP management of accounts via “Sites” is far superior to other wysiwyg editors.

Coda for Mac+CSS Edit=Amazing. Please include these programs next time!

It seems my previous post was prevented from being posted.

To touch upon Toni Marie’s comments, if you are going to “use DreamWeaver correctly” as a web designer and hand code the XHTML and CSS, what point is there in paying for an application primarily developed to be a WYSIWYG editor? Surely using any aspect of the latter, such as the much-despised Designer View, clearly contradicts the point (and much of the markup) of clean, compliant handmade code, no?

And to touch upon my first comment, where did it go?
Where ever did that fishy go?

maybe Aptana is the best editor too.

I am trying out Link [www.sitemasher.com], which I was introduced to during Interop 2008 here in Las Vegas.

As i said, i use notepad++ to code everything, sintax highlight helps to seperate the vars and it’s quick to find specific code. I feel sad that some people says that coding is professional and using wysiwug software is for newbies, it has nothing to do with it. Being professional is all about the final result, not the tools you use to reach the goals. Even coding could demonstrate a bigger knowledge than someone using software, it doesnt mean the final result will be better ;)

whoops another one: Flux 1.2
Link [www.theescapers.com]

I use Quanta Plus, it’s not really WYSIWYG editor. I like it because it offers a comfortable code editor for XHTML and CSS, and syntax highlight for JavaScript. However, sometimes a prefer using Aptana for JavaScript and PHP.
I think if a developer cares about web standards, accessibility etc, handcoding will be his/her natural choice, even with Dreamweaver (argh!!!).

For the guys that say no professional web designer/developer uses something else than dreamweaver.

No one calling himself a professional (being a professional) would rely on dreamweaver’s WYSIWIG hability, they code, and why pay for an overpriced product, adobe just came to destroy good old macromedia rising the price of the software and 0 improvements.

Ok guys. now Web Development professionals should use good old text to create this (this goes for designing and programming). except for grapchis.

Personally i use Gedit on LINUX (free and reliable). I used to work with dreamweaver till it was sold, still used the coding feature which still are great but not so much for the price. there are some other amazing ides like some guys comment here, but for the WYSIWIG part the article does a really good job, this comment is directed to all the people who cant see beyond WYSIWIG for web development.

I can make a site in notepad too!

I’m so cool. it’s the outcome not the tool.

tools

Wow, I knew that there was a lot of editors, but that many …
I use Dreamweaver or for css Coding.

Thanks for the list!

I always use Dreamweaver. you can split the screen, so you can code by hand and see what you’ve written. by the way i really like the code highlighting and the ftp-thing. You don’t have to work WYSIWYG with Dreamweaver, just use it as an editor.

Sorry, I real don’t get the point of this post…
Smashing Magazine aims professionnals, right ?

Tim you are a twat

You forgot a couple of good mac editors - skedit and Coda - the latter being a pretty good all in one application with code / preview / ssh / ftp / and a library function to look up references.

I use skedit on a daily basis and would be lost without it. It all comes down to your style of editing I suppose.

is there any list out there to read trough for photoshop plugins, what they do or photoshop actions to make the life easier?

my editor is notepad++. i switched from dreamweaver after a loving relationship for more then 4 years. notepad++ looks good, gives me everything i need, can be pimped with new colour-shemes and make it unique ( for design-lovers only ) but too use and handle this free tool is outstanding.

again a great and useful article. and maybe someone can hel me with my question from above ;)

The perfect coding is made by hand with a text editor. A web site should be first drawn in photoshop or similar platforms and then hand coded. it is more flexible and the code will be clean and simple. Of course after that you can use integrating software for PHP or Ajax/JavaScript if you are working at a very large website, for example an on-line store or something like that. :)

Up next week, “25 WYSIWYG Word Processors Reviewed”

Of course, we all know that real writers use LaTeX. Hand written in Notepad. :)

I use dreamweaver at home and notepad++ at work…
Dreamweaver is cool, but i don’t even user 10% of the software, and it slows down my computer when i open photoshop or flash or when i have 20+ files opened…
Notepad++ is so quick, and gives many useful shortcuts…
i think too that the real wysiwyg is alt+tab and F5…

What does “concorcium” mean?

The problem with WYSIWYG is adaptability. For those happy to build formulaic, generic , tabled , “I’v seen it somewhere before ” pages/ sites WYSIWYG delivers. If you want very clean code, WYSIWYG generally won’t. Not only that, but you face the real possibility of not be taken seriously by many top level employers. For beginners that’s not a problem but what happens when you need to integrate Ajax, PHP, Flash into a CSS/ HTML page? Wait for a plug in? Those who know code have already written that application. The worst thing about WYSIWYG is it puts those dependant on it at a TOTAL DISADVANTAGE in terms of abilty to code. I learned html/ css the so called “hard way” and saved myself several hundred diollars but most importantly if I see something I like I use view source and I know what I’m seeing. If I look at some interesting effect on a tutorial and code is given, again I know what it means and how to customize it. Most importantly learning humble html/css has allowed me to learn other languages rather than rely on a translator… (WYSIWYG) and that makes you more innovative than relying on a plug in or others to do things for you…

some professional web designers just use a good non WYSIWYG editor like UltraEdit and page opnened in several browsers to cut the design coming from PSD or AI but this is about WYSIWYG :)

Really helpful information.

I still remember when i use to design websites using Microsoft Frontpage, as that was the only WYSIWYG software trained by most of the Computer Training Institute in India those days. Now there are lot of Web Page Editos presents and you’ve covered most of them.

But I think when it comes to WYSIWYG software, Dreamweaver rules all of them. It has everything a newbie / advanced Web Designer / Developer look for.

Why don’t you do Voting for the most used WYSIWYG software. I know Dreamweaver will win it.

Oh!….

Why Still some of the developers to develop thier pages without using the WYSISWYG editors.
Its waste of time & Energy

Choose better WYSIWYG editor suitable to your project. save your time.

I’ve used FirstPage for a while, which is IMO a great editor, but recently I discoverded HTML Kit, which is now my weapon-of-choice. It has add-ons that allow to preview in both IE and FF which proves very helpful in testing your designs.

Download from download.com: Link [www.download.com]

IMHO the best WYSIWYG editor for web is a set of Photoshop + Aptana/Eclipse + browsers’ dev tools.

I am using TextWrangler and CSSEdit mostly; I am using Dreamweaver only when I have to create quick’n'dirty website previews or when I have to support old, badly coded websites.

Where is CODA? :)

How about a review of web based WYSIWYG editors for developers to install for their clients? We have more and more requests for CMS so would be good to know what is preferred, whats popular, problems, etc etc..

I started web design in 1997 using notepad. Moved on to Hotdog pro (anyone remember that?). For the last 6 years I’ve been using dreamweaver simply because it cuts out a lot of the gunk and the speed I create pages is so fast. I can hand code HTML and CSS with my eyes shut but I would never hand code simply because it takes too much time.

Good post but looking at this lot I’ll still be using DreamWeaver (Visual studio 2008 has got a lot better for the front end designer but still DW is the best imho).

It has been mentioned but would love a run-down of the best and worst code editors to use (including IDE platforms), I think it’s more of a minefield than WYSIWYG editors and some guidance would be nice.

Agree it would be nice to see a review of text/code editors. And I’d love for you to find out from Adobe why one of the best editors out there - HomeSite - has been left to rot. I believe it’s because they put all their eggs in DW, but it would be nice to know for sure.

Who are really using the Microsoft Expression Web???

don’t care what anyone says… i love the GoLive.. and i was happy with at least a v. 9 that did come out with some really great tools that i hope one day would make it into dreamweaver. until my golive 9 dies i refuse to make the switch the interface is so much easier than dreamweaver.

goliver since 6.0!