Creating and editing web pages – Best free HTML editors

When it comes to creating and editing our website, HTML editors are tools that are going to make the task easier for us through programming codes. This is something that is especially appreciated by advanced users, since they can have access to a wide range of features, as well as manage the source code in a more productive and efficient way. Therefore, today we are going to talk about which are the best HTML editors with which to create and edit web pages.

And nothing better to get the most out of our website than an HTML editor that can be of great help both when creating the web and to amend the mistakes we can make when writing code. HTML editors have a wide variety of functions such as syntax highlighting, version control, autosave, code folding, among other options to create a perfect website.

What is an HTML editor and what is it used for?

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), is the code that makes any web page work, using tags to define each of the elements that compose it. It is a language designed to be easy to learn and use, and can be translated into other languages such as CSS, XML or JavaScript. Generally, any user interested in web development, begins by learning HTML because it is easier to learn compared to other languages.

In order to obtain good results, there are code editing programs that will allow us to obtain additional tools that will help us to make any programming with large amounts of code less complicated. Therefore, among the features of a good HTML editor we will find functions such as syntax highlighting, autocompletion, error detection, FTP support, among others.

When to use an HTML editor

An HTML editor must be an infallible tool for both beginners and experts, since we will surely need to use a professional program to be able to do our work. That is why its use is always recommended in all cases. With its help we will achieve that, with less effort, we can have a more functional and cleaner code. While it is true that tools such as WordPress incorporates its own HMTL interface, the truth is that this can help us to edit existing material, but we will hardly be able to create new HTML elements or code themes or plugins.

Differences between textual HTML editors and WYSIWYG HTML editors

It is also important to know that there are two types of text editors. We can find textual HTML editors and WYSIWYG HTML editors

Textual HTML editor

As you would expect from its name, a textual HTML editor is based on text so it is essential that we have knowledge of HTML to be able to use it. With this type of editors we are going to obtain a greater freedom at the time of using it, as well as to obtain customized options, obtaining a better optimization of the page in order to be located by the search engines.

WYSIWYG Editor

WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get”, which can be translated as “What you see is what you get”. This means that we are dealing with editors that include their own visual interface in a very similar way to a word processor, where we can add images and text and customize them with different formats, styles, fonts, among other configurations. That is why, to use it, it is not necessary to have knowledge of HTML, so it is ideal for inexperienced users.

When to use an HTML or WYSIWYG Editor

We may need an HTML editor when we are learning to code in HTML or need to edit a file in HTML or CSS. Also when we need a professional tool that can help us reduce errors when writing code or when a word processor or a text editor is no longer enough. On the contrary, if what we need is to generate HTML quickly and without touching the code, a WYSIWYG editor is the best option.

Here is a list of the most popular HTML editors with which you can create and edit web pages.
Atom, suitable for all types of users

This is a free and open source text editor that can be used by beginners or students, as well as advanced users. It allows us to work with Git and Github directly, and through its intuitive interface we can compare and edit code between files.

Atom interface

We can also highlight that it has syntax highlighting utilities, contextual auto-completion and language auto-detection. It includes support for snippets and compatibility with programming languages such as C++. PHP, HTML, JavaScript, among others. It also allows us to organize our projects by folders, use several panels simultaneously. In addition, it incorporates 81 built-in packages and you can add up to 8,700 additional installable packages.

Atom is a free and multiplatform application, so it is compatible with Windows, Linux and macOS. It can be downloaded for free from its website.

Sublime Text, one of the best options for professionals

Developed by a Sydney-based company, Sublime Text is undoubtedly another of the best options for editing text for professionals. It supports a wide range of programming languages, including HTML and CSS. Moreover, if we master its keyboard shortcuts and commands, we will achieve significant savings during our programming and debugging tasks.

Sublime initial interface

It incorporates 23 themes and a total customization of the interface. It will allow us to jump to strings or symbols, define various syntaxes, highlight code, select multiple lines and do split editing. Although it is not the most intuitive application, it is capable of increasing the programmer’s productivity as soon as we learn to know and master its operation.

Sublime Text is a free application, compatible with Windows, Linux and macOS and we can download this program from its page. It also has a Premium version for which we will have to pay if we want to take advantage of all its functions.

Notepad++, powerful and popular HTML editor

This is one of the most popular text editors found on the Internet. With it we can perform programming tasks, being compatible with various languages such as Pascal, Ada, C, C++, HTML, Java and others. It is a program that stands out for its simplicity, as well as for being very light, so that we can use it without problems in old or not very powerful computers.

Notepad plus plus

Despite its simplicity, we are talking about a powerful tool that includes many advanced programming options. It is written in C++ and uses the win32 and STL API for greater speed. It also allows us to add plugins from the community or create our own. In addition, developers can customize the functions and interface according to their preferences for better management and productivity with its handling.

Notepad++ is a free and open source application for Windows, whose repository is also available on GitHub. It can be downloaded from this link.

Geany, with a tab system to make work easier

This is a powerful text editor, stable, lightweight, aimed at programmers and that provides a wide variety of useful features without reducing our workflow. It has native support for more than 50 programming languages including C, Java, PHP, Python, Perl, Pasca and, of course, HTML, among others.

Geany main menu

This useful tool will allow us to perform functions that will allow us to speed up the work of our web page, such as syntax highlighting, code completion and autocompletion of XML tags, HTML and list of symbols. It also has code highlighting, keyboard shortcuts, undo and redo, as well as a tab system that facilitates its use for all types of users. In addition, the application is widely supported by the community, which allows for constant improvements.

Geany is an open source program, compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS operating systems, and can be downloaded free of charge from its website.

Adobe Brackets, ideal for those who are not looking for an overloaded program.

It is an open source editor developed to meet the needs of programmers and web designers. It stands out for its great visual appearance and for being compatible with languages such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS, along with a complete package of integrated utilities, as well as support for plugins so that we can customize it to our liking.

Brackets

Among its features, it stands out for having support for preprocessor, syntax highlighting and allows you to instantly see the result in your browser without pressing a single key. It also stands out for its ease of working online, without having to jump between tabs and files, making it ideal for programmers who do not require a program overloaded with unnecessary features. In addition, it receives frequent updates.

Adobe Brackets is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS and can be downloaded for free from here.
Komodo Edit, editor for dynamic programming languages

It is a text editor developed for dynamic programming languages, being able to work with PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, Perl, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and RHTML among others. It is simple and easy to use, being able to completely customize its appearance to our liking. It has interesting features to develop our website efficiently as autocomplete, multisection and tracking changes.

Komodo Edit

It also has a spell checker, shows abbreviations, predefined blocks of HTML code, macros to create shortcuts to directories and a file search engine, among other options. It is also possible to preview web pages in the browser, save templates, use command line operations and debug files.

Komodo Edit is a free and open source text editor. It works on most operating systems, including Windows, Mac and various Linux distributions and can be downloaded from this link.

CoffeeCup, stands out for its clean and easy to use interface.

We are now talking about a software application created specifically to help programmers edit HTML code. It stands out for incorporating a clean and easy-to-use interface, which can be used by inexperienced users. It has support for formats such as HTML, ASP, VTM, PHP, CSS, XML, TXT, PL and SNP. With it you can perform operations such as editing, undoing, search and replace operations, as well as adding, deleting or renaming tags and attributes.

CoffeeCup

Also noteworthy is the possibility of unlimited FTP connections, HTML/CSS validation and code cleaning. Also say that it works by working with CSS and JavaScript, we will generally get the set of tools for creating websites. In addition, it allows us to insert snippets for quick code editing operations, add Flash elements or create a web page with frames, among other functions.

CoffeCup has a free version that we can download from its web page. It also has a $29 paid version that offers additional features for those looking for a more complete tool.

Visual Studio Code, editor developed by Microsoft

This is a source code editor developed by Microsoft that works with multiple programming languages such as C #, C ++, Clojure, F #, HTML, JSON, Java, Lua, PHP, Perl, Python, SQL, Visual Basic, XML and others. In addition, the program supports development in Node.js and ASP.NET. The application includes support for debugging, integrated Git control, syntax highlighting, smart code completion, snippets and code refactoring.

Visual Studio Code

The application supports the use of snippets, through which we can significantly reduce the time spent writing code. We can easily start the loaded application or attach the selected code to the main script. In addition, we are talking about a customizable program, so it will allow us to modify configurations from the workspace design to the HTTP or CSS configuration.

Visual Studio Code is compatible with Windows, Linux and macOS, and can be downloaded for free from this link.

Women want to enter the ICT sector

In Barcelona, women only occupy 26% of the jobs in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector, and only 8.6% are in technical positions. The underrepresentation of women in ICT environments is a phenomenon not only in Barcelona, but worldwide, and is linked to the digital or technological gender gap.

The 2030 Agenda, which the Barcelona City Council has assumed as its own, recognizes the gender digital divide, and for this reason it proposes the acceleration of inclusive projects in the field of technologies with a gender perspective to reduce the existing bias.

To this end, the municipal government is launching a series of actions to promote gender equity in the city’s ICT industries and to promote feminism as a central axis in the construction of today’s digital society.

The digital or technological gender gap generates growing inequalities in one of the sectors that creates the most jobs.

Among them, the BCN FemTech program stands out, a strategic plan designed to provide an outlet for women in the ICT sector after the impact they have received from the crisis resulting from the covid-19. With this initiative, the ‘consistori’ wants to facilitate the incorporation of women, preferably from precarious or unemployed groups, to ICT environments, hand in hand with companies in the sector. The objective is to promote the presence of women in an industry such as technology, which is a leader in job creation.

The BcN FemTech program is currently in the testing phase: this year a pilot program is being carried out with 50 women from precarious work environments, offering 850 hours of training.

It is a public-private initiative with the collaboration of the Barcelona City Council with Barcelona Activa, Endesa, Factoria F5 and the Formació i Treball foundation and will allow all participants to join the labor market as programming and web development professionals in approximately six months.

ICT is one of the sectors with the highest growth in employment. In the last 6 years, the sector has increased by more than 20,000 people (55%).

One of the beneficiaries of the BCN FemTech program is María José Martín: she previously worked in the tourism sector and through this program she has the opportunity to reorient her profession towards web development. “The program started a month ago. It consists of daily classes in which we learn the different programming languages,” explains Martín. And she continues: “the program has an innovative methodology: from the first day we are working in groups to do practical classes, although they are online”.

BCN FemTech is, without a doubt, a good opportunity to learn skills adapted to the labor market, in addition to allowing more women to enter the technology sector: “it is a necessary step, BCN FemTech offers the opportunity to overcome the gender gap in this sector”.

Women behind the screen

The lack of women in software development is a fact and generates consequences at all levels, such as the lack of gender perspective in technological products, the creation of a biased digital knowledge, at the digital level, or the perpetuation of gender roles and the difficulty of promoting policies on diversity or equality from the spaces of power, from the point of view of diversity.

Best web programming languages for web development

You want to create a website or a web application. So what are the best web programming languages available and why are they the best?

This is an important question and I would like to emphasize, forcefully and directly, that there is no universal answer. What one developer considers the best web programming language may be garbage in the eyes of another.

Let me also clarify that, when I talk about the best “web programming languages”, I am not focusing on markup languages and stylesheets, such as HTML and CSS. They are essential to know if you do web development, but they are not programming languages either.

With those caveats out of the way, let’s take a look at which programming languages, generally speaking at least, are good for web development.

PHP

When PHP debuted in the mid-1990s, many devotees called it the best web programming language, because it revolutionized the way internet software was developed. PHP made it practical for the first time to build dynamic websites and thus transformed the web from a collection of mostly static content to an interactive medium.

Two decades after PHP’s first release, its popularity has waned somewhat. There is now a strong anti-PHP coalition. Complaints center on PHP’s poor design and the fact that simple tasks require a lot of code.

However, say what you will about PHP, the fact remains that it is still by far the most widely used – though probably not the best – language for web development. For that reason alone, PHP is a must-have language for web developers.

Java

Java was designed as a multi-purpose programming language. It was never designed for web applications in particular, any more than it was intended for writing, say, a smartwatch application. But while Java was not created with the sole purpose of browser-based development in mind, many still consider it one of the best web programming languages to learn and use.

In other words, Java is a language that the average developer already knows. If you need to create a web application and don’t want your developers (or the people who will have to maintain your code in the future) to learn a new language to do so, Java might be a good fit.

Go

If they are looking for a general-purpose programming language that is easier for web applications than Java, Golang, better known as simply Go, may be what they are looking for.

Introduced in 2009, Go is a flexible and extensible language with a strong community behind it. It makes it easy for developers to create applications that take advantage of parallel processing. That gives Go an advantage if used to create high-performance web applications. Go is not as popular as Java, but it is likely to grow over time.

Therefore, Go can be an excellent choice if you want an up-to-date programming solution that works well for web applications as well as other types of applications.

Ruby on Rails

You can’t talk about general-purpose programming languages useful for web development without mentioning Ruby on Rails. For developers programming with Ruby, a general-purpose language, Ruby on Rails provides an easy way to create server-side web applications.

There is much debate about whether Ruby and Ruby on Rails are dying. However, proponents of the framework will enthusiastically argue that it is still one of the best web programming languages for creating applications quickly. People have been predicting Ruby’s demise for several years, and while Ruby is not as popular as it once was, it is unlikely to disappear.

In fact, in March 2018, the Tiobe index, which tracks the popularity of programming languages, reported that Ruby had returned to its top 10 list. If Ruby comes back into fashion, Ruby on Rails skills are a valuable asset.

Python

Python is a programming language that developers can use in a wide variety of contexts. While Python was not designed specifically for web development, frameworks such as Django make it easy to use as a foundation for web programming. Old Python can also be used to write web applications, if desired.

Whether Python and Django are the best web programming languages in a technical sense is a question impossible to answer objectively.

However, one argument in favor of Python, but not for most of the other languages on this list, is that it lends itself to many use cases. In other words, if you learn Python for use in web development, you will also learn a language that you can use for everything from system administration to mobile development.

JavaScript (and Node.js)

JavaScript is also a must-have language for web application development. That’s true not only because JavaScript dominates the world of client-side programming languages for websites, but also because it can be extended to server-side environments using Node.js.

JavaScript and Node.js are not as extensible as Python. I probably wouldn’t use Node.js for system administration, for example, although it has been done. But together, these two languages cover pretty much any kind of web-related programming use case you might face.

Conclusion

Lest I face the wrath of those whose favorite languages are not on this list, let me emphasize again: your mileage may vary. There is no best programming language for the web, and the above list is certainly not an exhaustive list of web programming languages.

But if you’re working in web development today, these are the languages you’ll probably want to know.