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12. HTML Editors for your website
When you have decided to write your own HTML code for your site, and have spent some time learning HTML and how it works, there's one more thing you need to decide: which program are you going to use to do it? While you can use Windows programs like Notepad or Wordpad, they don't have any specialized HTML editing features. There are many HTML editors available though.
Syntax Highlighting- One of the most fundamental features for any editor is syntax highlighting. This means that it understands how HTML works, and will make tags a different colour from text, making it easier for you to see what you're doing.
When looking for a HTML editor you should find an editor that has up-to-date syntax highlighting and checks whether your tags are valid. It should check whether what you're entering is valid HTML, and warn you if it isn't.
Tag Suggestions- Getting an editor that knows about valid HTML tags and how they're structured can be helpful as that means it will let you know what you should be including and let you browse through tags to find the one you're thinking of. Tag suggesting editors can often save you typing, if they come up with a drop-down when you start typing and allow you to accept their suggestions easily by pressing tab or space. This can speed up your HTML editing significantly.
FTP Upload-Having a HTML editor with a built-in FTP upload facility saves you a lot of time, allowing you to enter your server, username and password, and upload the files you've just edited to the server. If your program doesn't do this, you'll have to use a separate FTP program which can be a bit time consuming.
Text to HTML Conversion- If you're making a lot of text content into HTML, one important feature to look for in the HTML editor is easy text-to-HTML conversion – otherwise you'll spend a lot of time putting
tags at the start and end of each paragraph. Ideally, the software should be able to spot pieces of text that are headings, lists and so on, and add HTML tags for you automatically. This would make your life much easier.
Few Options-
SciTE Editor (www.scintilla.org) has excellent syntax highlighting, making it easier to be sure that you're writing correct HTML tags and you haven't made any layout mistakes.
Crimson Editor (www.crimsoneditor.com) is popular but it can be quite very technical when it comes to actual usage. Its biggest advantage is that it has built-in FTP uploads.
These are just a few suggestions and you must decide what’s convenient for you.
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