What is a good free WYSIWYG program

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What is a good free WYSIWYG program

midi25

4:46 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

Hi does anyone know where I can find a good WYSIWYG program. I want something where you can hand code and drag and drop. Its for a female friend lol so it has to be pretty easy. Also you must be able to create more than one page etc.

Thanks

BlobFisk

4:49 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

You should check out the WYSIWYG and Text Code Editors Forum [webmasterworld.com] for information on this. I don't know of any drag and drop WYSIWYG programmes, but Dreamweaver is definitely worth a look.

<added>Apologies, didn't read the title properly! Dreamweaver is definitely NOT free! Although, you can sometimes get older versions of it free with net related magazines.</added>

[edited by: BlobFisk at 4:55 pm (utc) on May 21, 2003]

jatar_k

4:51 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

good and WYSIWYG dont really go together but have you checked to see if she already has frontpage on her computer? If she has office it may be there already.

Some people love it and it may be easier to use tools that already exist.

midi25

4:56 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

Dont think she has office installed.

BlobFisk

5:00 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

You could have a look at 1st Page [evrsoft.com].

I've never used it so I can't give you any information on it, other than it's free!

tedster

5:16 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

You should check out the WYSIWYG and Text Code Editors Forum...

Good idea BlobFisk. I've now moved the conversation over here.

caine

5:18 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

Dreamweaver is your best bet, very simple yet expandable, easy to drag and drop, with a little more experience Libraries, and assets come into play big time.

tbear

5:58 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

Netscape composer is free and it used to be quite simple (I learned a lot from #2), don't know about now...

<ducks>Please don't throw things at me....</ducks>

tedster

6:00 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

I've heard that Netscape Composer (it comes free with the browser) has been greatly improved over the earlier versions.

<added>
simultaneous posting!

Sure, I know it won't be ideal, but it's worth looking into if free is important. It just might do the job. And I agree, keep the rotten vegetables off the stage.
</added>

TheDoctor

10:52 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

Netscape composer will have had to have improved considerably if it's to be any use. A friend used it to set up some web pages for me, and it mangled the HTML something awful.

I've been using Amaya, from the World-Wide web consortium, for the last couple of months. It has a beta-version feel to it, and the documentation is crepe, but now I've got used to it I quite like it. It hasn't got drag and drop (unless I've not found it - see previous remark bout documentation) but it's extremely easy to leap between the WYSIWYG and HTML editors, and a structure editor - extremely useful for applying CSS.

You can download it for free at [w3.org ]

caine

10:54 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

Bouncing around the demo's is a good way for you to assess, what is going to be a managable proposition for your friend to get into.

Brad

11:10 pm on May 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

Try Netscape Composer. It is not bad for free. If you find you like building sites you can always graduate up to something else.

CoffeeCup software has a free little drag and drop builder for beginners too.

tbear

3:51 am on May 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

he, he, he, I think the best thing about the old Netscape Composer is that it was so easy to clean up afterwards......

Thats how I discovered it was probably easier to write it myself, well actually, I discovered Arachnophilia.......

universalis

1:20 pm on May 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

I don't use it myself, but I've only heard good things about Evrsoft 1st Page 2000 - completely free, WYSIWYG, it seems to fit the requirements!

Netscape Composer has been rather neglected over the years, but there is a new effort starting up in the Mozilla melting pot to get it up to scratch, so we can hope that in a few years it will become the best out there for producing standards-compliant code in a WYSIWYG environment. Amaya is more of a technology preview than a real-world tool - great if you into stuff like MathML, but very limited in other respects.

Or you can just get a copy of Dreamweaver MX off Kazaa... That's free too! ;) (Don't flame me, its a joke!)

TGecho

8:39 pm on Jun 7, 2003 (gmt 0)

"I don't use it myself, but I've only heard good things about Evrsoft 1st Page 2000 - completely free, WYSIWYG, it seems to fit the requirements!"
While 1st Page is a nice editor (a bit old though), it is not WYSIWYG.

seofan

9:12 pm on Jun 7, 2003 (gmt 0)

Netscape Composer

deejay

10:08 pm on Jun 7, 2003 (gmt 0)

1stPage2000 is indeed wonderful... it's still my default. No drag and drop though. It does have three optional modes of operation - beginner, expert and hardcore for the scripting junkies - which makes it not too intimidating for newbies.

However it is not being developed anymore and is almost impossible to find to download. A victim of its own success apparently as Evrsoft pretty much crumbled under the download weight.

I have it zipped (I think it's the last version) if you would like it - sticky me and we'll set something up.