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HTML Editor Toolbox
Webpage authoring requires a collection of the right tools, including various types of editors. HTML tagging editors are syntax directed and provide menus, toolbars and palettes to assist in marking up documents. Many allow quick viewing of the work in progress through browser calls. They are the best choice for most authors wanting to set up their own pages. WebPage editors create attractive pages with less effort and HTML coding knowledge and in a shorter length of time. The code generated is not sophisticated (and often does not meet any known specification) and flexibility is sacrificed. However these programs often come jam packed with graphics, audio, themes, and ideas. A good syntax validator is needed after using a WebPage editor if you wish to ensure syntax correctness of the markup. Unicode editors add the ability to include extra character glyphs required by Eastern European and Asian languages.
HTML Tagging Editors
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Note: I use TextPad because of its strong macro capabilities and NoteTab Lite for its tag conversion utilities.
Important features required in a tagging editor:
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WebPage Editors
| Share/Freeware Editors | Commercial Editors | Commercial Editors |
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Note: Always syntax check documents created with WebPage editors.
WebPage Editor Features
WebPage editors allow you to design a site without knowing how to code the HTML tag elements. Most use toolbar icons for the most commonly needed effects. Others use wizards to lead you through the page design process prompting for the most commonly used attribute values. Some WebPage editors even work on a 'project' metaphor where several pages are designed in a similar style and table sidebars for navigation of your site are included as part of the design process. There are highly visual editors known as WYSIWYG that often provide tons of graphics, audio, JavaScripts, themes and ideas for creating attractive as well as functional Web sites. Rather than having to search endlessly for widgets, they are there, straight out of the box. WebPage editors are extremely useful as long as the generated code is valid, readable and modifiable. Try to include at least one 'project' style editor in your toolbox!
Disadvantages of the WebPage type of editor occur primarily from the editor's focus on generating code without any user knowledge of HTML. Many WebPage editors generate code that does not meet the W3 consortium's specifications. Even when the code does meet specification, it is often bloated, clumsy and inelegant. The learning curve is normally higher than for a text tagging editor as the design metaphor can become quite complex. Look for one that has tutorials or support literature. Another issue with webpage editors is that they normally cost $bigtime$ dollars.
Here are a few questions to ask about a webpage editor:
- Does the editor generate HTML compliant code? Is the code at least readable and fixable?
- Font tags are big time trouble! If the editor that you are reviewing or using generates FONT tags then WRITE IT OFF AS UNUSEABLE. You will not regret your decision as the FONT tag is archaic and so too is the editor!
- Can one add information outside of the editor? This is required when the editor hasn't set up wizards for newer functions or is too restrictive in its capabilities.
- Is it a round trip editor. That is how does it handle tags from other editors that it does not understand. True compliant editors flag illegal or extraneous tags and may even force renewal. Non compliant editors should retain code as is. And formatting or 'pretty printing' should not be altered by a 'round trip' editor.
- Is there enough support material such as tutorials and literature. This helps in learning and is an indicator of long term support for a product that you are investing TIME in!
Unicode Editors
Unicode is a mechanism for including any language character within a document. ASCII is a single byte encoding scheme which severely restricts the number of character choices available (256). This restriction did not matter when a single language or small subset of languages (eg. English/French/Spanish) was used but with globalization there is a very real need for character set generalization. Unicode (UTF-8 variety) uses a variable length schema to allow provision for all necessary characters.
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Text To Web Converters and Filters
Quality text to HTML converters include recognizers to correctly outline paragraphs, lists, and tables. Simplistic converters just place <br> elements at the end of each line of the original text and often do not retain tabs and indents. This approach gives a rigid format that does not cope well with font changes.
| Quality | Quality | Simplistic |
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Note: When Word .doc formatted documents are 'saved as html', they are made round-tripable by adding special proprietary codes. A filter is available to remove the proprietary coding if the document is for Internet delivery. Another file cleaning solution is to use HTML Tidy.
Text converters of the 2pdf format type can be found at pdfforge.org, CutePDF and Oxpdf. Documents created in Word can then be viewed using the free Acrobat Reader.
Conversion from .pdf to .doc format can be done on-line at pdftoword.com. They can then be edited easily.
Helper Programs
Basic global search and replace functions for strings are available in full-featured editors such as TextPad. If the replacement is a block of text (including newlines) a tool like Search & Replace 98 is useful.
Kdiff3 and WinMerge allow visual file comparison to find small differences that can drive an author over the edge.
ShortKeys adds ASCII text insertion (aka macros).
PrintScreen can route screen captures directly to printer or file as well as the buffer.
ClipX adds multiple clipboards to Cut&Paste.
tinySpell is a stand-alone spell checker for document checking when a word processor isn't appropriate.
Prince will capture an HTML document as a pdf file.