This is my list of the best Windows HTML editors in order. I evaluated over 100 Windows HTML editors in 30 categories, and these are the editors that I think are the best of the best. If you're looking for an HTML editor for Windows, you should find one that meets your needs on this list. Find the perfect HTML editor for you.
1. Adobe 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 Web Standard
Image courtesy Adobe
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, Web Premium, Design 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 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.
4. Microsoft Expression Studio
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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.
5. NetOjbects Fusion
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.6. Macromedia Homesite
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Homesite includes an HTML validator, extended search and replace, a site manager and FTP, XHTML, CSS and JavaScript support, and a whole lot more. Homesite offers lots of ways to customize it including user-built scripts and wizards to make building pages even easier. I have dozens of custom wizards for building standardized pages on my sites. When it comes to text-only HTML editors, Homesite is still hard to beat. (Note: Homesite is owned by Adobe, but they kept the Macromedia name.)
7. 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. HTML-Kit Tools add features like snippets, project management, validating all your files at once, even creating videos.8. Komodo Edit
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.9. AceHTML Pro
AceHTML Pro 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. I like that it has a to do list manager and project manager built-in so that you can work more effectively on your projects.10. HotDog Pro
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.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.
