Phenquestions
Some people code HTML/CSS oldskool in software like Atom, Notepadqq, or even nano/vi, but others enjoy using what's called a WYSIWYG editor, which stands for What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get.
KompoZer, is a free cross-platform WYSIWYG editor worth looking at despite the fact that it has not been updated for a very long time. Note though that KompoZer lacks support for features like HTML5 or CSS3 that were introduced after the last version of the HTML editor was released.
As is the case with a lot, but not all, of software in GNU/Linux systems that people use, KompoZer is technically multi-platform, but I would say that the GNU/Linux and MacOS user share dominate the Windows one, from my experience.
Tip: Check out Joe's KompoZer review from 2008.
Installing KompoZer
KompoZer is available in pretty well every major distribution repository, there should be no issues finding it for anything but the more obscure systems.
Features
According to the Kompozer website, “KompoZer is based on Gecko, the layout engine inside Mozilla; it's a super-fast, very reliable, standards conformant engine maintained on a daily basis by a wide community of developers. Its remarkable support of XML, CSS and JavaScript offers the best authoring platform on the market. Its architecture based on XUL makes it the most extensible editing tool ever.”
The KompoZer website also directly compares the program, to the popular Adobe Dreamweaver software, saying users will feel “Right at home with KompoZer” with some features such as:
- WYSIWYG editing of pages, making web creation as easy as typing a letter with your word processor.
- Integrated file management via FTP. 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.
- The website goes on to list more features, suc as FTP Site management, CSS Editor, Customizable toolbars, etc.
The full feature list can be viewed a their website http://www.kompozer.net/features.php
My own experience with KompoZer
I have used KompoZer on and off for the better part of a decade, and its a bit of a love-hate relationship, but ultimately I still recommend it as a free tool for people to use.
While it is free, and open-source, and it has many of the features people would need for web creation, I'll say that it feels dated. And it is, KompoZer is old software, but because its still stable on most systems, its still a great tool. But, another issue due to its age, is that KompoZer does not handle HTML5 or CSS3.
However if you're looking for free, and solid, it'll still do the trick especially if you are just getting started and don't care (yet) about HMTL5 or CSS3 support.
Now you: What do you use for HTML/CSS Editing? Let us know in the comments!
