Do you know a free HTML editor with real time preview in adjacent pane?

[lanux128]

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

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer (FREE)...

this is very interesting, Microsoft is giving away Sharepoint Designer. must get it now...

[40hz]

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

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer (FREE)...

this is very interesting, Microsoft is giving away Sharepoint Designer. must get it now...

Previously mentioned:

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17766.msg158487#msg158487

[lanux128]

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

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer (FREE)...

this is very interesting, Microsoft is giving away Sharepoint Designer. must get it now...

Previously mentioned:

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17766.msg158487#msg158487

lol, my apologies.. your post really flew in under the radar..

[AbteriX]

Do you know how to make the font used to display the code any larger? I've been searching the menus but so far have come up blank.

I shown you all that with my screen shot above.

[ha14]

Hi
Amaya W3C's Editor/Browser:
It supports HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, XHTML Basic, XHTML 1.1, HTTP 1.1, MathML 2.0, many CSS 2 features, and SVG.

It now includes a SVG editor (for a subset of the language). You can display and partially edit XML documents. It's an internationalized application. It provides an advanced user interface with contextual menus, a customizable set of menus and tools, predefined themes.

Distributions are available for Linux, Windows and now MacOS X PowerPC and Intel


http://www.w3.org/Amaya/

[HankFriedman]

Dear HA14,

Amaya has a vertical split, synching, etc. and would be great BUT it has no wordwrap so long lines drift way offscreen.

Apparently, wordwrap has been asked for for years, but not added.



It's funny how the lack of one little feature can diminish the value of a great program greatly

[lanux128]

Apparently, wordwrap has been asked for for years, but not added.
...
It's funny how the lack of one little feature can diminish the value of a great program greatly

it seems that wordwrap is a feature that often lags behind other options in an editor. though in my case it was a non-HTML editor - PSPad, which had some problems with word-wrap until the dev fixed it much much later. i'm sure there are others with similar problem..

[HankFriedman]

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.

[wraith808]

good to see that you've found an editor that suits your needs. got to bookmark CoffeeCup myself. btw, i didn't know about Trellian's bad reputation, i wonder why it got flagged at WOT.

[johnnylately]

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

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Designer (FREE)...

this is very interesting, Microsoft is giving away Sharepoint Designer. must get it now...

Previously mentioned:

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=17766.msg158487#msg158487

lol, my apologies.. your post really flew in under the radar..

MS link redirects to general MS Server page.  

It appears that you must have access to Sharepoint (from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-designer-help/introducing-sharepoint-designer-2010-HA101782482.aspx?CTT=1)

"If you haven’t installed SharePoint Designer 2010 yet, the first time you launch it from SharePoint, you’re prompted to download and install it from the Web. The next time you open SharePoint Designer 2010, it opens immediately. It’s also available in the Windows Start menu."

It may be somewhere on MS site for download, Bing search hasn't revealed it yet.

[daddydave]

It may be somewhere on MS site for download, Bing search hasn't revealed it yet.

Google made it the first result for sharepoint designer free
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42&displaylang=en

In Bing it's the second result.

Google has always been better at searching the Microsoft web site, IMO.

[tabletguy]

Although not a "full time" editor, Firefox with firebug does give real time editing of HTML and viewing. Good for small and quick sanity checks.

Stylizer (http://www.skybound.ca/) is focused on CSS, but it does have real time preview of changes, and is a good adjunct. It has both a free and paid version.

Topstyle 4 (http://svanas.dynip.com/topstyle/) isn't actually free, but the trial doesn't expire, and I find I keep trying it out for little things. It does do live (with adjustable delay) previews. It also has a feature to split out a style-sheet from existing HTML pages, etc.

Have you tried out Netbeans or Eclipse? They're both quite a bit more than just an "html editor" but they are free   I haven't tried either of these specifically for web development yet. Looking at the plug-ins available, Netbeans has a "Web Preview" plug-in.

(I'm  not affiliated with any of the above)

Also, have you already checked out http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-html-editor.htm ?

[johnnylately]

It may be somewhere on MS site for download, Bing search hasn't revealed it yet.

Google made it the first result for sharepoint designer free
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42&displaylang=en

In Bing it's the second result.

Google has always been better at searching the Microsoft web site, IMO.

Google pwns Bing for microsoft.com searches  lol!

[steeladept]

Sorry I did not respond sooner.  I am really surprised no one mentioned Microsoft Visual Web Developer.  It allows for everything you mention and the Express version is free (and does have the same requested features).

It is simple as using the Split view (which can be made default by going to Tools>Options and going into the HTML Designer.  Choose the appropriate options and you are on your way). 

[attachthumb=#1]

In my usage, there is a very slight delay as it updates in the other screen, but I would guess that would occur on any program like this.

[nepaltom]

In May lanux128 mentioned Amaya - there was no reaction on this proposal. But it's a real interesting editor/browser project by the W3C. You should try this. It works in both directions: preview on your code-changes and WYSIWYG editing with live code preview.

[HankFriedman]

dear nepaltom,

if you read my response, I did indicate the weaknesses and strengths of Amaya, specifically the "fatal" lack of wordwrap

[HankFriedman]

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.

[steeladept]

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

Huh.  Don't remember seeing this caveat ever. Anywhere. I am going back to look again now. You are certainly right about one thing though...the installation SUCKS big time.  It isn't difficult, but it is convoluted and, IMO, cumbersome and slow.  That said, you do get a lot of functionality for free, so I deal with it without complaint (well major complaint anyway )

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.

If I recall my encoding mappings correctly, it shouldn't. It looks like it is trying to change it TO Unicode, which is not altogether a bad idea assuming nothing else changes.  The ease test is to copy the page, open the copy and see if there are any changes.  Behind the scenes, it all gets converted to Unicode, which shares the ASCII mappings to prevent things from getting hosed, and everything then ends up looking the same (size on disk would change a little though because Unicode is larger by 1 bit/character IIRC).

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.

I am not exactly sure what you mean here.  Do you mean like code snippets or something else? 

[steeladept]

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

Just found what you meant.  Here is the relevant passage resolving your concerns:

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 Express requires that you register
your evaluation copy within 30 days of installation. Once you've
entered your Registration Key, the product is free.

It is permanently free for anyone to use (even for commercial use from what I read in the license itself, though I don't recall the specifics).  However, once installed, you do have 30 days to register it to make it a non-evaluation copy.  Not unlike many other free software.  Another nice thing about this page http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/ is they brought back the ability to download the ISO for later installation.  It is much faster and smoother that way, IMO, but I couldn't find it for a long time even for VS Express 2008.  I strongly suggest downloading and keeping the ISO if you think you will ever reinstall it.

[HankFriedman]

dear steeladept,

what I meant by automatically insert HTML codes is that I'm used to an HTML editor (the old Windows version of Arachnophilia, which is truly superb) where you can customize the right-click menu such that you can, for example:

highlight text and change its size, color, make it a link, etc.

or click on a blank area and insert text or links or graphics, etc.

very easily

[steeladept]

what I meant by automatically insert HTML codes is that I'm used to an HTML editor (the old Windows version of Arachnophilia, which is truly superb) where you can customize the right-click menu such that you can, for example:

highlight text and change its size, color, make it a link, etc.

or click on a blank area and insert text or links or graphics, etc.

Ah, thank you. Now I know what you are talking about, but I don't know of any currently developed editor that does that.  Sorry.  I just knew from your original post and some of the followon posts that VisualWebDeveloper met all those stated desires.  If Arachnophilia is not still available, I don't know that there will be any free (or even paid) version that will do everything the same as that, but I know some (VWD included) will come close.

[cchian]

Arachnophilia is still around and is now written in Java, it was last updated on 10/2009.  I have never used it but remember its name from many years ago.

http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/

[HankFriedman]

And the winners are:

CodeLobster and Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express both are free and have vertical splitting with sync.

[David.P]

Ahh what a great thread -- albeit not with a clear result/winner (if I'm right).

I'm basically looking for something similar as Hank was:

A HTML editor that allows fast and easy editing (basically of existing websites), especially including fast text formatting like bolding, text highlighter etc.

The editor can be simple, but it must be capable of handling complex websites with lots of CSS and stuff without breaking the site's layout or source code.

I'd actually prefer a WYSIWYG pane for simple text editing as well, although a fast preview pane with synchronous scrolling could also be acceptable. Mozilla Kompozer comes very close -- but unfortunately is discontinued, and its supposed successor, Bluegriffon, is not quite up to par with Kompozer's features and ease of editing. OTOH, Kompozer does not have html syntax highlighting, oh well.

I'm actually somewhat hopeless because the following list shows what I've already tried (including Blog and Bulk Mail HTML editors):


1st Page 2006
AFSS - HTML Designer 2.3
BestAddress HTML Editor
Blink HTML Editor
BlockNote HTML Editor
BlogDesk html (blog) editor
Blogjet html (blog) editor
CoffeCup The HTML Editor 12.5 (yucky runtime GUI, no WYSIWYG editor anymore)
e-campaign, html (bulk email) editor
FreeLabs HTML Editor
Fresh HTML Designer (no CSS-Layout)
Htmlpad html editor no WYSIWYG-editing
Microsoft Expression Web HTML Editor (graphics errors, crashed)
NetObjects Fusion Essentials HTML Editor (outdated)
Outlook Express HTML E-Mail Editor
PageBreeze (free) HTML Editor, no Highlighter
Phase-5-HTML-Editor
Post2Blog html (blog) editor
Sendblaster, html (bulk email) editor
SoThink (CuteHtml) HTML Designer
Trellian Webpage 3
Trellian Webpage 4
Vodamail 10, html (bulk email) editor
W.Bloggar, html (blog) editor
WinCHM HTML MHT Editor
Windows Live Mail, HTML E-Mail Editor no text marker
WizHTML HTML E-Mail Editor
www-sharp HTML Editor
Zoundry Raven, html (blog) editor


Thus, I'd be VERY happy if someone could recommend yet another HTML editor.... :(

Possibly THE ONE KILLER APP  no one has ever heard of (or something;)

Thanks heaps already
Cheers David.P

[Curt]

new features only: http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/new_features.html ;
-the list is  l o n g !

http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com $45