Web Publishing: HTML Editors and Converters

	Division of Information Technology Web Publishing @ SFSU HTML Editors and Converters
Editors	Editors are either separate programs or add-ons to Word Processing or Desktop Publishing programs. Editors provide a quick way to add HTML codes to text. Editors can be evaluated using several criteria: Stability Some editors are still in beta release, which means they may have bugs. Bugs can cause the program to lock-up and may result in the loss of data. When using a new editor, save often and backup your work in case the file becomes corrupted.
	System Requirements Each editor requires a certain amount of RAM to run. When developing on a low- end computer you may have to use smaller, less powerful, editors. On the other hand, small editors open, close, and redraw the screen quicker than fancy WYSIWIG editors. Remove Tags Feature This allows you to remove the HTML tags from a document, so that it can quickly be spell checked without the spell checker questioning every code. Of course the spelling corrections will need to be made manually in the HTML document Open multiple files This enables one to edit more than one document at a time, a real time-saver. Open large files Most editors limit the size of the file they can edit. This is usually a good feature because it makes WWW developers keep the file size small. However, sometimes one has a good reason to create a large HTML document. When this happens I use a word processor and type the codes in manually. User defined HTML codes Some editors allow the creation of custom HTML tags. Custom tags can be a combined tag, that uses several styles, or a HTML tag that is not built in to the editor. Interface The choice of interface affects the ease of use and depends on the user's preferences. Some editors have keyboard shortcuts, some graphical toolbars, some pull down menus, and some have it all! WYSIWYG This preference also depends on the user. I have yet to find an editor that has as true a WYSIWYG display as the browser itself. I find the pseudo-WYSIWYG display used by many editors more distracting than the codes. Many people prefer WYSIWYG editors because it helps them understand the effect of their codes and possibly even avoid learning codes. Supporting Software Some editors require other programs in order to run. This may limit your selection, and make it impossible to even 'try out' the editor.
Converters	Converters are programs that convert formatted word processing, desktop publishing, and text documents. The converters interpret the existing formatting and automatically add the equivalent HTML codes. Converters work best when style sheets are used. Styles that are convertible (bold, italic, paragraph markers, headings...) are mapped to styles within the converter program. Unfortunately, most converters have limited markup capability, and may result in rather bland documents. There are two ways to use converters. One way is to import the default style template, if supplied, into the editing program. Then use the imported styles to format a text document. The other way to use converters works best for large quantities of similarly formatted documents. Here one must create a translation file listing the styles names used, and the corresponding HTML tags. Once the translation file has been created and tested, it can theoretically :) be used for all the documents.
For More Information	Yahoo's HTML Converters and Editors Office HTML Filter to Create Web Pages that Download Faster - for Office 2000 users

Home Search Need Help?

1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132 (415) 338-1111
Last modified February 11, 2008 by the Web Team