I don't like WYIWYG editors, I want to be responsible for the selection and placement of each tag and attribute! Is there a good editor out there that allows you complete control over the HTML but offers useful features such as:
syntax highlighting (of course)
suggestions of tags, attributes etc. e.g. as dropdown lists
validation and accessibility checking
previewing the HTML
Currently I use TextPad with syntax highlighting, but feel I could do better.
I'm a big fan of Aptana for generic HTML/CSS/Javascript editing. Based on Eclipse, but nicer usability. Automatic formatting, code suggestion (with native support for jQuery & ExtJs) and embedded browser tabs for checking your work.
It's also cross-platform, supports Windows Mac & Linux.
I like Notepad++; it doesn't have embedded preview, but it's lightweight, has a good UI, syntax-highlights reliably...
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 might suit your needs (and there's a free download "express" version).
Others have mentioned Visual Studio and HTML Kit. You might also consider DreamWeaver or Microsoft Expression Web. Technically, both of these (and even Visual Studio) have WYSIWYG modes, but they also offer split source/WYSIWYG and total source-only modes. All have validation, standards checking and the whole nine. All allow complete control over code with no fuss nor muss, if that's what you want. Expression and DreamWeaver support syntax highlighting for more than just HTML/ASP; both also support PHP natively.
Here's a link to Visual Web Developer Express (the free Visual Studio Brian mentioned).
I really like Coda on the Mac http://www.panic.com/coda/.
HTMLKit is reasonably decent and free.
I really like Microsoft Expression Web 2.0 or Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007, depending on my needs.
Specifically, Microsoft Expression Web 2.0 supports development of the basics (HTML, CSS, etc.) while including Intellisense for ASP.NET and PHP.
Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 includes support for SharePoint Services and MOSS.
I've heard people say that they like Dreamweaver, but it's a little on the bloated side for my taste. Both the tools I mentioned above allow for WYSIWYG editing, but they support all the features you listed as well. They also allow for doctype support and validation for accessibility, etc.
I recommend Programmer's Notepad for lightweight code editing, but then I'm biased :)
To be fair, these are all also good for the same:
Notepad++,
SciTE,
Notepad2.
None of these (including PN) do the big extras you're asking for with previews and the like, however. For those features you need something more full featured like the already recommended and excellent Expression Web or perhaps even Visual Web Developer.
I should point out also that there are loads of editor discussions on SO already:
https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=html+editor
I still use an old version (4.0) of Homesite and it does just about all I want and need. It was originally written by Nick Bradbury and was not too heavy, had just the right set of features, and was very popular.
Nick sold Homesite to Allaire and then it was eaten by bigger and bigger fish. But it is still maintained and now being sold alongside Dreamweaver as a text-based HTML alternative by Macromedia (and now Adobe).
They charge $99 USD for it.
I would have upgraded, but they only have upgrade pricing for version 4.5 and after. Sorry for the following emotional comment, but I say Software vendors should not ignore early adopters of their programs. People who were first in line deserve special and lifetime treatment. They will become your best customers and best spokesmen for your software, if you let them.
I realize you're on Windows (from the tools you describe) but, for the next Mac guy to read this question:
TextMate seriously does-not-suck for editing all sorts of things, especially collections of things (like projects of C, ruby, java, html, perl, bash, etc.) If it had SubEthaEdit's ability to do cooperative editing, it'd be the only editor I ever use.
TextMate
Depending on what code you will be using (ASP v. php v. ruby, etc), I would suggest Dreamweaver. It is WYSIWYG, but many of the best editors you would find are, including VS 2008. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to use it! I used Dreamweaver quite often at my last job and it was great for editing code and quickly previewing.
Edit: I should mention that Dreamweaver would be best for html, css, javascript, coldfusion, and php. Those are the technologies I have used it with.
I really like Kate, and since it's a KPart, other KDE programs use it as the editor, so it's goodness everywhere!
(why is everybody else assuming you use windows?)
You might want to look into Bluefish - it's what I use for php at home. It has nice support for syntax highlighting for many languages and quite a bit of other goodies HTML-wise.
I use Eclipse here at work, for J2EE stuff. It comes with some great tools and syntax highlighting for html/css/etc.
Related
Or do you know of anyone working on one? I've been checking all the stuff you can do with HTML 5 here and some other sites and is amazing. I think such a big library should have some IDE with intellisense and easy documentation (like when you press F1 on Visual Studio while a symbol is highlighted) and all that stuff. And if there is not then I should probably start working on one :).
Most of known IDEs and their latest version, like Netbeans, Eclipse, Dreamweaver, support natively HTML5. You can find more info and pick one according to your preferences.
There are numerous HTML 5 IDEs, it's important to not necessarily separate current web technologies with HTML5 as they are really are very close to being one and the same. For example, the latest version of Adobe's tool offer support for HTML5, as well as other IDEs such as Aptana. Unfortunately, the HTML5 spec is not done yet so there will be discrepancies between browsers, which a builder could work around, but will put a lot of onus on you.
Alternatively, there are numerous client and server-side frameworks that abstract HTML5 and some of its features, each of these have varying levels of support, a builder, and intellisense. For example, I'm a co-founder of the NOLOH development platform (http://www.noloh.com), which abstracts away browser differences and supports HTML5 transparently to you the developer, allowing you to concentrate on your application and functionality without worrying about the plumbing. We also have what's known as "code stubs" that you can add to any IDE most IDEs and get intellisense/auto-complete functionality. We also have a visual builder in the works that should be out relatively soon.
Whatever you pick, just make sure you're comfortable with it, but you definitely don't want to re-invent the wheel here.
You should definitely try HTML5 Builder.
Try this, HTML5 Boilerplate
if you are looking for something that builds mobile sites or ads html5 builder, maybe you could try http://mobdis.com.
I use FrontPage for two different tasks; authoring html help and authoring a couple of websites. The websites don't require a lot of stuff -- they are there to disseminate a bit of information to a couple of small audiences.
FrontPage has been quick and easy for these tasks. WYSIWYG is good for these jobs and I like being able to click on links to quickly bring up other pages in the editor.
I've been exploring all sorts of options. tools that work online such as Kompozer make editing the html help difficult (at least, I haven't found a way around) and other html-level tools are just too much work. Tried nVu, Kompozer, Aptama, Komodo, Bluefish and so far, unless I'm missing something, I'm not sold on any of them.
I'm about to take a look at SeaMonkey but wondering if anybody has any recommendations. Or should I go back and look at those other tools again -- maybe I missed something?
Notepad++
I think the natural upgrade path would be Microsoft Expression Web.
People still use FrontPage?
I switched a couple of years back to DreamWeaver and never looked back.
Something to consider is that you could deploy these sites as wikis (which don't have to be publically editable) and edit them directly on the web in your browser. This would give you the ability to click around and do pretty much wysiwyg edits. It would also make it easier to maintain larger collections of data and to make new pages. You also don't really have to do any HTML at all because wikis mostly come pre-HTMLed (and CSSed and Javascripted), you just need to fill in the content.
I should note that this won't work if your webpages are deployed statically on a restrictive shared hosting account, but even most shared hosting supports installing things like wikis these days, so hopefully this is something you can look into.
I should also note that this probably isn't the best way to do local HTML help files, but if the HTML help is online, this is probably still a good choice.
I'm making this community wiki so others can add links to other wikis if they like or add more info on why you might want to or not want to use a wiki for this purpose.
Some wikis to consider:
MediaWiki - The wiki behind wikipedia
MoinMoin - Implemented in Python and popular in that community.
TiddlyWiki - Implemented in Javascript and runs on a single page. This is probably the most different wiki that's out there. Some love it, some hate it.
NVU and Kompozer both are best suited for you. NVU is my personal choice. Choose your poison. :)
FrontPage has been replaced by SharedPoint Designed in the Office suite.
You could also use Microsoft Expression Web if you can have it.
Drewamweaver or MS's Visual Studio/Web Developer Express will do the trick. They're both overkill (especially MS's tools).
I also think MS has (free) HTMLHelp. It's out there, but I don't know if it'll produce the files you need.
It depends on what kind of pages you are designing. If you are using Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver would be the best option but I would recommend "Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express". I am currently using it and totally love it from the bottom of my heart.
I'd say Dreamweaver, but last time I looked there was still bloated code, not as bad as the MX days mind.
Smashing Magazine has a list of WYSIWYG tools that would be worth a look :
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/06/25-wysiwyg-editors-reviewed/
I persuaded my friend to ditch Dreamweaver for NetBeans, took a week or so but I got a pint out of that :)
You might look into Aptana (http://aptana.org) which should provide everything you need. I think it even has a WYSIWYG editor, though I would really recommend learning html instead.
I would use Notepad++ for the simpler things, and Dreamweaver when working with other Adobe products. Notepad++ is simple and has a lot of great features. Dreamweaver is huge and will take some getting used to.
Try dokuwiki. I've implemented a wiki/manual/documentation for my app in a week. It's very simple n easy installing. You just need PHP, no database (mysql), the information is stored on files. Give it a try.
My wiki implemented wiki doku: wiki.vigo.com.br
Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express perhaps? http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/
Works well, and it's free!
Something similar to FrontPage is Adobe Contribute. It does cost $199, but if you're looking for something as simple as FrontPage, it may be a good option for you.
A freelancer web designer I work with will setup clients who want to make simple HTML edits to their sites with it and they've all been pretty happy. They're all non-technical people.
Dreamweaver is good, but however using the WYSIWYG may have problems getting consistency when viewing between IE, firefox and safari.
I have a workmate with access to a very good IDE. He wants to use Microsoft FrontPage to write his jsps.
I know exactly what I want to say to him, but what would you say? I need a concise reason why a professional web app developer would never consider FrontPage.
It's an unnecessary abstraction for professional web developers, who need very tight control over the HTML and CSS generated.
It would be like rally car drivers using an automatic transmission. They need to know exactly what their car is going to do, and web developers need to know exactly how their code is going to act.
#1 reason:
FrontPage was discontinued in late 2006.
Personally, it bugs me seeing the extra bloat (unnecessary HTML structure, non-semantic use of HTML tags, embedding CSS directly in HTML) that Frontpage generates. I also dislike use of proprietary, non-standard HTML and CSS. Frontpage's code bloat is bad enough to have inspired such programs as Frontpage Code Cleaner. Here's another Stack Overflow question that deals with removing Frontpage bloat: FrontPage tags - Pain in da HTML.
You might also check out Why I do not use Frontpage by Greg Moreno.
Frontpage leads to bad habits for some of the same reasons Sarah Vessels lists. I used to use it myself. I was one of those who liked to design in design mode and refine in HTML. The problem was that switching between "design" and "html" views would cause FrontPage to change my precious HTML. And at some point I got fed up with it destroying my markup (something the newer tools are better about not doing).
When I began hand coding every site I worked on from scratch I learned so much more about HTML and CSS in general and how to make lightweight, efficient pages. And at that point I also realized that the markup FrontPage would generate was really old-fashioned with lots of tables and inline CSS. As I learned to do it right I also learned how to make my sites cross-browser compatible on the first try. In the end this allows me to design and build a better site, faster.
Professional web developers should really avoid Frontpage and use Microsoft Expression Web instead. It's the replacement for Frontpage and is fairly good, actually.
Frontpage itself has been discontinued. Using it simply as an HTML editor with syntax highlighting is a bit silly given how heavyweight it is.
That being said, if he's producing good code and delivering on time, it doesn't really matter what he uses.
It's intentionally dumbed-down
Great web developers build sites that:
Look good in all browsers
Degrade gracefully when Javascript or CSS or a plugin is not available
Have semantic HTML that makes sense to screen readers
Use AJAX, content compression, and caching to minimize bandwidth use
Have lovely, pixel-perfect graphics
If any GUI can do all that reliably, great. But I haven't seen it yet. And by the time you build one, the competition will be hand-coding capabilities that the GUI doesn't know about yet.
For one, FP isn't really supported anymore. The FP extensions honestly suck, they break quite often on the server side. But just as HTML editor, when the latest FP version is used and the settings are right (correct browser version and no server-side FP extensions), it's quite OK.
However (if staying on MS products), I'd rather use Visual Web Developer 2008 (o1 2010 when it gets out), it's free and has more recent technological support.
This is going off topic, but when FrontPage first came out, it was groundbreaking in how easy it was to create websites at a time when the web designer title was nowhere near fruition, but of course, FP has (de)volved into producing bloat.
The original company that created it was named Vermeer, after the Dutch painter and the story of how FP was built and how Vermeer got bought out by Microsoft is an interesting read, giving you insight into startups and Microsoft buyout tactics back then.
The same person who founded the company produced the movie, "No End in Sight", a documentary about the escalation into Iraq. Interesting segue, from software company to documentary movies.
Anyways, I think the name is Charles Ferguson. You can probably find a used version of the book on the cheap in Amazon. Definitely a worthwhile trip in the way back machine.
Because it's supposed to be catered to the crowd that isn't familiar at all with web development, mostly novices. To an experienced web developer it's fairly restrictive and limited, as is any WYSIWYG editor.
I haven't used it lately, but it used to rewrite a file with it's own garbage, even if you didn't save the file.
The same reason a professional artist doesn't use a coloring book. You're being paid to bring your skill and expertise into creating a product — using only FrontPage is essentially shirking that duty. I'm not saying it's never OK to touch it, but you need to take responsibility for the code you ultimately produce.
I personally haven't used Frontpage all that much, but I feel that you should really learn to use HTML and CSS and not rely on an application to do it for you. You really learn how things work and you have more control over what goes on.
It's Microsoft's
...the same company that brought you IE 6. I bet your site will work with IE 6, but will it work with Safari and Firefox and Opera equally well?
And if it doesn't, what are you going to do about it? You didn't want to dig into the code, remember?
Frontpage produces terrible code that won't be maintainable by other developers not using frontpage, meaning almost all web developers with common sense - especially since Frontpage got discontinued.
As mentioned - FrontPage became Expression Web. I hated FrontPage, but I think Expression Web is fantastic. I'm a programmer with deliverables, I don't have time to mess arround writing HTML code myself.
I suppose it depends what market your friend is in. If he wants to make shiny, glossed up websites with custom features & CSS - use a HTML/CSS syntax editor.
If he just wants to make quick, nice looking, clean corporate sites and have a high turn-over of generic sites, Expression Web is great. (The HTML isn't very 'pure' thought - but honestly what client would care?)
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to generate accessible PDFs (including images) from HTML?
The PDFs need to look like the original HTML, including positions of images etc.
Any special HTML structure required to help make the final PDF accessible?
I've seen questions about creating PDFS none of them specifically address the important issue of accessibility.
My poison of choice is Perl but references to any program, language or library will help.
I have a more in-depth question at TypeDoc if anyone has more general information to offer.
http://doctype.com/TiB
Also,
I, and others, would find it useful if users with accessibility problems could comment if they find the "usability experience" of using PDFs better or worse than reading from Plain Old Semantic HTML (POSH).
Thanks
Mike
Look into PrinceXML. Through CSS you can control margins, page breaking and orientation. While not open source, you can try it for free, but it places a small water mark in the upper right corner.
The Adobe ColdFusion server product does a really fine job of this, not surprisingly. But it's not free, and the open source implementations of the language (Smith and BlueDragon) don't support the pdf stuff.
Developer licenses to Adobe ColdFusion are free, and you can download it.
I've done this thing on a small scale but scripting Safari to print to PDFs. I don't recommend it for large-scale projects though.
By far the most capable PDF publishing tool I've ever come across is reportlab. There is an open source library written with Python and a proprietary system that allows you to construct a document using RML, a custom xml spec. The latter is easier for more complex docs. They tend to be very flexible (and reasonable) with pricing.
Not strictly an answer to your question as it doesn't handle html-to-pdf conversions, but perhaps of use to you.
I am building advanced HTML tables with lots of CSS in them, what are the best tools out there for building advanced HTML CSS tables that could include dynamic elements like AJAX driven features (jQuery). I use Dreamweaver and Eclipse but they just touch the surface of having a really great tool set to build with. If you use a great tool let me know about it:-)
Seriously, the closer to the metal you get, the better off you'll be. On the Mac, I use TextMate for doing the HTML and Javascript, and CSSEdit for editing the CSS.
Best tool ever, either Textpad or Notepad++.
Both support syntax highlighting for a variety of languages, tabbed interface, etc.
Stay away from frontpage / dreamweaver.
Also if I may ask, why as you making HTML tables, I am hoping not for a layout?
I'll second Notepad++. How about an Express edition of Visual Studio 200x? You get some great design tools, great syntax highlighting, and it's free.
If you want a good free Mac editor, I go with WordWrangler. But if you want something that will cover EVERYTHING for web design, go with Coda.
For PC, I use notepad++. Not as slick as the ones for Mac, but it does allow for editing straight from the server.
But as far as CSS for tables specifically, you are going to want to do as much of it on your own, as tables are the worst when it comes to accessibility and semantic mark up, and that can only be dealt with by hand. Things like scope, colgroups, etc are never going to be WYSIWYG, you have to fine tune it.
Here's a good starting point:
http://www.noupe.com/css/21-fresh-ajax-css-tables.html