Which software?

[Egg 'n' Bacon]

Hi, we are currently looking for web page editing software. We have tried a couple of cheap and free options... but these have proved way too clunky to be viable options.

So "how about Dreamweaver", the question was asked. I know it's more never going to be fully used, but it should be better for tables and graphics, than what we currently use. But which; I see DW from Adobe and Macromedia. Also, what about versions; I thought V8 would be the latest, but V5.5 looks to be later... or is it And then there is the licensing; I'll be damned if I can find anything that gives me the pricing for a multiple license (only actually need for 2, but could be more later).

Can anyone point me in the right direction please???

[John Gray]

Adobe bought out Macromedia some years ago. They try to sell it to you as part of Creative Suite (CS), now 5.5. Neither CS 5.5 nor Dreamweaver on its own is cheap. (DW 5.5 from Amazon UK is £403, unless you are a Teacher or a Student!) You would probably have to contact Adobe itself for multiple licensing. (If you were a charity, it would be much easier.)

I suppose you've tried the (free) KompoZer, and found it clunky?

[Egg 'n' Bacon]

KompoZer sucks!

Sorry but that is what we are using now, and one of our main pages is a large table. Formatting the fill on adjascent cells has to be done 'one by one', plus the font sizes do not always work as shown. Oh, and can't print from it either. It's taking our administrator about 4 times longer to do things than the equivalent in Word. Oops... rant over

I guess we will have to just contact Adobe and haggle

Cheers John

[DaveA]

I just received a email from a reseach mailing and it has several programs listed.
Check out some of the following

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Free Editors

The <http://www.coffeecup.com/free-editor/>CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor
is a full-featured Web design system. With built-in FTP uploading,
wizards for tables, frames, fonts, and more, and 100% valid code
output, it's a great tool for anyone who wants to design their own Website.

<http://www.ornj.net/araneae/>Araneae (pronounced ah-RAN-ee-ay) is a
simple, yet powerful text editor, providing only the features
necessary to create websites and scripts using the latest web
technologies. Best of all, Araneae is absolutely free for
non-commercial use. Use it as long as you like for your personal projects.

<http://kompozer.net/>KompoZer is Nvu's unofficial bug-fix release
and is a complete web authoring system that combines web file
management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is
designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for
non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive,
professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web
coding. NOTE: I have removed NVU from the list as it is not being updated.

NoteTab Light - Freeware. A slimmed down version of NoteTab Pro. This
is a NotePad replacement and a capable HTML editor. You select tags
from a menu of icons. much as you would in a word processor.

<http://www.chami.com/html-kit/>Html Kit - Here's a freeware HTML
editor that's aimed at advanced Web designers. You can use HTML-Kit
to create, edit, validate, preview and publish Web pages and scripts.
It offers loads of features including hundreds of free plugins and
built-in FTP support.

<http://www.evrsoft.com/1stpage2.shtml>1st Page - This powerful
program from Australia is loaded with handy features and is suitable
for everyone from newbies to experts. Offers four different
interfaces, ranging from Easy mode to Hardcore mode. 1st Page
includes full support for WebTV, ASP, SSI, Cold Fusion, DHTML and
more. Includes 450 free JavaScripts, as well. (For Windows).

<http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/>Arachnophilia -
Arachnophilia is an outstanding Web editor, bursting with features.
It'll import fully formatted text, tables, and outlines from any
Windows-compliant application and automatically convert it to HTML.
It also has built-in FTP capabilities that can automatically upload
files (although it can't delete files, like a true FTP client can).
Powerful keyboard macros can include system commands---even other
macros, for maximum flexibility. (For Windows) NOTE: I have used this
program in the past.

<http://www.bluegriffon.org/>BlueGriffon is a new WYSIWYG content
editor for the World Wide Web. Powered by Gecko, the rendering engine
of Firefox 4, it's a modern and robust solution to edit Web pages in
conformance to the latest Web Standards. It's free to download
(current stable version is
<http://bluegriffon.org/pages/Download>1.1.1) and is available on
Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. BlueGriffon is available in English,
Dutch, French, Czech, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese. Dick Eastman
recently reviewed it in his genealogy newsletter. You can read
<http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_ge ... lueGriffon,
a WYSIWYG HTML Content Editor

*************************************************

[BobH]

From your post, I assume that you do NOT want to edit the HTML directly but are asking about software that will generate the HTML for you. I never found one that was priced for my pocketbook that did not produce bulky, bloated HTML and did not require years of learning curve acquisition time. For that reason, I dove into HTML itself. There are many good, inexpensive HTML editors. Having first learned Basic Assembler Language in the '60s, I am not averse to twisting bits; so I went the route of the editing the HTML. If that is too time consuming for your needs, I'm at a loss to recommend a product for you. If, however, you can settle for an HTML editor I recommend Blumenthal's HTML Editor. They also make a product called WebBuilder, but I have no experience with it.

http://www.blumentals.net/

[Egg 'n' Bacon]

Thank you all for your feedback.

If it were just me, then I probably would take the effort to get more competence with HTML. BUT, our administrator knows no HTML and we need very quick turn around of web page edits, so a WYSIWYG is almost essential, regardless of bloat.

Again, thanks you.

[BobL]

By chance I've been using this software http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/ in place of that 'caffeine' one and find it quite refreshing. Does cost $44.95 but I don't find it that expensive for what it provides.
Try it, it may surprise you..

[JoeP]

Microsoft has a really good product - Expression Web. It is not very expensive if you just get Expression Web instead of the whole suite.

Joe