Text editors are HTML editors that allow you to manipulate the HTML tags directly. Some HTML text editors also include a WYSIWYG editor, while others are purely text. This is my list of the best HTML text editors for Windows.
1. Dreamweaver
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Dreamweaver is one of the most popular professional Web development software packages available. It offers power and flexibility to create pages that meet your needs. I use it for everything from JSP, XHTML, PHP, and XML development. It is a good choice for professional Web designers and developers, but if you're working as a solitary freelancer, you might want to look at one of the CS suites like Web or Design to get graphics editing capability as well.
2. Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe released Creative Suite 3 in a bunch of different combinations. While you can still buy each product separately, buying a bundle might save you money. But how do you decide between the different versions which one is best for you? I believe that any of these four editions would work for most Web designers: Web Standard, Design Premium, Web Premium, or the Master Collection. But you should buy the edition that works best for your needs.3. Microsoft Expression Web
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Expression Web is Microsoft's newest Web editing software. It offers everything professional Web designers have come to expect from a world-class Web editing tool, including HTML validation, WYSIWYG and text editor support, support for CSS and non-HTML pages like ASP, and lots of pre-built templates to start with. The biggest benefit to Expression Web over other top-quality Web editors is the price. But with Microsoft products you get locked into Microsoft - there isn't a lot of native support for PHP or JSP and it doesn't have the photo gallery maker like FrontPage used to.
4. Microsoft Expression Studio
Expression Studio combines Expression Web with Expression Design, Blend, and Media to give you a full graphic and Web design suite. If you are a freelance Web designer who needs to be able to edit graphics in something more powerful than Microsoft Paint, then you might want to look at Expression Studio. It offers all the features you expect from a world-class Web editing suite. The only drawback (and it may not be a drawback) is that with Microsoft tools you are strongly encouraged to use only Microsoft technologies. For example, there is a lot of ASP support, but very little or no PHP and JSP support.5. Homesite
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Homesite is still my HTML editor of choice. I use it primarily because it is so customizable that I have created a tool that is indispensable to how I do my daily work. Homesite includes an HTML validator, extended search and replace, a site manager and FTP, XHTML, CSS and JavaScript support, and a whole lot more. When it comes to text-only HTML editors, Homesite still can't be beat.
6. Adobe GoLive
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Adobe GoLive is a powerful Web page editor with all the features you come to expect of a high-quality editor. In version 9, I couldn't easily find the hooks to Illustrator and Photoshop that were there in previous versions, but if you're familiar with these programs you'll recognize the interface. GoLive is a high quality Web page editor, and if you've used previous versions, you'll still be happy with this one.
7. Rapid PHP Editor
Rapid PHP Editor starts out as a PHP text editor, but it offers a lot more than that. The only things that keep this from being a premiere-class Web editor are that it doesn't have a WYSIWYG mode, link checker, or spell checker. But this is a very high quality editor.8. AceHTML Pro
AceHTML Pro offers a lot of great features for building and maintaining Web pages. It defaults to an XHTML Web page rather than plain HTML. It detects what browsers you have installed and puts them in the browser testing window for you, which is nice, but as usual defaults to IE for preview in the tool. It also has a code evaluator that checks for errors and tells you the weight of the page. Plus it has pre-written code snippets so that you don't have to write everything yourself.9. HTML-Kit Tools
HTML-Kit Tools offers all the features of HTML-Kit with a few extras. It is the next version of HTML-Kit, but the developers have decided to charge a small fee for their superb program.10. Aptana IDE
Aptana IDE is an interesting take on Web page development. Instead of focusing on the HTML, Aptana focuses on the JavaScript and other elements that allow you to create Rich Internet Applications. One of the things I really like is the outline view that makes it really easy to visualize the DOM. This makes for easier CSS and JavaScript development.What is your favorite HTML editor? Write a review!
Do you have a Web editor that you absolutely love or positively hate? Write a review of your HTML editor and let others know which editor you think is the best.
