WYSIWYG HTML Editors – My Life Savers

I own a couple of websites. I simply love them and yes, for the obvious reason that I make money from them. But it’s a headache for me to edit or update them for several business needs. I am a total dumb when it comes to web designing skills like HTML coding and manipulating them. WYSIWYG editors are my life savers in those situations.

If you don’t yet know what WYSIWYG stands for (Please don’t bang your head on computer screen to punish yourself!!), it is the abbreviation of What You See Is What You Get. Used in the computing world, the term actually describes a system through which you will be able to see the final outcome during the editing phase. With these sophisticated tools you do not need to edit the source codes. Instead just edit the actual page elements directly and you can see the end result in the display pane. These are like a boon for non-technical persons like me and save me from spending money on web designers to get small changes done on my websites.

There are so many such WYSIWYG editing tools – and all of them are one-of-its-kind. So therefore hailing one as the best will be injustice to others. Here is a collection of individual reviews of 25 such WYSIWYG editors, though it’s a bit disappointing that this list doesn’t include my favourite WYSIWYG HTML editor as it doesn't cover online editors. This list can be a real help for people who want to know more about and try out WYSIWYG editors.

Few Tips On Web Content Editing

While writing an article we often want to grow on its appeal. Once, Twice, Thrice, we read them and every time a new idea springs up. Again we have to edit and re-write the content to make the final copy for the website.

And what we find? We have brought down the writing to half its original!

We want to read a copy that makes us go deep in to the subject. Lucid language is the key-word. Process of transmitting our thoughts in words is done more effectively through writing. While writing we tend to make our pieces elaborate and we do not like making our pieces short, but editing and re-writing really works wonders!

We can put a few tips in daily practice, so as to make an interesting read:

● We should not deviate from the central theme while writing. A number of ideas may cluster together, but it is better not putting them down at once. Read the piece over and again and if we come across something inappropriate we can strike it off.

● Writing for the web involves captivating the visitors with crisp writing. The writing must be brief and to the point. Often long sentences tend to make the writing drab and the reader quickly shifts to the next topic. Short simple sentences can be used and we should remove unnecessary frills. While editing we should try to rearrange the order of words and sentences as to convey the idea in a linear process.

● Break the long sentences into simpler ones. We should see that a single sentence conveys not more than two ideas. Grammar and spelling check is a must and we can remove prepositions, articles or conjunctions where they are not needed.

● We sometimes have formatting problems with content editors, especially while working on Word documents. We can write on a Word document and then format it with the “Paste as Text” option on the editor. If the layout is more complex then we can go for the “Paste from Word” option on the editor. The font and style options and style removal checkboxes can be used to put the writing in the Pop- up window.

● Paragraph spacing is another issue and we either have no or too much space (that sometimes alters the meaning altogether). We can apply a few short cuts, like “Shift + Enter” for a bigger space in between sentences and paragraphs.

● “Align” the text as Left, Center, Right or Justified and then adjust the “Font” color and type. Next, we switch over to the “Preview” option and find how it appears and then our copy is ready for the web!

Test Browser Compatibility Before Uploading New Webpages

Browser compatibility testing is a must for a newly created web page simply because different browsers use different rendering engine. This implies that all browsers may not render your page in the same way. This can cause your same page to look differently in different browsers which of course, I hope, you don't want.

After creating a new web page, many webmasters or website owners ignore the task of testing the page locally on their computers. Instead, they tend to directly upload it to the web server and test the page from there. But it is always advisable to test your page for browser compatibility on your local machine. Just browse the file that you saved on your local hard disk and open it in your browser. Don't forget to preview your page in several browsers. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari, in no particular order are the most widely-used browsers. So be sure to check your page in at least these four browsers. If you are using any website editing software to create your pages, you can also preview it from inside that tool.

One problem that may arise while you are testing your web page on local machine. If you have used reference path to link to other pages of your site, those pages may not be found if they are not in the same directory. Be sure to use absolute path to link to other pages and external CSS and Javascript files before testing.

Once you have tested your webpage locally and you are satisfied with the result, upload it on to your web server and again test from there.

Use CSS Style "Float" to Align Images, Not "Text-align"

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This holds true in every sphere of life and a website is no exception to that. Graphics on a webpage grab the visitors' attention quickly and hook them onto your website. So always use interesting images on your website that describe your point of view thus enhancing the effect of your text.

But one common problem, most of the website owners who don't have sound knowledge in web design face, is the proper alignment of text and images. We mostly tend to align text and images with the "text-align" property. But as the name suggests, using this property, only text can be aligned. This property is no good to adjust the position of chunk elements like images, tables etc. Though some modern advanced browsers can coordinate images using "text-align" property, but at the same time many can't.

So to make images on a webpage fully compatible to every browsers, you should use the style property "float" to align your images. This property specifies the position of the floated element and other elements around it. A sample of code where the image will be aligned left and the text to the right of it will be:

<p>
<img src="example.jpg" alt="Your Alt Text" style="float:left;" />
Your Paragraph Text
</p>

This can easily be done using any website editing tool.

How to Choose an HTML Editor That Suits You Best

Are you planning to build or edit a website on your own? If yes, the most important question in your mind must be among the hundreds of available html editors out there, which one is the best-suited for you? Choosing the perfect one that is the most suitable for you in every aspect like usability, pricing etc is very important. But at same time it is quite time consuming as you will have to research and tally the features of various html editors.

Let us help you choose the right html editing tool for you. Just tell your criteria on this website. You will get a list of website editing softwares that exactly meet your requirements and then you can easily pick one from the list.

Adobe Photoshop Express Beta Released

Do you have a blog? Or an online social profile? Then you must have found the pain in editing and uploading images to your blog or profiles. Adobe has come out with a solution keeping the web-novices in mind.

On Thursday, Adobe released Adobe Photoshop Express Beta for web users. Photoshop Express is an online service using which they can edit and upload their photos easily. As per sources, Photoshp Express has been made user friendly so that people with no image editing experience can play with the images effortlessly.

Updating Your Website - A Nightmare for You?

Don't worry! You are not the single species in the world if you feel like that. Many website owners around the cyberworld with no or little web designing knowledge find it difficult to edit and update a website efficiently.

No matter it's a small business or personal website, it is very common and recommended to update a website from time to time. If you are a business owner, you may want your visitors to know about a product you recently launched. If you own a personal website, you may wish to notify your friends about an award you have won at your workplace. There may be thousands of possible scenarios when you require to update your site.

Now if you have no or very little knowledge in web designing, you will find yourself in a situation like a thirsty crane trying to drink water from a flat plate. Every time you will have to look for a designer to do some minor changes in your website thus costing you your hard-earned money. Imagine what you will do if you need to make some urgent modification in your website at midnight.

Terrified just thinking of the situation? Don't be anymore. Today a lot of website editing softwares are available which help you to edit and update your website conveniently. Most of these website editors like EasySiteEdit come with a simple user-friendly GUI that will help a non-technical person like you to easily make the changes and save. The changes are effected instantly.

Days are gone when you had to pluck your hair to update your website. Just buy any website editing software and edit your website anytime you want.