Editor's note: At the time I wrote this page I was still using Windows so everything listed here is a Windows app. I'm now using Linux and have found as many nice editors for Linux as are available for Windows (just check you package manager) but my personal favorite is
Gedit
Everyone has their own take on the best way to create web pages. I don't think it really matters how you go about it as long as you're able to do whatever you want with your pages. Beyond that, I prefer to use a freeware product wherever possible so I've gathered links to as many of the "good ones" as I've found here on this page. If you know of a free web development tool that I've missed here, please click on the Contact link at the top (or bottom) of this page and let me know about it.
For folks who want to use a WYSIWYG ("What You See Is What You Get") editor there are several good choices.
Nvu: A complete Web authoring application similar to Dreamweaver or FrontPage. With Nvu, anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML. For Windows or Linux.
http://www.nvu.com/
Trellian WebPAGE: You can create your own web pages without having to learn complex scripting languages. WebPAGE's WYSIWYG interface makes editing pages as easy as using your favorite word processor.
http://webpage.vendercom.com/index.html
IMS Web Dwarf: A drag and drop WYSIWYG HTML editor with pixel precision positioning and scaling. Features include a TEXT, HTML and Rich Text editor that also supports conversion between these formats and the ability to import-export these formats from/to other popular text editors including MS word. HTML can be modified by the program. The program also includes a publisher with a gather option to export the finished HTML files to a local disk or to FTP them directly to the internet server.
http://virtualmechanics.com/products/dwarf/index.html
DHE Editor: With DHE Editor it's possible to draw and generate dynamic web pages (HTML, ASP, PHP, CFM, JSP) without the need to write a single line of HTML code.
http://www.hexagora.com/en_home.asp
1st Page 2000: A full-featured, completely free, WYSIWYG HTML editor/script editor. The application now includes 450
Javascripts ASP, SSI and DHTML effects.
http://www.evrsoft.com/
If you wish to hand code your HTML and just want a better editor than Windows NotePad, prepare yourself for a treat. Almost every programmer has tried his hand at creating a good text editor and quite a number of them are eventually offered as freeware. Some freeware text editors aren't able to open a file that's larger than about 64K (a limitation that Windows NotePad also has) but that's not necessarily a problem. Here's three nifty little plain text editors (which may have file size limitations on some older Windows systems):
Scribbler: This small, fast text editor offers many more features than Windows NotePad. Another slightly smaller text editor called "Jotter" is available on the same page. For Windows 95/98/ME/NT3.51/NT4 and WINE 20030115 (Linux) [executable file size: 44k].
http://www.don-guitar.com/dlscribjot.html
NewPad: This little gem, from Eugene Vassiltsov can open as many files at a time as the memory of your computer allows, NewPad remembers settings from your last session (fonts, window size and position), allows you to choose any font installed on your computer, choose different fonts for
editing and printing (of course, you can choose identical), has Page Setup, where you can set headers and footers for printing, has Word Wrap, Find, Find and Replace commands, shows current date in a status bar, and is very nearly identical to Windows NotePad in appearance [executable file size: 46k].
http://freewarehome.com/software/newpad.html
Here are several additional editors which shouldn't have file size limitations.
TheGun: My new favorite small text editor By far the tiniest editor I've ever seen. It's fully drag and drop enabled, supports wordwrap, has no maximum file size, does not use or write to the Windows registry and has other nice features too [executable size: 7k].
http://www.movsd.com/thegun.htm
Edxor: A versatile, convenient and optimal text editor and file processor that far surpasses the capabilities of other Notepad-like applications. It offers innovative clipboard handling, cryptographic options and logic text conversions, great for education, fun, or privacy. Edxor is small, self-contained, dependency-free and very fast. It provides over 90 menu items, including many unique functions and options, for diverse applications. [executable size: 30k].
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/edxor.htm
xint: Pronounced "zint", is an alternative to Windows notepad with dozens of useful functions. The focus is on efficiency and performance and thus there are no toolbars, redundant dialogs, or other unnecessary components. Most of the functions are accessible via hotkeys, and extra formatting options are also availible through a convenient floating menu which is also activated by hotkeys [executable size: 479k].
http://www.xtort.net/xtort/xint.php
Moving upward on the feature scale, we next encounter my personal favorite:
Tabbed editors. These editors can open many files at once and perform find and/or find-replace operations across all of them at once.
NoteTab Light: NoteTab is a leading-edge text and HTML editor for Windows. Winner of software industry awards since 1998, this application does it all:
it easily handles a stack of huge files; lets you format text to your heart's content; does system-wide searches, and multi-line global replacements. I used NoteTab to create this page (and all of my pages), and I use it to write my ezine twice a month. This is the most awesome editor I know of. I bought NoteTab Pro but I wound up giving it to a programmer friend of mine because I never used it. NoteTab Light is perfectly suited to all my needs. Great for text files, and unbeatable for "Hands On" editing of HTML files [executable size: 1606k].
http://www.notetab.com/
EditPad Lite: EditPad Lite is a general purpose tabbed text editor, designed to be small and compact, yet offer all the functionality you expect from a basic text editor. EditPad Lite works with Windows 95, NT4, 98, 2000, ME and XP. The Linux version is available separately. EditPad Lite is free for non-commercial use. That is, you may use EditPad Lite if you do not get paid, directly or indirectly, for the work you do with EditPad Lite. Registered charities may also use EditPad Lite [executable size: 406k].
http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html
SciTE: A SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it's grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. SciTE may be small but it's got some really awesome features. 410k].
http://scintilla.sourceforge.net/SciTE.html
Here's one that's a little dated but is nevertheless a very nice little HTML editor:
http://www.don-guitar.com/dlderek.html
There are a few editors which bridge the gap between plain text and WYSIWYG by including a preview window that shows you what your HTML code looks like in real time, as you write it:
HTML-Kit: A full-featured editor designed to help HTML, XHTML and XML authors to edit, format, lookup help, validate, preview and publish web pages. HTML-Kit is a multi-purpose tool that has support for several scripting and programming languages. In addition to the user friendly environment that support multiple file types and standards, HTML-Kit includes internal, external, server-side and live preview modes; FTP workspace for uploading, downloading and online editing of files; and the ability to use hundreds of optional free add-ins through its open plugins interface. HTML-Kit has a preview mode that permit's you to view your work in progress.
http://www.chami.com/html-kit/
Easy HTML from ToniArts (the same young man who created EasyCleaner) is a nicely featured HTML editor with terrific built in help features and a live preview window.
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ehtmle.htm
Oh, and just in case you've been archiving emails as plain text files (as I do) to cut down on the space they require, and to get them out of potentially buggy email clients, here's an editor which renders all web URLs in plain text documents as clickable links (as well as having many other nice features).
http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/
Lastly, here's a nice little freeware tool which can quickly convert a plain text file to an HTML file:
http://virdi-software.com/txt2web/desc.shtml
All of these freeware programs, and more, are listed on my "favorite freeware" page.
http://www.don-guitar.com/donspick.html
Incidentally, the best HTML learning resources I've found on the web is the W3 schools:
http://www.w3schools.com/
and, when you start making the transition to style sheets, index-dot-css is a wonderful help.:
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/css/
Don Crowder
http://www.don-guitar.com