Step 3: HTML Editors

Before you find out what a HTML Editor is, you need to know what HTML is. HTML is an abbreviation for Hyper Text Mark Up Language. This language is the behind the scenes code that makes up web pages. HTML files are just normal text files... they usually have the extension of .htm, .html, or .shtml. HTML documents have two (2) parts, the head and the body. The body is the larger part of the document, as the body of a letter you would write to a friend would be. The head of the document contains the document's title and similar information, and the body contains most everything else.

Example of basic HTML document Structure...

<html>
<head><title>Title goes here</title></head>
<body>Body goes here</body>
</html>

Now we can go on to learning about HTML Editors.

Microsoft FrontPage 2003

Macromedia Dreamweaver
MX 2004

What is a HTML Editor? A HTML editor assists the user in writing HTML code for web pages. Although HTML code can be written and edited with any text editor such as Word Pad, Note Pad or Microsoft Word, a special HTML editor is designed to be more convenient. There are two flavors of HTML editors: text and WYSIWYG.

Text Editors

The text editors usually provide syntax highlighting, toolbars and keyboard shortcuts for quick inserting of HTML tags, assistants for some jobs or easy preview in the browser. Assistants are usually provided for more cumbersome tasks like adding the basic page construct or creating tables. Text editors require at least a basic understanding of HTML and CSS for creating Web sites.

WYSIWYG Editors

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editors provide an editing interface which looks the same way as the output displayed in the Web browser. A WYSIWYG editor does not require the user to have any HTML knowledge, which makes it a lot easier for the average computer user to create a Web site.

Webmajestic's picks for the best HTML Editors are Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage. Either of these html editors are perfect for creating professional web sites. When shopping for either of these web design products ensure you check out the auctions on eBay!. A software store may have gotten surplus copies or wish to reduce their software inventory due to an updated version of the software. This will force the vendor to sell new copies of the software at a reduced cost. There are also educational versions available for students and schools. Remember that product upgrades are also available for purchase. Before you bid on an auction, make sure that the software description says the product is "new and in a retail box".