Alternatives to Dreamweaver and FrontPage
When it comes to building a web site, there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of programs designed to help you do the job. Whether you are a beginner when it comes to web development, or you are a little more advanced but still want a program that will help carry some of the workload, a WYSIWYG web editor is probably what you are looking for. WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get. With these types of web editors, you don’t have to know HTML to start designing web pages.
Two of the most popular WYSIWYG web editors are FrontPage (from Microsoft) and Dreamweaver (from Macromedia). These are great programs, but they do have their disadvantages. First is that they can be pretty pricey, especially Dreamweaver, which has many advanced tools and features. Dreamweaver can also seem to complicated and intimidating to beginners. Many find FrontPage easier to get the hang of. However, while the web pages created with FrontPage usually look great on Internet Explorer (also from Microsoft), there can be problems when trying to view those web pages on other browsers, like Mozilla Firefox.
So what do you do when you want a WYSIWYG web editor that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, that’s easy to learn and use, and that creates web pages that will look great in most, if not all, of the popular browsers? Well, here are some good, and free, alternatives to FrontPage and Dreamweaver.
When NVU was first released, most couldn’t believe that it was free. Why? Because many found it to be just as good as the most popular, commercial WYSIWYG web editors. However, NVU did have one disadvantage. It wasn’t developed or updated as fast or as often as many would’ve liked. In fact, while the program is great as-is, development has been discontinued. So, while you can still download NVU for free, no more fixes or improvements will be made on the program. Which brings us to Kompozer.
The developers of Kompozer call it “the unofficial bug-fix release” of NVU. Basically, it’s the same program as NVU. However, not only have some of the problems with NVU been fixed, but Kompozer is updated more often.
Many consider Kompozer to be the best alternative (free or paid) to FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Like FrontPage, Kompozer is easy to learn and use. In fact, if you have experience with any of the popular word processors, like Microsoft Word, Open Office Writer, or AbiWord, you will find the interface for Kompozer very familiar and easy to figure out.
Seamonkey is brought to you by Mozilla. And it’s not just a free web editor. It’s an all-in-one Internet application suite. Along with the WYSIWYG web editor, Seamonkey also includes a built-in Internet browser (which uses the same rendering engine as Mozilla Firefox), an email client (similar to Mozilla Thunderbird), embedded FTP, and more.
So which WYSIWYG web editor is right for you? Well, because they are all free, you can try them all and see which one is the perfect fit.