very rusty-could use advice

[confusedlady]

Just wanted to know if anyone has any thoughts on the various free products? I'm working on my church's website, and trying to get away without purchasing much. I did shell out for Fireworks, but for editing I just use HTMLkit. There's quite a few products out there by CoffeeCup (free or cheap). Any thoughts on how good that would be?

I haven't done too much with webdesign since college, and it was all hand coding (no fancy WYSIWYGs then!), so to me, not using notepad is "fancy". Should I spring for something like Dreamweaver, though? I mean, can it accomplish more than free editors?

TIA and Happy New Year,
Melissa

 

[TruthInSatire]

If you're going to do a lot of websites or web work I'd spring for DWMX2004 very great. I can't help much with the free stuff. I think front page express 98 was free. I use note pad when I can't get to DW. ( I use the code view more than the design view in DW anyway )

with all that said i remember reading this question in the past. do a key word search in this forum for "free editor" and i'm sure you'll find the answer.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
-Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

 

[confusedlady]

Thanks Bombboy. No, I don't plan on doing any design work other than this. And once the site is finished, just some maintanence. If you mean I asked a question like this, yes.That's how I found HTMLkit. I didn't ask about the CoffeeCup products, though.

Thanks for all your help. I guess if it turns out I will be maintaining the site for a while (pastor is looking for someone else w/more experience-at my request!), I will get DW. Heard a lot of good things from all the "gurus" here, so it must be worth it! Thanks again
Melissa

 

[taylorantone]

I personally use dreamweaver, but only for the color-coding of the code itself and the ability to update on an FTP upon saving. Of course, I think FrontPage 2003 does the same thing. Oh, and DW has that nice feature where you can type in <div class=" and it pops up the menu for which class to assign it to. Nice for repetitive coding.

Other than those few things, everything I do is hand-coded.

 

[MasterRacker]

I looked at a number of free editors. HTMLKit is IMHO the best I've seen. When I looked at the Coffee Cup stuff, it was all template based and not as powerful. I certainly wouldn't spend the money on Dreamweaver just for syntax coloring when dozens of good free editors do it.

You could Google for "Free HTML Editor" but if you're comfortable with HTMLKit, stay with it.


Jeff
The future is already here - it's just not widely distributed yet...

 

[taylorantone]

I didn't spend the money. Proceeds and write-offs.

 

[RipH]

My personal favorite free HTML editor is EvrSoft's 1st Page 2000. (

http://www.evrsoft.com/).

It has tremendous power and flexibility and can run in various modes from easy to hardcore depending on your skill level. I highly recommend it.

Rip Henry
Lewisberry, PA USA

 

[MasterRacker]

taylorantone good for you. Dreamweaver's a great, if expensive tool. If you were able to get it essentially free, more power to you. Learn the rest of the features. Now that you've got it, take advantage or it.

RipH I played with 1stPage also. After I tried HTMLKit, I preferred it, however I can't say anything bad about 1stPage. Probably just personal preference.

Now that I've acquired a copy of Visual Studio, I use that. One piece of wisdom, I picked up is "Find one editor you really like and learn to use it really well for everything instead of different editors for every task." which is why I'm now using VS. If I had to shell out for a tool I'd still be using HTMLKit. (BTW, HTMLKit's UI is very similar to Visual Studio.)

Another option to consider might be WebMatrix. (

http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/

) which is provided free by Micorsoft. I haven't used it but it looks like a stripped down version of Visual Studio for pure ASP.NET development. It would probably work just fine for HTML work with the added benefit of providing Visual Studio familiarity to Web folks looking to move into other areas of programming.


Jeff
The future is already here - it's just not widely distributed yet...

 

[RipH]

MasterRacker,
I totally agree. I do 98% of my development work in VS.NET. Most of the sites I work on are .NET ones so it's the only thing that makes sense to use. Besides that, I think it's a great product. I use 1st Page as a into to web design/HTML teaching tool and when I have a small very basic page to work on.

Rip Henry
Lewisberry, PA USA

 

[confusedlady]

Thank you all!

I spent a little time using CoffeeCup's editor over the weekend, and I agree with MasterRocket that HTMLkit is best. I love the way the local and remote files are right there, so ftp'ing is super easy. I know a lot of free ones may do many things, but I don't like having to hunt all over to see where the option is, and many of the free apps are skimpy on the help text!

So far I've been able to accomplish this without purchasing anything other than Fireworks, and it looks like I won't have to. Thanks again!