Nvu- the free WYSIWYG HTML editor

Looking for a free Microsoft Expression Web or Dreamweaver alternative? Nvu is an open-source WYSIWYG HTML and CSS editor with great documentation and a helpful support community.

Nvu has a built-in file manager and supports Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is designed specially for beginning webmasters, but is perfectly fine for more advanced users, too.

Those familiar with Frontpage or Web Expressions will be able to easily navigate the software. While not for everyone, I highly recommend giving it a try before shelling out hundreds of dollars for proprietary programs.

Photo | Flickr

What is Site Studio?

Some web hosts offer an HTML editor called Site Studio with their plans. While the software can be useful in some situations, the name is misleading.

Site Studio is a web-based WYSIWYG editor. Unlike alternatives such as Frontpage, it runs completely in a web browser and does not provide a blank template to work with. Instead, users must select one of several dozen templates for their sites.

Because it lacks basic customisation options and only runs from a browser, Site Studio is not a good choice for most people. Users will find that they are severely limited in what they can do with the software. Anyone with serious web development ambitions should look elsewhere, though if you know know absolutely nothing about web design and only need a small site, it’s a great solution.

Photo | Flickr

Frontpage web hosting

Frontpage is a WYSIWYG editor created by Microsoft. Though it is now legacy software, having been replaced by the company’s new Expression Web, there is still significant demand for Frontpage web hosting.

The good news is most hosts still provide Frontpage extensions, the technology needed for the software to sync with your provider. The number of hosts supporting Frontpage will likely decline in the coming years, however, so users of the software would be better off switching to a newer alternative.

Also keep in mind that a good many hosts provide their own free WYSIWYG editors. If you don’t know HTML and only need a simple site, such a tool would probably meet your needs.

The danger of free WYSIWYG editors

In an effort to sign up customers, web hosts these days offer an array of freebies with their plans. One common inclusion is a What-You-
See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) editor. These tools promise to create professional-looking websites for users with no HTML knowledge, but more often than not, are a waste of time.

A WYSIWYG editor should work well enough for a small website with little content, but this does not characterize most sites on the web today. From my experience, these editors are too inconsistent to get quality results

They generate buggy code that may not work in all browsers, aren’t very user-friendly, and don’t work well with templates. During my early days on the web I tried working with several, only to find I could do what I needed to get faster the old-fashioned way.

Don’t be lured into signing up with a host because they offer a WYSIWYG editor. Your time would be much better spent learning HTML, which most people can do in less than a week.

Photo | AnnaOMline