Free Web Page Editors

Listed on this web page are free HTML and WYSIWYG web page editors. Each editor runs on Windows. Some of them have versions that run on other operating systems. They are all free to download and use. Some of them do have some advertisement encouraging you to purchase it. While the rest are true freeware and open source software.

WYSIWYG web page editors allow you to edit a web page like a word processor. What you see should be similar to what you get when browsing the web page on the Internet. All these editors allow you add text, images, web links, lists, and many other elements to a web page. Since these editors act like a word processor and are great for at least creating simple web pages.

The drawbacks from a WYSIWYG editor is the HTML code can become very bloated and contain HTML errors. Eventually you will need to cleanup the HTML. Fortunately there is an open source tool named HTML TIDY that is very good at identifying errors and cleaning up the HTML code.

For example, I created a web page called mylog.html. All it contained was a lot of text, links, and lists. Nothing fancy. I used NVU to create and maintain it. One day I opened it with another editor and notice the first line took up the first page of the editor screen. All the lines in the file ran very long. Using PSPad and the integrated TIDY tool, I was able to clean it up. When I started editing it again with NVU, I notice the lines got long again but not as bad as before. You might ask why I went back to using NVU. Well NVU is so easy to use maintain this log that I don't mine using PSPad to clean it up once in a while.

HTML text editors are like Window's text editor notepad except they have a bunch of features to assist in creating HTML code. Most of these editors support more than HTML code making them a muti-purpose editor. To effectively use these editors to create a web page you will need to learn HTML.

My approach to creating a web page is to first create it with a WYSIWYG editor. Then clean it up using a HTML text editor. I definitely run HTML Tidy to check the HTML code and format it for readability.


WYSIWYG Web Page Editors


NVU - The Complete Web Authoring System for Linux, Macintosh and Windows

NVU is a open source editor that is very easy to use. As a novice, I found this tool very easy to use. It also familiarized me with the basic aspects of web page design. Development on this tool has been discontinued but it is still very popular. It covers most of the basic needs of web page creation. For help in using this tool, you can use the tutorial How to Design and Publish Your Website with NVU on thesitewizard.com.

This editor is great to use when web pages are kept simple. But sooner or later HTML code bloat and erroneous code will infiltrate the the web page. You will see this when you edit the HTML code using another editor. There will appear to be many empty lines. I am not sure if the lines of code are padded with a bunch of spaces or something else. To clean up this HTML, I use the tool HTML TIDY which comes packaged with other editors.

Likes: When it works, the Site Manager is a joy to use to directly edit web pages. Links are very easy to set up.
Dislikes: Cleaning up the HTML code. Site Manager does not work with some FTP sites.

KompoZer - Easy web authoring

KompoZer is a bug fixed version of NVU that is actively being developed. It comes with some additional features such as red dotted borders around <div> containers . This can be helpful on multi-column web pages. Support for frames has been removed. If you add frame html code to the source it will stripe it out. They really want you to use Tables or CSS instead. I don't blame them for encouraging you, but this is suppose to be a tool for novices and CSS has a step learning curve.

I would use this tool in place of NVU if it fixed some of the problems I 've encountered with NVU. Instead, I use it when I get tired of the bugs with NVU and hope they are finally fixed in this tool. In the end I go back to NVU. For a list of fixes and enhancements see KompoZer About page. Maybe if I use the CSS editor I will use this instead of NVU.

Likes: Shows the borders on the web page
Dislikes: Did not fix any of the bugs I've found with NVU.


Trellian WebPage - is a freeware application and will remain FREE.

This editor has a clean well design GUI interface. You can easily switch between the Editor, Source, Preview and Split views of the web page. All its options are easily accessible through icons, menus, and quick keys. Additional tools are bundled such as HTML TIDY, HTML Validation, FTP Client, and a simple spell checker. Configuring HTML TIDY is very easy. You can browse the web page in each browser installed on the PC.

Web pages can only be edited after the have been downloaded to the PC. The FTP Client allows you to publish them back to the site.There are some bugs with this product such as the "<!DOCTYPE" line missing from the source panel.

Warning: When installing the product, only select WebPage. The other two options can be installed later if you want them.

Likes: Very nice interface
Dislikes: Saving File scrolls back to top of the web page. HTML Code is always saved using TIDY original default settings. Changes in Split panel are ignored. Can't open FTP client until I open/create a web page. Then I can't close unless I first disonnect from the site


PageBreeze Freeware Html Editor

PageBreeze is a both a WYSIWYG and HTML source editor. It is fairly easy to use. You can easily switch between WYSIWYG, HTML Source, and preview in Internet Explorer. To edit an existing web page it must be first downloaded to the PC. The spell checker and preview options are real time savers.

When work is completed on a web page, the Publish to FTP option is only available in the Pro edition. So I use FileZilla to upload web pages it to my web host FTP site. This is a nice tool except for its advertisement links

Likes: Optionally view Borders. Tab for previewing in Internet Explorer.
Dislikes: Only edit one page at a time. Switching between source and normal tabs looses location on page.

HTML Text Editors


PSPad - free unicode developer editor for Microsoft Windows systems, handles near any syntax like HTML, PHP, XHTML, JavaScript,

PSPad is a text editor that can be used to edit all types of files including HTML, CSS and XML. There are many additional tools and plugins available for this editor. Some of the tools it ncludesz are a FTP client, HTML page preview, TIDY HTML cleaner, check HTML Code and many more. It is a jackknife of all types of tools used to edit files.

I like using this tool to cleanup HTML from WYSIWYG editors. It provides the capablity to edit web pages directly on the website throught the FTP client. These tools are time savers.

Tips:

  • When configuring the FTP connection always include the port number. For example upload.comcast.net:21
  • TIDY Configuration file TiDyCFG.ini set "BARE=YES". It keeps &nbsp; from being replaced with x'A0'.

Likes: Does HTML very well and can be used to edit many different types of file. The TIDY cleanup is very handy and comes configured with many different setups that you can choose.
Dislikes: So many options so it can be confusing to find what you are looking for.


HTML Kit is a full-featured free editor for HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and other text files.

HTML Kit is a HTML text editor with many features to assist developers in creating web pages. It supports HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and other text files. Among its many features are previewing of web pages, integration with HTML TIDY, auto-completion of HTML commands, and runs on Windows. If you have Microsoft Word installed, it is automatically integrates with it to allow spelling and grammar checking of the web page. It provides direct support for editing files on FTP sites.

There are over 400 plugins available for it. For help in customizing use the Tutorial Setting Up HTML Kit by Iron Spider.

Likes: Direct FTP support. Preview web pages. Many plugins that help the experience HTML developer. Integration with HTML TIDY.
Dislikes:Must know HTML. Lack of assistance in setting up TIDY

Evrsoft First Page 2006

This tool has both a WYSIWYG and HTML Text Editor. You can switch between the two, but the HTML is reformatted each you switch back to WYSIWYG. You can switch between the two but the HTML is reformatted each you switch back to WYSIWYG. Using the DESIGN tab you can create a web page the way you want it to look. Using the Source tab you edit the HTML code. Most of the tools are only available in from the Source Code tab. So this tool is mostly used for editing HTML code.

Some of its many features are Spell Checker, Thesaurus, TIDY HTML cleaner, and FTP Client. The FTP client is only used to upload/download files after you save your changes to disk. Many of these tools only work when editing the source. So this tool is better as a HTML text editor. But if you are looking to use both its not bad. The product is free but it does nag you to purchase the latest version when starting it up after a week of use.

Likes: Using the the Dual view to edit the HTML and seeing the results in the other view.
Dislikes: The Nag screen when starting and exiting. Instead of using <bra> it uses <pa>&nbsp;</pa>.

Alleycode - Free HTML editor

Alleycode supports HTML, PHP, and CSS files. A tutorial is included to help those new to HTML coding. It has a Synco mode which is more like previewer because it needs to be refreshed to see changes made in the HTML code. Support is provided for 3rd party FTP clients that can be called from within this editor. If you are looking to learn HTML this might be the right editor to use.

Likes: Very nice clean interface.
Dislikes: To update the web page in Synco mode you need to press Ctrl + D twice.


Additional Tools:

  • TIDY is an open source HTML/CSS Code validation and formatter.
  • FileZilla is an open source FTP Client software


Additional Articles:


Disclaimer

The information provided on this web site comes without any warranty whatsoever. Use it at your own risk. Just because a program, book, document or service is listed here or has a good review does not mean that I endorse or approve of the program or of any of its contents. All the other standard disclaimers also apply.

Last Updated: Saturday, 19-Apr-2008 20:01:09 CEST