Free Windows HTML Editors For Web Developers
- Phase 5
- Programmer’s Notepad
- SynWrite
- PlainEdit.NET
- Notepad++
- jEdit
- Sublime Text 2 – The Swiss Army Knife
- Brackets
- Aptana Studio 3
The following applications are the best free HTML editors for Macintosh, both WYSIWYG and text editors, rated from best to worst. Each editor listed will have a score, percentage, and a link to more information. WYSIWYG editors are HTML editors that attempt to display the web page as it will display in the browser. They are visual editors, and you don’t manipulate the code directly. I’ve reviewed over 60 different web editors for Macintosh against criteria relevant to professional web designers and developers.
If you want to develop a website, you’ll need an HTML editor. You could, of course, use the Windows Notepad to build a website, but that would hardly be convenient, comfortable, or pretty, for that matter. Crucially, a good HTML editor must do two things very well: syntax highlighting (coloration of the code) and autocompletion. Naturally an extra feature or two is welcome: a selection of themes, for example, that would not only accommodate your taste, but also increase your productivity and mitigate fatigue in long bouts of coding. With that, let’s have an impartial look at the nine best free HTML editors for Windows.
1. Phase 5
Phase 5 is a widely known editor that has been steadily updated since 1998.
A few features of Phase5 are project management, tag completion, an integrated image viewer, a syntax debugger, support for special characters, indentation assistance, search and replace, and customizable menus and templates.
Phase 5 supports popular formats like PHP, Javascript, HTML, VBScript, Java, and Pearl. A file manager quickly lets you switch between documents. You can edit multiple documents simultaneously, and much more.
Phase 5 runs on Windows 7 and 8, Vista, XP, 2000, 98 32/64 bit, and server versions.
2. Programmer’s Notepad
Programmer’s Notepad offers a modern interface that comes in two themes: one bright, the other dark, as pictured. Besides syntax highlighting, the editor boasts text clips (code snippets), code folding (selective hiding/displaying of code) and can be finely tailored to your personal needs through Python scripts and add-ons.
3. SynWrite
SynWrite is an editor with a wide variety of functionality. The idea behind SynWrite is to concentrate everything good about other editors into a single free product, and the feature list reads accordingly. The editor can be augmented with plugins written in Python. Aside from typical functionality such as code folding and autocompletion, SynWrite also allows for multi-caret editing (see animation):
This feature can save a load of time. What’s more, SynWrite supports Emmet (previously Zen Coding).
4. PlainEdit.NET
PlainEdit can open multiple files in tabs, can likewise be expanded with plugins and provides plenty of functions, including customizable templates. Users can quickly and easily insert snippets (templates, pieces of code, or other text) from a sidebar. Moreover, you can search and replace text with regular expressions, even in documents not presently open. It’s worth noting that PlainEdit can even be run from a USB stick.
5. Notepad++
Notepad++ is something of a classic. It emerged when the editor, which Windows shipped with, had gotten rather long in the tooth and failed to offer important functionality.
Notepad++ offers a tab interface, autocompletion, and great code highlighting. Macro recording automates frequently-used commands. The interface can be configured to your needs, and there are plenty of plugins at your disposal to broaden the feature set.
6. jEdit
jEdit can open, edit, and accordingly highlight syntax in virtually any file. Opening multiple files makes life a lot easier. Any missing features can be filled in with plugins.
This is not to say that jEdit skimps on features. Out of the box, jEdit is packaged with key functionality such as code folding, marking of connected elements and tags, a file manager, and a good search and replace function. Furthermore, the ability to configure and expand the editor makes jEdit worthy competition among its peers.
Link to website
Cross-platform Options
The following options are available for several platforms, and each is convincing in its own right. Whether you use Linux, Mac OS or Windows, you can take your pick from three great editors.
7. Sublime Text 2 – The Swiss Army Knife
No other HTML editor is quite as triumphant as Sublime Text 2. It launched to immediate praise from swooning professional web developers. It is deeply customizable via extensions and JSON files. It’s tough to imagine any functionality outside of Sublime Text’s grasp.
With the aid of Package Control, downloading and installing extensions is a breeze. Because the editor has enjoyed such widespread adoption, there’s an extensive plugin library available, even in addition to those offered on the developer’s website.
Brackets Code Editor For Mac
Sublime Text 2 stands apart for its extensive documentation, both official and unofficial. Tutorials for Sublime Text 2 are everywhere and lower the learning curve.
Sublime Text 2 is not free. It can be downloaded and evaluated for free with no limits, but if you like it, the $70 license is a very fair investment.
A look at Sublime Text 2
8. Brackets
Brackets is a modern, open-source editor with a few interesting features. It works with Adobe Creative Cloud Extract (Preview) to read design data such as colors, fonts, gradients, and more directly from a PSD file and convert it to CSS. It can also extract layers as images, use information from the PSD to define preprocessor variables, and easily get dimensions between objects. This is all possible without ever leaving the editor.
Note: Adobe Creative Cloud is a paid service. Extract (its free preview) can be directly installed alongside Brackets.
Extensions are another big plus for Brackets, which can be used to tailor the editor to the user’s needs. New extensions are released every three to four weeks. The robust support for preprocessors also merits mention.
Features such as Live Preview and Quick Edit can be used with LESS and SCSS files to streamline your work. Together with the right extensions and Adobe Creative Cloud Extract, Brackets can cover all the professional bases.
A look at Brackets:
9. Aptana Studio 3
The current iteration of Aptana Studio (version 3) is one of the best known and most comprehensive IDEs for Windows, Mac, and Linux. In version 3, the developers wanted to resolve one of Aptana Studio’s weakest points: spotty performance.
Mac Html Editor Free
The greatest strengths of the editor are its customizability, Git integration, and the built-in terminal. Aptana Studio 3 supports the newest web standards such as HTML5 and CSS3. It offers an integrated debugger for Ruby and JavaScript.
Link to website
Decided Not to Code? Take a Look at Mobirise
If you just ran into this article to find HTML editors that take away the coding part from you, you’ll have found out by now that this is the wrong place. To not lose you leaving completely disappointed I want to advise you to take a look at Mobirise. Mobirise is an installable editor, too. The difference to the others mentioned here is that it does not let you fiddle with the code. Instead, it completely keeps you away from that. We have written a full-fledged article on Mobirise and I strongly encourage you to check it out.
Mobirise is available for Windows and macOS and comes fully free of charge. If you need a fully responsive website in the fastest way possible, ditch the code editors and head over to Mobirise.
Conclusion
There is a wide range of HTML editors for Windows, but only a handful excel. For non-daily use, there’s Notepad++. For daily professional use, however, Notepad++ would not suffice. To that end, there are better options, such as Sublime Text 2, which can be customized to suit the user’s needs. Fans of turnkey editors might prefer Aptana, SynWrite, or Programmer’s Notepad. Which one will you choose?
Mac users, we have an article on HTML editors for you, too! Find it here.
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Html Editor For Mac
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
WYSIWYG editors are HTML editors that attempt to display the web page as it will display in the browser. They are visual editors, and you don’t manipulate the code directly. I’ve reviewed over 60 different web editors for Macintosh against criteria relevant to professional web designers and developers. The following are the 10 best WYSIWYG web editors for Macintosh, in order from best to worst.
Adobe Dreamweaver
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. You can 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 Creative Suite suites like Web Premium or Design Premium to get graphics editing capability and other features like Flash editing as well.
There are a few features that Dreamweaver lacks, some have been missing for a long time, and others (like HTML validation and photo galleries) were removed in CS5.
Adobe Creative Suite
If you are a graphic artist and then a web designer you should consider Creative Suite Design Premium. Unlike Design Standard which doesn't include Dreamweaver, Design Premium gives you InDesign, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver, SoundBooth, and Acrobat.
Because it includes Dreamweaver it includes all the power you need to build web pages. But web designers who focus more on graphics and less on the purely HTML aspects of the job will appreciate this suite for the extra graphic features included in it.
SeaMonkey
SeaMonkey is the Mozilla project all-in-one Internet application suite. It includes a web browser, email and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and composer – the web page editor.
One of the nice things about using SeaMonkey is that you have the browser built-in already so testing is a breeze. Plus it's a free WYSIWYG editor with an embedded FTP to publish your web pages.
Amaya
Amaya is the W3C web editor. It also acts as a web browser. It validates the HTML as you build your page, and since you can see the tree structure of your web documents, it can be very useful for learning to understand the DOM and how your documents look in the document tree.
It has a lot of features that most web designers won’t ever use, but if you’re worried about standards and you want to be 100% sure that your pages work with the WC3 standards, this is a great editor to use.
Rapidweaver
At first glance, RapidWeaver appears to be a WYSIWYG editor, but there is a lot to surprise you. You can create a site with a large photo gallery, a blog, and two stand-alone web pages in about 15 minutes. These included images and fancy formatting.
This is a great program for newcomers to web design. You get started quickly and advance to more complicated pages including PHP. It doesn't validate HTML that you hand code and I couldn't figure out how to add an external link in one of the WYSIWYG pages.
There is also a large user-base with lots of plugins to get more support for advanced features including HTML 5, e-commerce, Google sitemaps, and more.
KompoZer
KompoZer is a good WYSIWYG editor. It is based on the popular Nvu editor – only it is called an “unofficial bug-fix release.”
Best Code Editor For Mac
KompoZer was conceived by some people who really liked Nvu, but were fed up with the slow release schedules and poor support. So they took it over and released a less buggy version of the software. Ironically, there hasn't been a new release of KompoZer since 2010.
SandVox
Sandvox Pro offers great features. One really interesting feature is the integration with Google Webmaster Tools. This can help you keep your site on track with SEO and give you options like a sitemap and other features.
Nvu
Nvu is a good WYSIWYG editor. I prefer text editors to WYSIWYG editors, but if you don’t, then Nvu is a good choice, especially considering that it’s free. You'll love that it has a site manager to allow you to review the sites that you’re building. It's surprising that this software is free.
Feature highlights: XML support, advanced CSS support, full site management, built-in validator, and international support as well as WYSIWYG and color-coded XHTML editing.
Good Page
Good Page offers a lot of the features of a great text editor while also providing some WYSIWYG support.
You'll like the structured views of the document – this makes it easier to see the DOM for JavaScript development. Another cool thing is the CSS editor, which includes the specificity right on the property. If you’ve ever fought with a very complex style sheet you’ll recognize the value of that.
What is your favorite HTML editor? Write a review!
Photo Editor For Mac
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.