Best Free Text Editors

First of all, I think some definitions are in order:

HTML Editors
An HTML editor is a text editor that makes the editing of HTML source code much simpler. Typing out HTML code character-by-character can be a laborious task even for the most accomplished typist. An HTML editor (a good one anyway) will provide many ways of automating the insertion of HTML tags in order to make working at the source code level a lot quicker and a lot easier.

WYSIWYG Editors
On the other side of the coin you have WYSIWYG editors. A WYSIWYG editor (a.k.a., visual web editor) is not an HTML editor. A WYSIWYG editor is a WYSIWYG editor is a WYSIWYG editor. That's it, that's all. WYSIWYG is for those who do not wish to work at the source code level of a web page but instead wish to edit a facsimile of how the web page actually looks, much the same way you would use a word processor. Many, many times, I see WYSIWYG editors touted as 'HTML editors' and it irks me to no end. In my humble opinion, it is plain, straight-up, false advertising to call a WYSIWYG editor an 'HTML editor' since the primary task of a WYSIWYG editor is to avoid having to edit any raw HTML source code.

Notepad Replacements
Notepad replacements are basically text editors embued with alot of extra functions that plain ol' Windows Notepad doesn't have. The idea here is to have a high powered, low-resource, fast-loading program that can serve as a replacement for Notepad to answer some more advanced text editing needs. The best Notepad replacements can also double as full-fledged HTML editors by offering the option to record & playback macros and/or customizing keyboard shortcuts.

NOW...

On this page you will find a list of what I consider to be the best HTML and Notepad replacement editors (to which I collectively refer to as 'text editors') on the net. I have personally tested all these programs and have found them to be enjoyable and satisfactory.

HTML Kit
HOME PAGE:	http://www.chami.com/html-kit/
DOWNLOAD:	http://www.chami.com/html-kit/download/
LICENSE:	Freeware
FILE SIZE:	3.1 MB
SYS REQ:	Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
LIMITATIONS:	None
This is simply THE BEST free full-featured, fully customizable HTML editor EVER. Period. The most outstanding feature of HTML Kit is the ability to create a user-defined toolbar populated with buttons that perform user-defined tasks (such as inserting your own code snippets). I've become so accustomed to this feature that I can't imagine using an editor without it and currently know of only one other editor that can actually do this (but not to the same extent as HTML Kit). HTML Kit also features a plethora of toolbar buttons to insert common tags, a snippets library, templates library, directory folder view, customizable syntax highlighting, bookmarks, built-in FTP client, a user preferences dialog that will knock your socks off and much, much more. My tutorial on Setting Up HTML Kit will familiarize you with the user interface of this fantastic program and will help you if you're feeling a little overwhelmed by the default setup. ^ Back to top ^

Alleycode HTML Editor 2.21
HOME PAGE:	http://www.alleycode.com/
DOWNLOAD:	http://www.alleycode.com/download.htm
LICENSE:	Freeware
FILE SIZE:	1.5 MB
SYS REQ:	Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
LIMITATIONS:	None
This is an excellent, clean, simple, intuitive HTML editor that can double as a plain text editor and has a user interface that changes according to the file type you start up with. It also features a full screen view, a split screen view to preview your web pages on the fly and a directory folder view to browse for files Explorer-style. For HTML editing, Alleycode features toolbar buttons to insert common tags, customizable syntax highlighting, HTML and PHP code libraries, table wizard, style sheet wizard, Quick Edit function for page optimization (title, meta, body tags, etcetera) and project management. Provided with some well written quick start tutorials, this program is ideal for novice web designers. ^ Back to top ^

Arachnophilia 4 (Legacy version)
HOME/DOWNLOAD:	http://www.arachnoid.com/.../index_old.html
LICENSE:	Freeware
FILE SIZE:	1.5 MB
SYS REQ:	Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
LIMITATIONS:	None
Despite being somewhat dated, this is still one of the best HTML editors around and beats the pants off alot of the buggy, half-baked 'junkware' that I've had the displeasure of downloading and testing as of late. Moreover, Arachnophilia is one of the few HTML editors that can be customized with user defined buttons that perform user-defined tasks (here's a screenshot of my setup). Arachnophilia 4 also features tons of predefined toolbar buttons to insert common tags, customizable syntax highlighting, table wizard, list wizard, built-in FTP client, instant browser preview, multiple document search & replace, a full-blown well written help file and much more. The latest version, Arachnophilia 5, is even more advanced but does not simultaneously support word wrap and syntax highlighting (which is a big bummer for me but may not bother you). ^ Back to top ^

Crimson Editor 3.70
HOME/DOWNLOAD	http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
LICENSE:	Freeware
FILE SIZE:	1.2 MB
SYS REQ:	Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
LIMITATIONS:	None
This is a fast loading, full-featured plain text editor that can act as an advanced replacement for Windows Notepad and, for the adventurous, can be easily configured to double as an HTML editor. It features a tabbed MDI, built-in FTP client, multiple document search & replace, bookmarks, directory folder view, spellchecker, customizable syntax highlighting, save to Windows/UNIX/MAC format, record & playback macros, insert from file (excellent for inserting snippets), browser preview and more. It also contains a help file (although documentation on project management is missing) and there is an online discussion forum at the Crimson Editor site. ^ Back to top ^

Metapad 3.5
HOME PAGE:	http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/
DOWNLOAD:	http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/download.html
LICENSE:	Freeware
FILE SIZE:	45 KB
SYS REQ:	Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
LIMITATIONS:	No built-in FTP client, no syntax highlighting
This plain text editor was purposely designed to enhance the "poor usability" of Windows Notepad and can be installed such that it actually overwrites the Notepad executable in your Windows system directory. It's small, fast loading, completely self-contained and ideal for some basic HTML editing. It features save to Windows/UNIX format, search & replace, convert selected text to upper/lowercase, multiple undo/redo, clickable hyperlinks, auto-indent, built-in favorites menu, drag & drop text editing, browser preview option and more. It also supports saving ten snippets of code (a.k.a. 'Quick buffers' - Options » Settings » Advanced 2) for reuse later. Extensive online documentation —including how to install Metapad to completely replace Windows Notepad— can be found here. ^ Back to top ^

NotePad++ 3.1
HOME PAGE:	http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/
DOWNLOAD:	http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/download.php
LICENSE:	Open Source (Translation: It's free)
FILE SIZE:	750 KB
SYS REQ:	Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP
LIMITATIONS:	No built-in FTP client, no help documentation
This is a beautiful open-source text editor that can easily double as an HTML editor. It features a tabbed MDI, customizable syntax highlighting, multiple document search & replace, bookmarks, convert to Windows/UNIX/Mac format, file associations manager, customizable keyboard shortcuts, record & playback macros, show all hidden characters and more. It also features syntax folding which will allow you to specify which parts of your source code to display according to the hierarchy of your HTML elements (which is excellent for newbies who are easily overwhelmed by alot of source code). Another nice feature is how macros are saved to the menu system facilitating easy playback and —in essence— creating user defined buttons. The only drawback is there's no help documentation whatsoever so you're basically on your own with the exception of the Notepad++ user forum to which you can post questions or comments. ^ Back to top ^

So you've got a good text editor (or maybe two or three) and you've started mucking about with the HTML thing. Now you're ready to add some graphics to your web page but you've quickly discovered that your Windows Paint program just isn't cutting it. Well let's move on and check out some free graphics editors...