nvu - a free Dreamweaver and Frontpage replacement

[neylitalo]

Linux, Mac, and Windows users who don't want to pay for any of the commercial WYSIWYG editors can find nvu at http://www.nvu.com. It's a completely free WYSIWYG HTML editor, and uses pure HTML and CSS for layout. No proprietary layout mechanisms are used at all.

 

I don't think I'll be using this for "real" projects at work, since the CSS is less than optimal - it uses inline CSS instead of style blocks. It's a minor problem, but one that I would prefer to not have to live with in a production environment. For tutorials and documentation, though, I'll be using this most likely exclusively - it's so much easier to press the Align Center button than type <div style='text-align:center;'>.

 

Nvu also has support for extensions and themes, although I haven't found any that are useful yet.

[neylitalo]

I should also mention that it has a built-in CSS editor and HTML validator. All the pages I've created with it so far have been simple, but have been valid right off the bat.

[Ninjakreborn]

I personally advice against using NVU.  There is a reason.  When I first started, I started on NVU.  In my obsession (And thought) that you could build websites with a wysiwyg editor.  However I feel that they are not for real developer's to developer with.  Even if they are, I think that it should be a choice of the developer to alter the code if they want without the editor touching what they edit (why i hate front page, I code/program by hand and frontpage doesn't let me do that because it rewrite's any code you try and do by hand).  That's the reason I use dreamweaver, I have the wys element if I want it, but I have code view that NEVER get's touched by dreamweaver if the settings are set right.

 

NVU in my opinion is one of the worse one's.  The reason is when I started using it, I was changing from wys to hand coding (after I realized I could code by hand), and NVU was a pain to try and hand code with.  It wasn't as bad as frontpage, but it had it's own problems.  Then I used notepad, and wanted the syntax highlighting, auto-complete and changed to dreamweaver, that's why I dislike NVU. 

 

Feel free to correct me, or offer opinions if I am wrong in some way.

[tomfmason]

For css, html and javascript I like to use aptana.. It really makes codding js much easier.. It has the dreamweaver like "auto-complete" feature for javascript. However, there is one major draw back. It is a java based app and seems to take a large amount system resources. Anyone familiar with Eclipse will know what I mean..

 

 

[neylitalo]

However I feel that they are not for real developer's to developer with.  Even if they are, I think that it should be a choice of the developer to alter the code if they want without the editor touching what they edit.

 

Sure, you don't want to depend on a WYSIWYG editor for creating your own custom code - that's why I'm not going to use it for "real" projects. I don't want Nvu putting poor CSS or layout in my code - for example, it nests divs instead of making them separate and using CSS for layout. That type of thing is a nightmare if you're trying for a complex layout. But if I need a simple, linear, informative page, for a tutorial or some documentation, then I'm not going to bother with typing the same stuff over and over for dozens of pages. It's a waste of time.

 

NVU was a pain to try and hand code with.

 

And that's not what it's designed for. It's a WYSIWYG editor first and foremost. I agree completely - for projects that have to look good, you're going to want to create your own HTML and CSS. Different tools for different tasks.