web page editing tools compared

List assembled by Blake Nancarrow (blaken@computer-ease.com) of Computer Ease for the Computer Trainers Network (CTN) on 04 May 2000.

introduction
definitions
properties
development speed
learning curve
mobility
HTML knowledge
code size
code quality
spelling checking
site editing
smart transfers
special effects
compatibility
tool cost
overall cost
sites
colophon
X X X

 

 XXX It is not a simple planet. To this day, it is not clear which way we should develop web pages. Should we buy Microsoft's offering FrontPage? Could we afford Dreamweaver? How does the new Adobe GoLive compare? Should we just work in Notepad? There are many software products with various features ranging from free to hundreds of dollars.

Static web pages are created in the HyperText Markup Language. Knowing HTML offers many advantages yet many people do not want to know this language or have the time to learn it. This document is meant to address some of these issues, answer some questions.

We will likely look back on this time and laugh to ourselves: "I used to build web pages by entering the HTML tags..." The same way we nostalgically (okay, maybe that's stretching it) reflect on the last time we entered a Hewlett Packard LaserJet printer code in Lotus 1-2-3 to get landscape printing and a particular font?