Ok, so these tools are much more than HTML editors, they’re really full blown site management solutions. Luckily, instead of being stuck with a barebones editor you have the option of one of these tools, both of which you’ll find immensely helpful when building a your web site since they have everything you need built into one program.
That’s the key benefit of these programs — if you decide not to use them to build your site, you’ll end up needing 5-6 other pieces of standalone software programs to create and manage your site (HTML Editor,Graphics Program, FTP, etc.). This can work, but will usually make your job much more complex and cost you more in the long run.
Microsoft Frontpage HTML Editor
Of the HTML editors and web site management tools available today, Microsoft Frontpage is very easy to use and quite powerful. It’s great for beginners since it works very much like the other Microsoft Office products, which you are probably already familiar with. Here’s a few details from Amazon.com:
Price: $169.99 (at the time of this writing)
Buy at: Amazon.com
A Few Features:
- Professional design, authoring, data, and publishing tools to create sophisticated Web sites
- New layout and graphics solutions make it easier to design exactly the site you want
- Design tools to generate better HTML code, or expand your code skills
- With professional coding tools, write code faster, more efficiently, and with greater accuracy
- Enhanced publishing features and options help get your Web pages online more quickly
Macromedia Dreamweaver MX HTML Editor
Need a little more power from your HTML Editor? Then Dreamweaver MX for you. Dreamweaver will do just about everything that Frontpage will do, but add much more power for building full blown web applications. The only downside to all the power this editor provides is that the learning curve is pretty steep, but you can always get a book on Dreamweaver, or try the forums if you need any help. Here’s a few details from Amazon.com:
Price: $359.99 (at the time of this writing)
Buy at: Amazon.com
A Few Features:
- The professional choice for building web sites and applications
- A powerful combination of visual layout tools, application development features, and HTML code editing support
- Developers and designers can create appealing, standards-based sites and applications quickly
- Developers can use it with the server technology of their choice to build powerful Internet applications
- Includes leading support for CSS-based design to hand-coding features