Windows WYSIWYG 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 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.

Expression Web 2 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 lots of templates. The biggest benefit to Expression Web over other top-quality Web editors is the price. It is missing just a couple of the features of other high-ranked editors, but it has a lot of built-in support for ASP.Net and ASP.Net Ajax. If you work on ASP.Net pages, this is the perfect editor.

Expression Studio combines Expression Web with Expression Design, Blend, Encoder, and Media to give you a full graphic, video, 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. Expression Studio is perfect for the freelance developer who works mostly on ASP.Net projects. There is extensive support for ASP.Net and Silverlight in Expression Studio.

Fusion is a very powerful HTML editor. It combines all the tasks you need to get your website up and running including development, design, and FTP. Plus you can add special features to your pages like captchas on forms and ecommerce support.

HotDog is one of the first WYSIWYG editors that I liked. And version 7 still lives up to their high standards. A feature that stands out is the Flash wizard that makes it really easy to import SWF files into your Web pages.

I've always liked CoffeeCup software. They do a great job of providing what their customers want for a low price. Plus, with free upgrades and support for life, the cost of their products becomes next to nothing. The CoffeeCup HTML editor is a great tool for Web designers. It comes with lots of graphics, templates, and extra features - like the CoffeeCup image mapper. And I've found that if you request a feature, they will add it or create a new tool to take care of it. I love CoffeeCup!

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.

Namo might not be a name you've heard of, but it's a Web suite that deserves looking at. Its graphics and Web editing tools are great and easy to use, and best of all the price is more affordable. Namo Web Editor Pro comes with a Flash editing program as well as a graphics program.

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.