Which is the best WYSIWG editor?

[AimeeC]

Hi all. Just wanted your opinion on this.
What do you think of Frontpage as a WYSIWYG editor? Is it true that it's the worst one on th market?

For all "expert" web designers out there,based on your experience, is using frontpage a deterrent when convincing your clients about your web-designing ability?

Just a thought...thanks

[matauri]

I dont think that the editor you use is what is going to be the deciding factor when vieing for clients. You will find that is will be many other factors, such as the design component, artwork, navigation, speed it loads, etc, etc. What you use to achieve this is pretty much 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

All WYSIWYG editors put in way too much unecessary code as far as I am concerned. If your branching into professional web design, I would suggest you learn html, if you dont know it already. Then you can edit any WYSIWYG editor code, or write your own.

From all reports I have heard that Dreamweaver is among the best WYSIWYG. But frontpage is used a lot I see also. Remember if your changing programs it is costing you money. If you write your own code you have an abundance of free editors (including notepad) to use.

But the thing I think you should keep in mind if you are going professional.... You wouldn't take your car to an auto shop if he didn't know how to pull the motor apart & put it back together again. In my opinion the same goes for web design. You should know the mechanics of it first. That is always far more impressive when luring clients.


Cindy

[carju1]

For knocking soem designs together to find the best basic design for a particular site or page I tend to find Frontpage the easiest to use and it does a good enough job. Then when you want to make the real page based on the chosen layout as Cindy says hand code it in HTML is the best way to go (You can always look at the code and get parameters like height and width from the Frontpage design).

Julian

[minstrel]

I actually like FrontPage (ducking to avoid the vegetables thrown from the audience)...

Yes, like all WYSIWYG editors it has its quirks but despite the negative publicity it doesn't produce the worst code in the world (that honor in my opinion is still held by Go-Live). And it is several hundred dollars cheaper than DreamWeaver and it's hard to justify that additonal expenditure for what DW does.

The bottom line is you are not going to be totally happy with any WYSIWYG editor unless you are willing to learn some hand-coding so you can wade in and fix the quirks. But if what you want is something to get you up and running quickly, without mortgaging your firstborn, I'd recommend that you have a serious look at FrontPage...

Mind you, to use some of the FrontPage features does require a server that supports FrontPage extensions. But you can develop some fairly sophisticated websites without ever using those extensions...

[Tubby]

I have a copy of front page on my shelf, also a copy of dreamweaver. . I never got to grips with either of them, they just seemed to overdo it (for me to complicated - restrictive - cumbersome )

I played with an old copy of publisher98 that was given me when I upgraded my computer - and it worked well. of course I paste a bit here and there, and I have developed a system that enables me to cope with its silly ways (automatically numbering gifs etc) and I love it.

I know it so well I produce new pages in mere seconds... Of course the pages I produce are not brilliant ! But I am not a brilliant designer, not a brilliant anything realy. But my users are happy, I am happy. I suspect that there is not a 'Best wysiwyg editor'

So if ever it gets down to a vote - Just make sure that somebody records that the old 'Microsoft Publisher' gets at least one vote.

Tubby
www.restored-classics.com

[fonzerelli_79]

i love textpad
it has a great find and replace facility

[Meg]

FrontPage is fine especially if you know a bit of code. A huge advantage is that if you get into trouble with it, there are lots of books, websites and message boards for assistance.

NetObjects Fusion is seldom mentioned in forums but I designed a site in it three years ago and found it to be very easy to use. There is a full-featured demo version if you want to give it a try at www.netobjects.com. I found tech support to be especially helpful. Daniel Will-Harris has a site devoted to NOF at www.efuse.com that would be a good place to start.

Meg

[mikmik]

minstrel said

without mortgaging your firstborn,

How much do you get for one of those?

Matauri -

But the thing I think you should keep in mind if you are going professional.... You wouldn't take your car to an auto shop if he didn't know how to pull the motor apart & put it back together again. In my opinion the same goes for web design. You should know the mechanics of it first. That is always far more impressive when luring clients

Yes yes yes!(o: If you know code, how and why it does it's stuff, everything is so much easier, and FUN, not mind boggling.