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Features of the WEB
1. Visual Web Tools
Web pages don't usually begin life as the formatted, graphic-rich documents you see in your browser, unless you pay someone to do it, but still requiring some planning. They're simply plain-text documents written up in HTML, which uses special commands to represent styles, hypertext links, and graphics. When you look at HTML documents in a text editor, they bear little resemblance to the finished page.Although a WYSIWYG page editor can help you see how your page will look on the web, it's important to remember that such editors offer only an approximation of the final Web page; as every Web browser displays HTML differently, so there's no guarantee that a finely aligned graphic in your HTML page editor will be equally aligned when it's displayed in any browser. Although some come with an HTML editor, it is not commonly used in these programs, only the visual.
2. Hybrid tools (Half and Half)
Some Web authoring tools can take a balance between being completely visual and displaying nothing but raw HTML tags. These tools display HTML tags while trying to approximate what your page will look like when it's displayed in a Web browser, giving you a view that's half visual and half textural. An example of this particular tool is Miracle Software's WWW Weaver which is a useful HTML editor that helps authors visually while editing HTML tags.HotMetal Pro is considered another hybrid HTML tool
3. Text tools (Without a NET)
Text tools reduce Web pages to their plain text and HTML tags. They make little effort if any to show you how your documents will appear in a Web browser. Although editing a Web page in a text editor may not show you how it would look, , text-based tools offer powerful features and great flexibility most graphical tools lack.Such an editor is BBEdit4.0 by Bare Bones Software which is a good HTML-editing tool. It cannot display pages graphically, but it does display tags in a different color from regular text, and it can have your Web browser of choice display the HTML that it creates.
Another example of a text editor is Nisus Writer 4.1
4. Word Processors (The Old Standbys)
Most people may fail to realize that a powerful web that have in their own computer is a word processor. These days, it comes standard with HTML tools that leverages the web. Either on a tight budget or testing your own knowledge, a word processor can be used for a main component of a Web workshop. Used as any reasonable starter tool (essentially, any word processor can double as a simple text editor), most have recently added HTML-specific features. Also, if you use a word processor, you may find it reasonably easy to create documents that you print to paper and publish on the Web.WordPerfect users will find that using their application can be a handy way of translating their documents to the Web.
Word 6.0 users have HTML editing in their word processor, as part of Microsoft's free Internet Assistant of Microsoft Word plug-in. it works in 2 ways: it allows to save Word documents as HTML documents, and it lets you work in HTML mode within the Word environment.
5. Web Site-management tools
Web authors don't usually create individual Web pages; instead, they create Web sites-groups of linked pages that work together much like a group of people working in a department. When managing a site, you need tools that help with tasks such as efficiently placing documents on a server, updating multiple pages, and visualizing the relationships among pages on the site. Several of the tools mentioned on this page helps with some aspects of site management, but consider purchasing a tool designed specifically for management.
6. Shareware Tools
When it comes to Web authoring, look no further than the Internet-several of the programs we've discussed can be downloaded from the Internet and used as fully functioning software for a trial period. Even so, these useful tools can create powerful sites without having to go out and purchase a package. This is best way of testing software that suite your needs and taste, definitely recommended when deciding which WYSIWYG to purchase.
HTML editor research was done using these site: macuser.zdnet.com, builders.com and cnet.com. Special thanks to these web sites for the information they provided.