Nvu

Nvu (pronounced N-view) is a substitute for Microsoft Frontpage Editor.  I have used it a tiny bit and for what it does, and is designed to do, I am well pleased.  It is not as good as Microsoft Frontpage, but it is free, which is not true of Microsoft.  I would reccomend it to those who are learning HTML.  I would also recomend it to other people who are a bit lazy in their typing.  I'll explain why in a bit.

Now the features of Nvu.  I think the best feature is the methods of input and view of HTML during editing.  You can enter plain text, pictures using an image button, tables, forms and other things in a normal view, or a view called HTML Tags.  The difference between the two is in normal it is just like creating a Word document.  In HTML Tags, it shows you the tags used depending on the way you format text.  Example, hitting enter starts a new paragraph, as expected.  The third input method is called Source.  This is where you can enter HTML tags manually to manipulate the source, or view the tags used.  This view is useful for those who want to tweak the pages source to make something better than Nvu could figure out.  It is also a good way to learn HTML as you can make something, see how it looks, and then see how that was coded.  You can then use that knowledge and see if you can replicate it in the source input.  Once you've done that you can go to the preview screen to preview the page and see if you like it.

Another feature of Nvu that I like is that text entered in the normal input is not parsed as HTML but rather escaped as the codes that will replicate it on the page, as seen.  Example.  If I type <B> in an HTML file, it is interpreted as bold.  If I want you to see this tag I need to type &lt;B&gt;.  This is the HTML escape code needed to display <B> in the document.  The last feature I like is that this editor correctly detects multiple spaces.  If you notice how this article correctly double spaces between sentences whereas the rest of my site does not, it falls in a simple HTML rendering design.  Multiple spaces are only reconized if &nbsp; is used to display them.

For those of you writing HTML to upload on a site on here, when you finish your page, go to the HTML source view, copy the entire source and paste it in the upload box. When editing the page, copy from the download box, and copy back into the HTML source view.