My Likings

WYSIWYG editors have been always blamed by experienced coders for not being reliable. They say that it fills up with unneccesary code and often makes the code non-standard. Whatever be it, but still there is a lot of demand in the market for WYSIWYG editors. For newbies it is extremely handy in making a simple site (like me of course). And even complex sites can be made with these editors with some effort. And it also has code view. So, I don’t think it is bad at all.

But the problem is that with so many options availabe we tend to get confused about it. So, i have put up a mini review here. In this post I am only going to review the paid options which are generally better. After going through this guide I hope that you will be able to make up your mind about which one to try. I have reviewed the top 5 ones only and they are according to their rank.

Rank-1= Adobe Dreamweaver CS3- The undisputed king. The latest version even generates very clean code than any other editor. It has an wide array of functionality. The latest version has now spry framework for ajax, cross browser compatibility check etc. Also its CSS features is the best and much advanced in the latest edition. It aslo has the snippets which makes working a lot easier. You get advanced FTP functions with the latest version.

It supports many languages:-

• HTML
• JAVA
• PHP
• ASP.NET C#
• ASP.NET VBSCRIPT
• ASP.NET JAVASCRIPT
• ASP.NET VB
• JSP
• CSS
• XML

 Also tons of free templates available. Extensive tutorials on internet. A huge supply of plugins to make the job easier. Though some plugins will cost money.

Now comes the bad part. It costs a hefty 399$. 199$ for upgrade. But you can get a free trial though. But most likely you will like it and end up spending the money.

Rank-2= Microsoft Expression Web 2- Released recently on May 1 this is Microsoft’s bet against Dreamweaver. It is like a successor of Frontpage. Codenamed Quartz it is also quite a powerful tool and free of most of the drawbacks and limitations of Frontpage. That brings it to the number 2 position of this list.

It now has the advanced CSS functionalties. Like Dreamweaver it also supports:-

• HTML
• PHP
• XML
• JAVA
• ASP.NET 3.5
• Others

Oh yes, it now supports the newest ASP.NET 3.5. It also needs a .NET 2 framework to operate. The functionality and ease of use is much better compared to Frontpage and offers similar functions as Dreamweaver. And I think as Microsoft is taking this seriously, there will be no lack of support in the future. A very close second and has the potential to beat dreamweaver if works hard on development. Not a bad choice.

But the price tag is 350$ though you have the option of a 60 days trial version available.

Rank-3= Coffeecup HTML editor- Not even close to the first 2 but still a ggod one. these people have been providing these stuff from 96 and this is the most downloaded editor brand on the web.

It does not have that wide range but still supports HTML, CSS, XHTML, JAVASCRIPT and DHTML. the CSS feature is nice and it gives decent clean code.

But it gives everything a newbie or intermediate developer need.

• It has a inbuilt sitemap generator.
• It comes with a DHTML dropdown menu builder. No coding experience needed.
• “CoffeeCup comes with more than 100 DHTML and JavaScripts, a DHTML Menu wizard, 25,000 graphics and photos including more than 1,000 XP Style Icons, and access to more than 500 free Web-site templates.”
• Free Support and Upgrades for Life.
• Comes with a damn good tutorial.

You get all these at a price tag of 50$. If you are not into very advanced job and don’t bother about ASP.NET and PHP then this is the best for you. Comes at only a fraction of Dreamweaver and Microsoft price.

Rank-4=Microsoft Frontpage- Here comes our Microsoft frontpage. Not much to say. It comes with Microsoft Office but has been discontinued. If you have it and only interested in creating HTML pages then don’t pay anymore. Stick to it. Still does a good job for basic static HTML sites. Also has Javascrtipt, ActiveX and DHTML support. Creates forms in a fly though the backend integration takes time. It has the code view. So, coders can also work with it. But the biggest drawbak is that it produces bloated codes.

Moral of the story:- If you have it don’t waste money if you just want to create personal pages. Thats all.

Rank-5= Serif Webplus X2- First of all its more of desktop publishing package than a web developer. not a line of code is written before the site is published. But the published code is of decent quality and then you can hand edit if you like. It is best suited for newbies or people who does not want to learn coding. You can easily set up a decent HTML site in no time. Some of the cool features that makes it a nice tool for newbies:-

• RSS tools that enable you to insert blog headlines and news feeds.
• 30 professional templates
• One click embed Youtube
• Flash Animated photo galleries
• Comes with a built in forum builder
• Password protection and Captcha builder
• Site Search builder
• Serif Analytics support

Its a decent piece of tool at 79$ and good for newbies but still not a good one if you want advanced codings and extended CSS functionality. Better go with Coffeecup if you are a newbie and the frontrunners if you are in serious buisness. And the lack of direct coding makes it furthur limited in functionality and development.

I know there are many others but none come close to Dreamweaver or Expression Web but costs a lot more than decent ones like Cofeecup. See Web Studio at 169$ for example. So, including them would have been a waste of time for both you and me. If you still want more options visit this site. It has more options and will be beneficial for mac or linux users. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/06/25-wysiwyg-editors-reviewed/. I will again come up with anothwer post with thw free editors. Till then tell me if you enjoyed my post and found it useful. Waiting your comments ppl. Bye for now.