What editor or IDE can I use to write html code? I mean that I write my C++ code in Visual Studio, for example... so where can I write HTML code?
+4
A:
I would suggest using an editor such as Adobe Dreamweaver to begin. However, to answer your question you can write HTML in notepad or any text editor. Simply save the file with a .htm or .html extension, and your file will be executed with any browser.
Sev
2010-06-15 08:12:02
I would not recommend Dreamweaver. First of all, it is an expensive commercial product. Further, it is a WYSIWYG editor, which is not recemmended for beginners. You do not learn HTML if you use WYSIWYG editor, and the code produced is usually not very human-readable.
PauliL
2010-06-15 08:58:15
@PauliL - I use Dreamweaver on a daily basis (since it's provided to me at work), but I never use the WYSIWYG. One thing that I absolutely love about this tool is its search and replace. In addition to the normal search and replace text, you can search and replace in and outside tags depending on attributes, values etc.
Gert G
2010-06-15 09:19:22
@Gert G: regexp find (and replace, if wished) is not trivial to learn but gives you that much power as well. A good text editor (not even an IDE) will have regex find.
ANeves
2010-06-15 09:45:08
@ANeves: Fully agree. But the advanced search interface in Dreamweaver is much easier for a novice to learn.
Gert G
2010-06-15 11:16:14
+3
A:
You can write HTML with any text editor.
But you might want to have a look at Looking for a simple HTML text editor for Windows.
Felix Kling
2010-06-15 08:12:54
+6
A:
I'm deploying Aptana Studio. Makes a very nice and professional cross-platform developer tool with code hinting not only for (X)HTML but JavaScript/jQuery as well. Very pleased with it.
I can't state the same about Dreamweaver though.
Ain
2010-06-15 08:14:32
+7
A:
Have a look at Notepad++ - it's not an IDE but a great editor with syntax highlighting for many languages (such as HTML).
J. Random Coder
2010-06-15 08:14:41
A:
Read http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp for information on HTML
You can write it in whatever texteditor you want, try Aptana Studio for instance. Just save the file with a .HTML or .HTM extension and open the file in you browser.
Arkain
2010-06-15 08:15:52
I've heard that dissed as outdated and fame-piggy-backed on similarity of names with w3c, and Opera's HTML tutorials suggested instead.
ANeves
2010-06-15 09:46:15
@ANeves, the information is very much relevant, and a good reference and a way to start on many of the topic related to web design and development.
Arkain
2010-06-15 17:34:17
A:
As Sev says, Dreamweaver is certainly a good tool for beginners.
If you just want to play around in HTML, you can also use an online WYSIWYG editor such as
If your goal is to make a website, I would install a CMS such as Wordpress or Joomla. Then you can edit the HTML directly when it is necessary for advanced features, but you don't have to.
littlegreen
2010-06-15 08:19:12
A:
You can write HTML in Visual Studio, for example. However, you would usually make a web application in Visual Studio, not just a single HTML page.
I use Notepad to write single HTML pages. It has nothing special that helps you to write HTML, but on the other hand it's as simple as it gets, so nothing gets in your way.
Guffa
2010-06-15 08:19:35
Over-simplicity gets in your way. =/ An editor with automatic text-indenting would be the least I'd ask for.
ANeves
2010-06-15 09:47:34
@ANeves: Well, then it's probably yourself that is getting in your way... ;) Yes, such featues are very helpful most of the time. They are in the way sometimes, but the rest of the time they make up for that. (I mentioned Notepad because nonone else had, and it's a tool that I actually use a lot.)
Guffa
2010-06-15 10:36:54
@Aneves: Well, using Notepad would be the equivalent of going barefoot, so... ;)
Guffa
2010-06-15 12:07:25
A:
If you write HTML code in Notepad, you have to write everything manually. If you use a software product designed for web development such as Adobe Dreamweaver and MS Expression Web, it will create code for you as you drag and drop controls. You can also look at the code file and edit it when you want.
A:
I do all my web development in gVim. It is hands down the best syntax highlighter/autoindenter I've found, and has tons of little shortcuts that make editing text files very quick.
If you're not doing a ton of development, though, maybe you should just stick to Notepad, as it's something almost everyone is quite familiar with.
Check out w3schools.com for some great tips on getting started with HTML and all the other joyous languages you might want to learn as well.
virstulte
2010-06-15 09:13:05
+1
A:
If you want to learn HTML, you should avoid WYSIWYG-editors such as Dreamweaver.
You could use a normal text editor. Powerful editors such as VEDIT have syntax highlighting for HTML and CSS, help entering HTML tags with specific buttons, menu items and snippets, and even have complex functionality for manipulating tables etc.
The advantage of using text editor is that you can use the same tool for all your editing, including programming, so the tool is familiar for you. (However, that may not be your case since you use Visual Studio.)
If you do not use a text editor for other purposes, the best option is to get a dedicated HTML editor, such as HTML Kit. It is a freeware editor specifically created for editing HTML, and it contains lots of useful toos, such as HTML Tidy. But you are still editing the HTML code instead of trying to do "desktop publishing" with WYSIWYG.
More HTML editors can be found from the Wikipedia page Comparison of HTML editors (but that includes WYSIWYG-editors, too).
PauliL
2010-06-15 09:36:10