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[barcrossliar]

My vote for a free, easy html editor that lets you use WYSIWYG or code editing is SeaMonkey, a Mozilla/Firefox descendent.

Install it, then go to "windows" and "composer" to write or edit your pages. 

The only problem I have is trying to edit when I'm in the preview tab.

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

-+LR

[queenofstarwars]

I can't just hit save--that just saves it to .txt,

Just thought I'd chime in (this is my area of teaching).  You ONLY have to do the save-->as and choose all files the FIRST time you create an html page in notepad.

Once you saved it you can make changes and simply save again without that hassle.  If you close it and reopen, you also only have to use a simple save.

It's sometimes helpful to have the notepad file saved as you html file resized to 1/2 your screen and then you can open your browser on the other side of the screen and when you save your html, you quickly click on the browser window and refresh (F5 or use the mouse) and you can make lots of changes very fast.

This doesn't really give you a suggested new wysiwyg, but it works efficiently.  When I don't use notepad when teaching XHTML, CSS, or PHP, I use Dreamweaver, but it seems for what you are doing, you are using the simplest tools.

[kohelet]

Thanks, queen..., this clears up the "save as" mystery.

[sporosarcina]

If you want to hardcode HTML without the benefit of WYSIWYG, I would recommend Notepad++ (freeware) over the regular Notepad baked into Windows.  It has a number of nice little tweaks that aid in hardcoding (especially format coloring).

[mended_drum]

Dreamweaver does what you describe, but it's expensive.  Doesn't Nvu allow something similar?

[csguy]

If you want to hardcode HTML without the benefit of WYSIWYG, I would recommend Notepad++ (freeware) over the regular Notepad baked into Windows.  It has a number of nice little tweaks that aid in hardcoding (especially format coloring).

Chime. While I'm not familiar with the particular software sporosarcina mentioned Notepad is simply not a very good text editor. More capable replacements are readily and freely available.
I use jedit myself.

[egilson]

I use Dreamweaver almost exactly in the way you describe by keeping it in "split" mode, typing the code in the Code pane and doing a first check of the results in the Design pane. While I can write the HTML and CSS by hand, Dreamweaver has some features like site/SFTP management that are simply too convenient for me to want to do without them.

[finallyfullprof]

I am also a fan of Seamonkey.  It makes everything easy, and you have options for WYSIWYG or a view that just allows code changes similar to what you are doing in Notepad. It's also a free download.

[lanegs1]

Hello!   I recommend Kompozer as well, for a free and quite easy to use HTML Editor.

However, I wanted to pass along a little tool that might work for bits of code you want to check.  It's from w3schools; they call it Try it yourself! and it's very handy:

http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_intro

Regards,
Lane in Charlotte, NC

[kohelet]

http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_intro

This is brilliant.  Thanks, Lane.

[southerntransplant]

CCSes were mentioned upthread and they get a big thumbs up from me. A colleague wanted to beef up his web page so imported a set he liked and edited the HTML code using a basic editor. Looking at the source codes of webpages he liked (and that weren't created with WYSIWYG software) he was able to put his pages together. He ended up giving us the CSS templates and suddenly every web page in our little group had the same look.

Now, in order to alter a page I just open it up in vim or something basic, add what I want and save. Much of what is required for the overall look stays the same, so you know that the page is going to be fairly stable. I also don't have to change the links on the side or top so the pages always work.

The downside is that if you edit webpages created via the CCS using Frontpage or something like that, the pages can look horrible depending on the browser - things like text overrunning graphics, etc.