Macintosh Text HTML Editors

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.

Adobe released Creative Suite 4 in several 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.

Komodo Edit is hands down the best free XML editor available. It also includes a lot of great features for HTML and CSS development. Plus, if that isn't enough, you can get extensions for it to add on languages or other helpful features (like special characters). It's not the best HTML editor, but it's great for what you pay, especially if you build in XML.

Aptana Studio community edition 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. If you are a developer creating Web 2.0 applications, Aptana Studio is a good choice.

Aptana Studio professional edition 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. If you are a developer creating Web 2.0 applications, Aptana Studio is a good choice. The professional edition adds features like secure FTP, Internet Explorer JS debugging, JSON support, and customer service including one year of updates.

KompoZer is a good WYSIWYG editor. It is based on the popular Nvu editor - only it is called an "unofficial bug-fix release." KompoZer was conceived by some people who really liked Nvu, but were fed up with the slow release schedules and poor support. So they took it over and released a less buggy version of the software. Ironically, there hasn't been a new release of KompoZer in over a year.

Nvu is a good WYSIWYG editor. I prefer text editors to WYSIWYG editors, but if you don't, then Nvu is a great choice, especially considering that it's free. I love that it has a site manager to allow you to review the sites that you're building. It's surprising that this software is free. Feature highlights: XML support, advanced CSS support, full site management, built-in validator, and international support as well as WYSIWYG and color coded XHTML editing.

SeaMonkey is the Mozilla project all-in-one Internet application suite. It includes a Web browser, email and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and composer - the Web page editor. One of the nice things about using SeaMonkey is that you have the browser built-in already so testing is a breeze. Plus it's a free WYSIWYG editor with an embedded FTP to publish your Web pages.

Good Page offers a lot of the features of a great text editor while also providing some WYSIWYG support. I like the structure views of the document - this makes it easier to see the DOM for JavaScript development. Another cool thing is the CSS editor, which includes the specificity right on the property. If you've ever fought with a very complex style sheet you'll recognize the value of that.

BBEdit is one of the most popular Web editors for the Macintosh. It is easy to use and has a lot of great features. It's a text editor, so if you need WYSIWYG it won't work well for you, but if you're looking for a powerful text HTML editor, you need look no further.