Specialized Editors

Enhanced Text Editors

It is fairly simple to add HTML functionality to popular text editors. Most support either macros, extensions, or both.

BBEdit with HTML Extensions

BBEdit is a popular (free) text editor for the Macintosh. Several sets of HTML extensions are available for BBEdit. The examples used here come from BBEditTools by Lindsay Davies.

Here is the document dialog requesting basic information about the page.

This tool assists with the creation of lists.

This tool assists with the creation of hypertext links.

http://www.barebones.com/freeware.html
http://www.york.ac.uk/~ld11/BBEditTools.html

Specialized HTML Editors

These programs display the structure of the HTML documents as a template for editing. They may include special tools for tables, forms, frames, etc., but the emphasis is on writing HTML directly.

HoTMetaL

One of the earliest professional HTML editors. HTML tags are displayed as small boxes mixed in with the text. The latest version includes WYSIWYG previewing and special editors for tables and frames.

http://www.sq.com/products/hotmetal/hmp-org.htm

GoLive

This is a relativly new product. HTML tags are displayed in a special outline format. WYSIWYG editing is also an option. An editable "tags database" allows you to add new or non-standard tags (or limit the tags you use).

http://www.golive.com/WWW/golivepro.html

WYSIWYG HTML Editors

Claris Home Page

Several what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) page layout programs are available. The recently released Claris Home Page has received excellent reviews and is available for both Macintosh and Windows computers.

Pros

• Easy to Use - Intuitive
• Speeds certain tasks such as importing a picture or linking to another file
• Integrated table editor
• Special editor for frames
• Library feature allows you to save redundant HTML code, graphics, and text.

Cons

• Easy to Get into Trouble - There's plenty of rope to hang yourself
• Need to Know HTML to Tweak Pages
• Not scriptable - no automation
  

This is a close-up showing the image info window, and link editor.

http://www.claris.com/products/claris/clarispage/clarispage.html