Hypertext (HTML) Editors

Programs that let you compose documents to be presented on the World Wide Web

This is an area of very active development. Any extensive listing of tools would be counterproductive since the market changes extremely rapidly. Instead, here are some features to look for in a hypertext editor:

• Does it allow you to look at the HTML code if you want to?
• Does it let you hide the HTML code if you want to?
• Does it support the full set of HTML commands?
• Can you format your document using menu commands and a mouse?
• Can you go in and manually change codes if desired, or are you restricted to code generated by the program?
• Does it let you preview the document, or does it at least let you look at a document in progress with a Web browser?
• Is it integrated with a word processor that you use a lot, as products like Internet Publisher (WordPerfect) and Internet Assistant for Word (Microsoft Word) (Wilder 1995b)?
• Does it manage graphics, sound, and video as well as text?
• Does it provide a way of looking at the relationships between multiple documents?

Since the field is so active, unless you have an immediate need for a HTML editor, I would advise against spending a lot of money (such as for a site license) until the market has settled down and products begin to acquire reputations.

The World Wide Web Frequently Asked Questions list (Torkington 1995) provides more information about editors, including a list of free and commercial products.