Free WYSIWYG html editor

[MasterRacker]

Does anyone know of a good FREE WYSIWYG html editor for Windows? I have an intranet where I have some shared-editing documents that are maintained by people with absolutley no html knowledge. They need to be able to directly open existing .htm files that contain tables, edit the content and tables graphically and re-save the files.

I was perfectly happy having them use Word until we began the XP upgrade. Even in Filtered HTML mode, Word XP puts in a bunch of styles, etc. that Word97 doesn't recognize. We have to run mixed for a while, so Word is now out.

FrontPage Express and the old free version of Hotmetal don't seem to exist anymore. There seem to be a lot of drag and drop editors that work from templates and projects but can't deal easily with existing html pages. I found a whole bucket full of good code editors with easy previewing, but no true WYSIWYG editing mode. Are there any left out there like this? (I made it through 18 pages of a Google search on "free wysiwyg html" before deciding that there doesn't seem to be one."

(As amazing as web technologies are, it's also amazing how muh they still SUCK.)
Jeff
I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[Arion23]

TUCOWS has 5-6 free WYSIWYG editors listed in their Internet section, and heaps of shareware, so you might want to check out them.

 

[zoobie]

http://coolpage.com

is rated #1... It comes with some disabled features (buy for $29) but is your to keep even after the 30 day trial.

 

[MasterRacker]

I've been through Tucows and they don't have what I want. I have Coolpage also. It's a "web authoring" tool. It's one of the drag-and-drop template based tools. It uses it's own file format and only exports to html. You can't simply open an existing html file to edit it.
Jeff
I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[zoobie]

Sure you can...Just save page as html. You can't open a saved html in coolpage, though...You must open it in notepad or similar.

 

[MasterRacker]

That's what I said, you can't open existing pages. Unfortunately that's exactly what I need. I don't care about creating pages at all. Only want a way for non-techies to maintain existing pages without ever seeing html.
Jeff
I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[stnkyminky]

1st page 2000.....very similar to Allaire's HomeSite.

http://www.evrsoft.com/

Scott
Programmer Analyst

 

[MasterRacker]

1st Page and HTML-Kit are both good code editors but neither are WYSIWYG. In this application the users absoluteley cannot be exposed to the actual html code. They have to be able to directly edit in graphical mode. I need something like FrontPage's, Dreamweaver's or HotMetal's WYSIWYG mode but I don't want to have to buy 10 seats.

Word will actually work for this. The problem occurs when trying to use Word97 and WordXP on the same document because XP throws something into the html that 97 doesn't recognize. I may end up just upgrading all the users to WordXP ahead of our rotation schedule since that's happening anyway.
Jeff
I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[zoobie]

Wysiwyg editors MUST save to their own formats. If they didn't, they'd lose out to another editor that could use their format...dig? I think what you'd like is a wysiwyg editor that opens any html format...and that would,indeed, be cool.

 

[MasterRacker]

They certainly can work directly with HTML. FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and HotMetal (at least - those are the only three I have copies of) can all do direct graphical mode editing on an existing html file.

If a tool is free or open source, there's nothing to lose out to. I don't know why no one is producing one of these any more. FrontPage and HotMetal both used to have free versions but no longer do.

I have plenty of tools myself and do most of my coding through a text editor anyway. My problem is that I have some Intranet documents that need to be maintained by non-technical users. I also don't currently have a budget that allows for 10 copies of FrontPae or HotMetal. I was hoping to find an aternative, but there no longer appears to be one.
Jeff
I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....