Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Jim Paradise · Sep 10, 2001, 07:01 AM

Now, I don't know much of anything really about html and decided I wanted to start learning/playing around with it this week. Any recommendations on any good (and free!) html editors for X or anything else I might need?

~ Brother Paradise of Sawtooth ~

kovacs · Sep 10, 2001, 07:32 AM

I suggest you try out these great applications:

1. BBedit Lite
2. The HTML editor that is included in the Omniweb Browser
3. The WYSIWYG and HTML editor included in Netscape 6
4. Pepper ( not free )
5. BBedit = the best HTML editor on the planet but rather expensive...

[ 09-10-2001: Message edited by: kovacs ]

philzilla · Sep 10, 2001, 08:37 AM

kovacs, you forgot a small application called Dreamweaver. now, while i agree with you on the BBE thing (it rocks), Jim has stated that he's a beginner. Dreamweaver does the job well for the beginner.

i'd say grab the 30-day trial version and take it from there. stay the hell away from GoLive though, it puts out far too much unnecessary code...

Christina · Sep 10, 2001, 03:12 PM

It is true that Dreamweaver is great. But he did ask for OS X html editors. I am pretty sure (I've been wrong a couple of times though) that you have to run Dreamweaver in Classic on OS X.

Christina

Originally posted by philzilla:
<STRONG>kovacs, you forgot a small application called Dreamweaver. now, while i agree with you on the BBE thing (it rocks), Jim has stated that he's a beginner. Dreamweaver does the job well for the beginner.

i'd say grab the 30-day trial version and take it from there. stay the hell away from GoLive though, it puts out far too much unnecessary code...</STRONG>

max4ever · Sep 10, 2001, 04:20 PM

I'm a complete html newbie and have been using BBEdit Lite. I'm not looking for many particular features, but BBEdit Lite runs perfectly in OS X and does what I need it to. If you're looking for an easy-to-use, all-around good app, BBEdit Lite works well. Also, here's a good website for an html tutorial: www.davesite.com/webstation/html

Hope that helps.

Jim Paradise · Sep 10, 2001, 05:10 PM

Thanks for the help, everyone. I think I'll give BBedit Lite a shot, OmniWeb's html editor, and the Dreamweaver Trial

~ Brother Paradise of Sawtooth ~

Millennium · Sep 13, 2001, 09:04 PM

For editors right now, I'd recommend BBEdit (or its Lite cousin) or Pepper.

There aren't really any WYSIWYG editors for X right now, except the one in Mozilla. But in a way, that's a good thing; better to get started with the fundamentals of the language, and hand-code some simple stuff. That way the WYSIWYG tools become just that - tools, something you use because it's convenient, not because it's the only way you know.

With that in mind, though, you'll need a good tutorial. The best one I've ever seen is made by Dave Raggett, the guy who wrote Tidy (pick up the Mac port at VersionTracker while you're at it; this thing is great). It's at http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ . It's really basic, but it'll let you get your feet under you, and show you some places where you can learn more. I wish it had existed when I learned HTML; I discovered it when I was learning CSS, and the tutorial on that is just as good.

BrutoBlo · Sep 14, 2001, 04:46 AM

PageSpinner 3.1;
check it out at versiontracker.com

Millennium · Sep 14, 2001, 08:00 AM

PageSpinner is very nice, but it hasn't been Carbonized. The "improved OSX compatibility" spoken of in the release notes for Version 3.1 refers to running in the Classic environment. While this can certainly be done, I don't think it's what Jim wants to do.

Simon Mundy · Sep 14, 2001, 09:08 PM

GolIve is about to be carbonised. And I can't stand it when people say it makes too much unnecessary code. All it takes it one tweak in the Web Settings prefs and it will write code any damn way you want it to.

Serenity now!

Okay, having said that, good luck with learning HTML. There's a fantastic FREE school at w3schools that'll teach you the basics of HTML, Javascript, ASP and a lot more.

Cheers

intastella · Sep 14, 2001, 11:41 PM

If you are just doing strait HTML, TextEdit works great once you turn off the rich text stuff in the preferences.

Granted, I would rather use BBEdit Lite, but copy and paste doesn't seem to work with the OS version I'm using.

Sep 15, 2001, 04:06 PM

does anyone know when Dreamweaver will be released for os x??

mmarcos · Sep 16, 2001, 04:49 PM

If you like BBEdit and want to get access to the HTML palette, etc. of the pay version, take advantage of the offer BareBones has for the editor and a copy of Learning Web Design for $89.

BBEdit Lite is , of course, much cheaper!

Antenor · Sep 25, 2001, 03:51 AM

For more "advanced" web design in a WYSIWYG fashion, Create by Stone Design seems to be a pretty good candidate. It's a layout program which offers many web related options. According to their website (www.stone.com), you can use Create to design websites including custom html code. There's a demo to download and it's incredible. It has a lot of nice layout and design functions and can even be used as "low level" drawing program such as Illustrator or Freehand.

Cheers,

Antenor

[ 09-25-2001: Message edited by: Antenor ]

EddieDesignsDotCom · Sep 25, 2001, 08:36 AM

what happened to the free HTML editor that came with OS X Public Beta?

I use Dreamweaver even in Classic. It's the best!

Millennium · Sep 25, 2001, 08:39 AM

Originally posted by EddieDesignsDotCom:
<STRONG>what happened to the free HTML editor that came with OS X Public Beta?

</STRONG>

Supposedly, the technology it was based on (whatever technology that was) got Steved. I'm not sure I understand exactly why.

A shame, though; that editor was extremely out of date, but with some polish it could have been brought back up to speed.

Come to think of it, I just got a rather crazy idea. We already know that Services can be used to modify the contents of a textfield (witness AppleSpell). Might it be possible to make Services for syntax-highlighting as well?