An HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. Although the HTML markup of a web page can be written with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors work not only with HTML, but also with related technologies such as CSS, XML and JavaScript or ECMAScript. In some cases they also manage communication with remote web servers via FTP and WebDAV, and version management systems such as CVS or Subversion. Application software is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform. ... A screenshot of a web page. ... HTML, an initialism of Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for web pages. ... Notepad is the standard text editor for Microsoft Windows A text editor is a piece of computer software for editing plain text. ... In web development, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a W3C-recommended general-purpose markup language that supports a wide variety of applications. ... JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. ... ECMAScript is a scripting programming language, standardized by Ecma International in the ECMA-262 specification. ... This article is about the File Transfer Protocol standardised by the IETF. For other file transfer protocols, see File transfer protocol (disambiguation). ... WebDAV, an abbreviation that stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning, refers to the set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote World Wide Web servers. ... The Concurrent Versions System (CVS), also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, is an open-source version control system invented and developed by Dick Grune in the 1980s. ... In computing, Subversion (SVN) is a version control system (VCS) initiated in 2000 by CollabNet Inc. ...

Types

There are various forms of HTML editors: text, object and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors. WYSIWYG (IPA Pronunciation [] or []), is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, used in computing to describe a system in which content during editing appears very similar to the final product. ...

Text editors

Macromedia HomeSite HTML editor

Text (source) editors intended for use with HTML usually provide syntax highlighting. Templates, toolbars and keyboard shortcuts may quickly insert common HTML elements and structures. Wizards, tooltip prompts and auto-completion may help with common tasks. Image File history File links Macromedia_HomeSite. ... Image File history File links Macromedia_HomeSite. ... HomeSite is an HTML editor owned by Adobe Systems (formerly owned by Macromedia). ... HTML syntax highlighting Syntax highlighting is a feature of some text editors that displays text—especially source code—in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms. ... An early toolbar on a Xerox Alto Computer. ... A keyboard shortcut (also known as an accelerator key, shortcut key, or hotkey) is one or a set of keyboard keys that, when pressed simultaneously, perform a predefined task. ... In computing, an HTML element indicates structure in an HTML document and a way of hierarchically arranging content. ... A wizard is an interactive computer program acting as an interface to lead a user through a complex task using dialog steps. ... The tooltip is a common graphical user interface element. ... Autocomplete is a feature provided by many source code text editors, word processors, and web browsers. ...

Text HTML editors commonly include either built-in functions or integration with external tools for such tasks as source and version control, link-checking, code checking and validation, code cleanup and formatting, spell-checking, uploading by FTP or WebDAV, and structuring as a project. Look up validator in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the File Transfer Protocol standardised by the IETF. For other file transfer protocols, see File transfer protocol (disambiguation). ... WebDAV, an abbreviation that stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning, refers to the set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote World Wide Web servers. ...

Text editors require user understanding of HTML and any other web technologies the designer wishes to use like CSS, JavaScript and server-side scripting languages. In web development, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. ... JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. ... Server-side scripting is a web server technology in which a users request is fulfilled by running a script directly on the web server to generate dynamic HTML pages. ...

Object editors

Some editors allow alternate editing of the source text of objects in more visually organized modes than simple color highlighting, but in modes not considered WYSIWYG. Some WYSIWYG editors include the option of using palette windows that enable editing the text-based parameters of selected objects. These palettes allow either editing parameters in fields for each individual parameter, or text windows to edit the full group of source text for the selected object. They may include widgets to present and select options when editing parameters. Adobe GoLive provides an outline editor to expand and collapse HTML objects and properties, edit parameters, and view graphics attached to the expanded objects. In strictly mathematical branches of computer science the term object is used in a purely mathematical sense to refer to any thing. While this interpretation is useful in the discussion of abstract theory, it is not concrete enough to serve as a primitive datatype in the discussion of more concrete... Graphic organizers are visual representations of knowledge, concepts or ideas. ... The Finders Inspector window is an example of a palette window A palette window, also known as utility window or floating palette, is a type of computing window which floats on top of all regular windows and offers tools or information for the current application. ... A widget (or control) is an interface component that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. ... GoLive is a HTML editor from Adobe Systems. ...

WYSIWYG HTML editors

Amaya HTML editor

WYSIWYG HTML editors provide an editing interface which resembles how the page will be displayed in a web browser. Some editors, such as ones in the form of browser extensions allow editing within a web browser. Because using a WYSIWYG editor does not require any HTML knowledge, they are easier for an average computer user to get started with. Image File history File links Screenshot of Amaya web browser. ... Image File history File links Screenshot of Amaya web browser. ... Amaya is a free and open source web browser and authoring tool created by a structured editor project at INRIA, a French national research institution, and later adopted by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. ... WYSIWYG (IPA Pronunciation [] or []), is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get, used in computing to describe a system in which content during editing appears very similar to the final product. ... An example of a Web browser (Mozilla Firefox) A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. ...

The WYSIWYG view is achieved by embedding a layout engine based upon that used in a web browser. The layout engine will have been considerably enhanced by the editor's developers to allow for typing, pasting, deleting and moving the content. The goal is that, at all times during editing, the rendered result should represent what will be seen later in a typical web browser. A layout engine, or rendering engine, is a software that takes web content (such as HTML, XML, image files, etc) and formatting information (such as CSS, XSL, etc) and displays the formatted content on the screen. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

While WYSIWYG editors make web design faster and easier; many professionals still use text editors, despite the fact that most WYSIWYG editors have a mode to edit HTML code by hand. The web was not originally designed to be a visual medium, and attempts to give authors more layout control, such as css, have been poorly supported by major web browsers. Because of this, code automatically generated by WYSIWYG editors frequently sacrifice file size and compatibility with fringe browsers, to create a design that looks the same for widely used desktop web browsers. This automatically generated code may be edited and corrected by hand. For more on subject, see Difficulties in achieving WYSIWYG below.^[1][2][3] The optimal result for Acid2. ... An HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. ...

WYSIWYM editors

What You See Is What You Mean (WYSIWYM) is an alternative paradigm to the WYSIWYG editors above. Instead of focusing on the format or presentation of the document, it preserves the intended meaning of each element. For example, page headers, sections, paragraphs, etc. are labeled as such in the editing program, and displayed appropriately in the browser. WYSIWYM is an alternative to WYSIWYG. The acronym refers to slightly different things depending on the context of use. ...

Valid HTML code

HTML is a structured markup language. There are certain rules on how HTML must be written if it is to conform to W3C standards for the World Wide Web. Following these rules means that web sites are accessible on all types and makes of computer, to able-bodied and people with disabilities, and also on wireless devices like mobile phones and PDAs, with their limited bandwidths and screen sizes. A specialized markup language using SGML is used to write the electronic version of the Oxford English Dictionary. ... The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a consortium that produces standards—recommendations, as they call them—for the World Wide Web. ... WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. ... For the use of the term in networking, see Wireless networking. ... User with Treo (PDA with smartphone functionality) Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers, but have become much more versatile over the years. ...

Unfortunately most HTML documents on the web are not valid according to W3C standards. According to one study only about 1 out of 141 is valid. Even those syntactically correct documents may be inefficient due to an unnecessary use of repetition, or based upon rules that have been deprecated for some years. Current W3C recommendations on the use of CSS with HTML were first formalised by W3C in 1996^[4] and have been revised and refined since then. See CSS, XHTML, W3C's current CSS recommendation and W3C's current HTML recommendation. Look up Deprecation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In web development, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. ... The Extensible HyperText Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax. ...

These guidelines emphasise the separation of content (HTML or XHTML) from style (CSS). This has the benefit of delivering the style information once for a whole site, not repeated in each page, let alone in each HTML element. WYSIWYG editor designers have been struggling ever since with how best to present these concepts to their users without confusing them by exposing the underlying reality. Modern WYSIWYG editors all succeed in this to some extent, but none of them has succeeded entirely.

People who use text editors can generally fix such problems immediately, once they become aware of them. People find it frustrating when such errors come from WYSIWYG editors.

However a web page was created or edited, WYSIWYG or by hand, in order to be successful among the greatest possible number of readers and viewers, as well as to maintain the 'worldwide' value of the Web itself it can be argued that, first and foremost, it should consist of valid markup and code. Some would argue that it should not be delivered by a designer to his or her customer, and not be considered ready for the World Wide Web, until its HTML and CSS syntax has been successfully validated using either the free W3C validator services (W3C HTML Validator and W3C CSS Validator) or some other trustworthy alternatives. Look up validator in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Others would argue^[5] that publishing useful information, as soon as possible, should be first and foremost.

Whatever software tools are used to design, create and maintain web pages, there is little doubt that the quality of the underlying HTML is dependent on the skill of the person who works on the page. Some knowledge of HTML, CSS and other scripting languages as well as a familiarity with the current W3C recommendations in these areas will help any designer produce better web pages, with a WYSIWYG HTML editor and without^[6].

Difficulties in achieving WYSIWYG

A given HTML document will have an inconsistent appearance on various platforms and computers for several reasons:

Different browsers and applications will render the same markup differently.

The same page may display slightly differently in Internet Explorer and Firefox on a high-resolution screen, but it will look very different in the perfectly valid text-only Lynx browser. It needs to be rendered differently again on a PDA, an internet-enabled television and on a mobile phone. Usability in a speech or braille browser, or via a screen-reader working with a conventional browser, will place demands on entirely different aspects of the underlying HTML. Printing the page, via different browsers and different printers onto various paper sizes, around the world, places other demands. With the correct use of modern HTML and CSS there is no longer any need to provide 'Printable page' links and then have to maintain two versions of the whole site. Nor is there any excuse for pages not fitting the user's preferred paper size and orientation, or wasting ink printing solid background colours unnecessarily, or wasting paper reproducing navigation panels that will be entirely useless once printed out^[7].

Browsers and computer graphics systems have a range of user settings.

Resolution, font size, colour, contrast etc can all be adjusted at the user's discretion, and many modern browsers allow even more user control over page appearance^[8]. All an author can do is suggest an appearance.

Web browsers, like all computer software, have bugs

They may not conform to current standards. It is hopeless to try to design Web pages around all of the common browsers current bugs: each time a new version of each browser comes out, a significant proportion of the World Wide Web would need re-coding to suit the new bugs and the new fixes. It is generally considered much wiser to design to standards, staying away from 'bleeding edge' features until they settle down, and then wait for the browser developers to catch up to your pages, rather than the other way round^[9]. In this regard, no one can argue that CSS/XHTML is still 'cutting edge' as there is now widespread support available in common browsers for all the major features^[10], even if many WYSIWYG and other editors have not yet entirely caught up^[11].

What you see may be what most visitors get, but it is not guaranteed to be what everyone gets. Lynx being used on Mac OS X Lynx is a text-only web browser for use on cursor-addressable, character cell terminals. ... A computer bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from working as intended, or produces an incorrect result. ...

Comparison of HTML editors

See the main article Comparison of HTML editors. This article or section seems not to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ...

See also

• List of HTML editors
• Web template system
• Website builder
• Validator

The following is a list of HTML editors with articles in Wikipedia. ... Stub, for web template + template engine + standards (of plugs and languages) The basic process on the system: content (from database), and presentation specifications (from web template), producing (through the template engine) web pages. ... Most web site builders are proprietary tools provided by web hosting companies which cater to people who wish to build their own websites without learning the technical aspects of web page production. ... Look up validator in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/wpd0902.htm#feature
2. ^ http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/wpd0804news.htm
3. ^ http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/wpd1004review.htm
4. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS1
5. ^ http://foad.org/~abigail/WWW/dream.html
6. ^ http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/
7. ^ http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/media.html
8. ^ http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/options
9. ^ http://www.w3.org/People/Bos/DesignGuide/designguide.html
10. ^ http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/#browsers
11. ^ http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/#editors