HTML editors

Of course, most folks would still prefer to use a friendlier, graphical editor. Some editors are WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), or close to it; others simply assist you in writing HTML by plugging in the desired markup tags for you from a menu.

Fans of the EMACS editor can use EMACS and html-helper-mode , an EMACS "mode" for HTML editing (URL is http://www.santafe.edu/~nelson/tools/).

There is also another Emacs HTML mode, html-mode.el (URL is ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Web/html/elisp/html-mode.el).

For Microsoft Windows users, Microsoft itself has released Internet Assistant, a Word for Windows template which can edit HTML in a WYSIWYG manner, including the capability to load existing HTML documents. It also includes rudimentary browsing capabilities, sufficient to assist in editing (url is <URL:http://www.microsoft.com/pages/deskapps/word/ia/default.htm> ).

ANT_HTML is a Word template for both Windows (URL is <URL:ftp://ftp.einet.net/einet/pc> ) and the Macintosh (URL is <URL:ftp://ftp.einet.net/einet/mac/html-aids/> ) designed to convert Word documents into HTML documents in a WYSIWYG environment. It includes a demo version of the ANT_PLUS utility, which converts HTML files for importation and further editing. ANT_PLUS also converts HTML files to ASCII, RTF, or any other format possible in Word 6.0. Contact jswift@freenet.fsu.edu for more information.

Yet another commercial Word for Windows HTML editing template is available from Quarterdeck (URL is <http://www.qdeck.com/beta/> ); it is rumored to be superior to Internet Assistant. Comments, anyone?

Also for Microsoft Windows users, there is a non-WYSIWYG editor called HTML Assistant with features to assist in the creation of HTML documents. It can be had by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.dal.ca in the directory /htmlasst/. Read the README.1ST file in this directory for information on which files to download.

Most Windows HTML editing facilities leave out table-editing capabilities; fill that gap with Jordan Evans' Excel 5.0 to HTML Table Converter (URL is <http://rs712b.gsfc.nasa.gov/704/dgd/xl2html.html> ).

A WYSIWYG editor for the Web, SoftQuad HoTMetaL, is available for downloading at NCSA and numerous other sites. Many mirror sites exist; if you can't get through to one, try another, don't give up! That's what mirror sites are for. (Also be sure to use the copy closest to you geographically if possible.) Hotmetal is available for both Sun Sparc systems and Windows systems; note that Windows users need at least 6 megabytes of free memory. (A 2-megabyte swap file should just barely do the trick on a 4MB machine.)

Known mirrors:

You need a Sun SPARC or Microsoft Windows system and 6MB of disk (6MB of RAM minimum for MS Windows; swap files count). Other Unix systems may be supported by the time you read this; have a look on one of the sites above.

Because it is context-sensitive, HoTMetaL guides users in creating new HTML documents and in cleaning up old ones. A Publish command changes appropriate SRC and HREF attributes from local paths to http locations. For more information, FTP the README file from the same directory, or send email to hotmetal@sq.com. A HoTMetaL Pro commercially supported version is available for purchase from SoftQuad and its resellers.

For a different, approach to HTML editing, highly focused on the act of linking documents, consider Xantippe (URL is <URL:ftp.netcom.com://pub/rl/rlai/www/home.html> ), an "electronic index card system" that can create HTML, RTF and IPF files, in addition to serving as an outliner.

Also see Gabriel White's reviews of MS Windows HTML editors (URL is http://werple.mira.net.au/%7Egabriel/web/html/editors/ ). Another option, if you have an SGML editor, is to use it with the HTML DTD (URL is http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/DTDHeading.html ).

An editor for all X users: TkWWW (URL is <URL:http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TkWWW/Status.html> ) supports WYSIWYG HTML editing; and since it's also a browser, you can try out links immediately after creating them.

Another editor for X users: Phoenix (URL is http://www.bsd.uchicago.edu/ftp/pub/phoenix/README.html ) is a fully WYSIWYG HTML editor which insulates the user from direct control of the HTML tags. Available by anonymous FTP from www.bsd.uchicago.edu in the pub/phoenix subdirectory.

ASHE is a WYSIWYG HTML editor which takes advantage of the NCSA Mosaic HTML "widget" (URL is <URL:ftp://ftp.cs.rpi.edu/pub/puninj/ASHE/README.html> ).

Also for X users, there is a package called htmltext which supports WYSIWYG HTML editing. More information is available at the URL http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/homes/njw/htmltext/htmltext.html .

For Macintosh users, there is a near-WYSIWYG package called HTML Editor (URL is <URL:http://dragon.acadiau.ca/~giles/HTML_Editor> ).

ANT_HTML is a Word for the Macintosh template designed to convert Word documents into HTML documents in a WYSIWYG environment. It includes a demo version of the ANT_PLUS utility, which converts HTML files to WYSIWYG. ANT_PLUS also converts HTML files to ASCII, RTF, or any other format possible in Word. At the time of this writing it was scheduled to have been released on the Macintosh (it has long been available for Windows). Contact jswift@freenet.fsu.edu for more information. Also for Macintosh users, the BBEdit HTML extensions allow the BBEdit and BBEdit Lite text editors for the Macintosh to conveniently edit HTML documents. (URL is http://www.uji.es/bbedit-html-extensions.html .) You can also obtain the extensions package by anonymous ftp from sumex-aim.stanford.edu as info-mac/bbedit-html-ext-b3.hqx.

There is an alternative BBEdit extension package available as well (URL is http://www.york.ac.uk/~ld11/BBEditTools.html ). it is available by FTP from ftp.york.ac.uk in the directory /pub/users/ld11/BBEdit_HTML_Tools.sea.hqx.

NCSA's List of Filters and Editors, for which the URL is http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/faq-software.html#editors, mentions several editors, including two for MS Windows. In some cases, the "editor" amounts to a set of macros for an existing word processor, which can provide a near-WYSIWYG environment.

Note that this URL contains uppercase and lowercase letters; certain operating systems won't allow mixed case on the command line, or will only allow it if it is quoted (VMS), so if you are launching Lynx or another client and specifying a URL at the command line, try quoting the URL in double-quotes ("URL").


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