Critique of Several Free and Not-So-Free WYSiWYG and HTML Editing Programs

The following posts will discuss several HTML Editing Programs I have used in developing my art web site. Some are Free and some have a cost to them.

When I first decided to make a web site for my art work, I was told about a great free web site building program called NVU. I was able to build a site easily and publish right from the publish menu at the top of the page. I was pleased with my site, but was not getting any hits from search engines. The only people that saw my site were people I had given the URL to or if they searched my name.

NVU was bought out by KompoZer and had some improvements made to it. You can find it at

http://kompozer.net/

If you go to the features page, http://kompozer.net/features.php they summarize it by saying

Quote :

* WYSIWYG editing of pages, making web creation as easy as typing a letter with your word processor. * Integrated file management via F T P. Simply login to your web site and navigate through your files, editing web pages on the fly, directly from your site. * Reliable HTML code creation that will work with all of today's most popular browsers. * Jump between WYSIWYG Editing Mode and HTML using tabs. * Tabbed editing to make working on multiple pages a snap. * Powerful support for forms, tables, and templates. * The easiest-to-use, most powerful Web Authoring System available for Desktop Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh users.

It really was a very good free program and I was able to learn a lot about creating web pages and some HTML coding, but it didn't tell me how to attract search engines.

I started selling a nutritional product and decided to invest in Site Build It , which not only taught me to create web pages using their "block by block" format, but also what you have to do in your content to attract the search engines. It also automatically took care of things that would get me up in the top ten in certain subjects on the search engines, and had a great tool for deciding on effectve keywords.

All of this was not without a price, though, $299 a year. I decided that it was worth the expense because it was teachng me so much. It was like going to school. It does have an affiliate, but I never sold any program during the two years I used it, but I also did not push it.

You can find out more about at Sitesell.com

During the last 6 month using SBI, I decided to try to create my own pages with html instead of their block by block format. I was referred to another free web page builder, Arachnophilia

This one focused on using HTML and did not have a WYSIWYG, but you could easily bounce back and forth between a preview screen and the html code view.

My biggest complaint with Arachnophilia, as opposed to Kompozer, was that publishing the page was not as easy. You had to open the HTML menu and then go to FTP server and follow direction from there. It took my quite a while to figure out how to published it, and the help was not readily available.

The biggest short coming for me with both of these Free editors, KompoZer and Arachnophilia, was that I could not upload a video to my website through them.

To solve this, I research different HTML Editors which would allow me to post videos. Most were too expensive for my budget, but I did eventually come up with the one I use now, Coffee Cup Software. You can buy individual programs or Bundled Packages according to what you want.

Packages can be found at https://www.coffeecup.com/store/
Indivdual listing are at http://www.coffeecup.com/software/

Some I purchased in a package and others separately, so look them over and decide what is best for you.

One really good thing about Coffee Cup, is that it gives you Free Trials of many of the programs. The trial periods vary. There are also free updates of all programs you purchase.

I mainly use
* the HTML Editor which can be either HTML or WYSIWYG.($49)
(There are a few quirk in loading images into the WYSIWYG, but I eventually figured out how to get around them.)

* The Web Form Builder ($39) so my web page could have submittable, fill able forms with notification of submission in my email.

* Web Video Player(39) which allowed me to add videos to my page. I have several Youtube videos and others that I have been able to put on without any problem.

Once I got used to the programs and built my website I later added

* Shopping Cart Creator ($49) and I've started to build a store on my site, but haven't worked on it too much recently.

* Google Sitemapper ($29) which scans your web site and automatically builds an xml file for the search engines and an html page for your site

I also do a Website for Our Volunteer Fire Department in Northern NY. They asked about a password protected section for members ony, so I purchased

* Website Access Manager ($34)

As I'm looking over this list, I realize that it is adding up, expense wise, but with adding them as I'm ready for them, I learn them one at a time and make better use of them and the cost is more affordable in smaller increments.

I hope all of has been helpful for you. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Judy