Real Estate Forums

frobn

One of the programmers I work with posted in a similar thread at http://support.open-realty.org/showthread.php?p=47191.

He gave some good advice for html ediors which with his permission I am re-posting here:

Good xhtml/css editors:

xStandard from http://www.xstandard.com/
NVU from http://www.nvu.com/index.php
notetab pro with css and html clip libraries http://www.notetab.com/ (my personal favorite, I wouldn't know what to do without it)

Except for NVU these are not wysiwyg editors. When you use css/xhtml the html structure is sparse because the css is the layout. Wysiwyg editors have problems putting the layout in the css. Dreamwearer does an acceptable job but acceptable is not good enough, NVu does a slightly better job but does not have the bells and whistles.

Csscreator.com does an excellent job of generating css code and I believe OR xhtml is a offshoot of that code.

SEOWolf

I have and use NVU and am not that impressed with it. It seems to be limited and requires a lot of computer resources.

I did just download Note Tab Pro. At first glance it appears to be a very neat and robust little program.

Thanks for sharing frobn!

~VegasMack

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frobn

I don't like NVU either, but I do think it is a good alternative to frontpage and dreamwearver.
I do not use html editors because it is easy to duplicate their MOST precious asset--the web site structure--and to do a better job at it.

When you conceptualize the site html/xhtml structure as divisions for:

header
top row
left column
main column
right column
footer

You simply create divisions for each and write the layout in css. I wrote code for a meta template using these division and no longer need to generate it. It is why I prefer notetab pro clip library for the css. Thanks to my programmer I recently have come appreciate browser based xStandard wysiwyg editor for quickly formatting standards compliant page content.

jillosmond

Are there tutorials on how to use these editors? It took me a month to figure out how to really use Front Page and all the stuff I've done so far is pretty bad.

I dont know where to start when I sit down to design a site. I have an idea in my head but when I start to do it I have no idea where to begin so I end up trying to change the default templates that I have for Front Page and it never seems to quite work.

Any tips would help.

frobn

Jill,

I believe there are many tutorials for Front Page and Dreamweaver on the web. NVU has a mailing list for information and questions. Xstandard has documentation on their web site and free email technical support is available for both XStandard Lite and Pro at support@xstandard.com. I learned most of my coding techniques at http://www.alistapart.com (highly recommended) and by visiting the authors' sites. Many of the authors are on the cutting edge of web design.

More recently, while studying Ajax I found the Yahoo grids which are similar to my meta templating. Basically, the grids are pre-constructed design structures whereby the width and position of the side columns and the number of columns and width of the content areas are laid in the css IDs and classes. This literally allows hundreds of combinations for the design layout.

I have basic information on standards css/xhtml templating at:

http://cssdesignmagic.com/template-modules.htm

http://cssdesignmagic.com/css-xhtml-benefits.html

http://cssdesignmagic.com/template-anatomy.htm

http://cssdesignmagic.com/why-use-background-images.htm

liz2sell

I didn’t use either FrontPage or Dreamweaver. I used a totally different WYSIWYG program. I like it because it’s easier in my opinion, especially for what I wanted to do for the site.

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J D Web Designs