5 Good WYSIWYG Editors for Coders
There are codemonkeys, and there are codemonkeys who see the world like Neo from The Matrix.
WYSIWYG editors render your code as they appear on a web browser. These editors have a user-friendly point-and-click interface that help web programmers visualize their code as they go, although most prefer a totally text based editing system. However, Lifehacker has a good lineup of WYSIWYG editors, with pros and cons worth considering. The list:
-The open-source favorite Kompozer
-Industry giant Adobe Dreamweaver
-iWeb from Apple's iLife bundle
-Expression Web, Microsoft's way of saying sorry for Frontpage
-Flux, a well-regarded upstart Mac WYSIWYG
Personally, I'd go for Kompozer basically because it's free. As a programmer myself, I respect software licenses and the fees that may come with proprietary software. Given time, any programmer worth his salt will just need a pen and paper to sketch a layout on, then directly write the code for it. In the meantime, he can save enough money for a better, more coding-oriented IDE.
Have any editors you like? Let us know in the comments!
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Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 and 2010. Both are FREE!
Exactly what kind of coding are these tools for? Anything, or just making web pages? Not all of us program for the web ...
Exactly what kind of coding are these tools for? Anything, or just making web pages? Not all of us program for the web ...
I see your point (as I use XAML designers) mostly when WYSIWYG is specified they mean web designer...
Remember the old Hot Dog desinger back in generation 1 of HTML! I think that was one of the first!
eclipse
I use WYSIWYG Web Builder. Low cost with plenty of features for my needs. They just came out with version 7.
I use dreamweaver for work, but rarely use the design tab so the WYSIWYG part doesnt help me out much. They are good for starters but once you start learning you should be able to move into notepad and still be just as good.
Aptana Studio is another good one. I use the plug-in version inside of Eclipse and it works great. It's not for people that are very new to the arena, but won't take much for an average dev to get it down easily. It's also cross-platform for Win/Mac/Linux/BSD.
Aptana and Eclipse are both free/open source.
Firebug!
Dreamweaver
vi FTW!!!
vi
SciTE for linux and its windows variant Notepad++, far and away the best code editor
Notepad++
vi, sometimes notepad++
How about Visual Studio or Expression Blend? You'll never need to use any other editors.
Okay, so maybe you will, but why would you?
I always liked GoLive better than Dreamweaver, but I like notepad better
Notepad++.
Screw WYSIWYG.
"Good WYSIWYG Editors" is an oxymoron. Nothing beats hand-coding a web application using a simple color-coded text editor, optionally with some plugins for auto-completion, syntax checking, and compiling.
I prefer Kate, personally: does SQL, PHP, Javascript, CSS and HTML, with basic syntax checker and code completion.
And it's Free.
DreamWeaver and Expression Web are NOT WYSIWYG editors! There is a huge difference between the limited, drag-and-drop programs and EW and DW. Neither EW nor DW were designed to be used in WYSIWYG mode. Their design panes are for reference only, and while you can work in them, the code they generate is good--it's just as sloppy as Kompozer et al.
To ignore the real differences in such a gloss-over does them a disservice. I use both, and I've used DW since its days as a Macromedia product. I prefer EW; it's more user friendly and very flexible. I find I go back to DW less and less.
If you look at the dreck code produced by programs like iWeb and Flux, you'd see that this article is pointless. Wanna put up a site to post family photos? Fine, use Kompozer or CoffeeCup, but if you want something that's cross-browser compatible and looks good under all viewing conditions, you need EW or DW. And you need to learn CSS and HTML.
BTW, EW is only $79 as an upgrade if you have any version of MS Office or some other programs and there's a 60-day free trial, fully functional.
OOPS--That should read "...the code they generate is NOT good--it's just as sloppy as Kompozer et al."
I use Dreamweaver because of live-view.
Oh and the "help" you get with the code, like automatically closing elements when you start a close tag, or suggestions for attributes. It makes HTML coding a whole bunch faster
Coding is writing programs, not documents and document structures.
WYSIWYG doesn't apply to code.
Replace Coders with Web Devs.
As said by others already, this is not software development (coding being the layman's word for it) but web design. As an actual software developer (working primarily in C++) I mostly use the Visual Studio IDE. Been doing some light Java stuff recently in Eclipse, but that's minor.
I might consider using Dreamweaver if anyone knows how to use a dark theme cause starring at a white screen for hours apon end is a huge strain on the eyes.