I did manage to install the Microsoft Visual Web Developer after a bit of effort (you have to download the Microsoft Web Platform Installer first, then go to the Microsoft Visual Web Developer page http://www.microsoft.com/express/web/ and click on the Install button and enter the path to the Microsoft Web Platform Installer on your PC to install it. And installation is quite sloooooow.

The Express version (supposed to be free) is clearly labeled "For Evaluation Purposes only" -- not my favorite ambiguity...

and then after loading an HTML file, I get the message: some bytes have been replaced with the Unicode substitution character while loading filename with US-ASCII encoding. Saving the file will not preserve the original file contents.

Not sure if this will mess up my HTML files or not.

on the positive side, it has dual panes, code and preview, with auto-updating and a vertical split option with the code on the left, which I prefer

but on the negative side, it doesn't have any way to automatically insert HTML codes, e.g. I cannot select a few words and change their color, size, etc.

so it's ok but certainly not great.


by the way, CodeLobster PHP Edition has all of the above except that the preview is on the left, but again has no support for inserting HTML tags easily.

My quest continues.

I tested bluefish and Blaze (nope to both)

Selida, which is free and would be fine if the sync was at least possible (the preview jumps to the top the minute I enter any code)

And I'm having a similar issue with Codelobster.

Dear Lanux128,

I've actually been quite successful so far in my search.

The following programs show split screens with previews:

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer (FREE) -- Horizontal display AND both sync

CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor -- Horizontal display (no sync)

HTML Pad (about $35) --Horizontal OR Vertical display (no sync)

Trellian WebPage (FREE) -- Horizontal (no sync)

EvrSoft First Page 2006 (FREE or Pay?) -- Horizontal with sync (but questions about support, registering, stability)

So the best ones, with sync that is, are:

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer (FREE)

and

EvrSoft First Page 2006 (FREE or Pay?)

and the only one with my preferred Vertical split (but no sync so far)   :(

is:

HTML Pad (about $35)

How about all that?