Choosing an appropriate Web authoring tool is an on-going task which involves a continuous process of research and decision making. There are a wide variety available for a wide variety of terms. Many of the programs are freeware or shareware and can be downloaded from the Web.
In fact, many commercial packages also allow the option for downloading trial versions that will work for a limited time. Most have gone through a number of versions to add features, correct bugs, and most of all, keep up with new standards and other competitors.
Page WYSIWIG Authoring Tools
Some authors use full featured editors to write all of their code. These are becoming more WYSIWYG so that authors don't necessarily have to work with HTML tags while creating their code. These tools vary in the degree to which they allow users to directly access the code once it is created.
Check out this URL for a more detailed introduction to this topic: http://macuser.zdnet.com/mu_0197/features/pagebuilders/body.html
Here are some of the more common brands:
Site Authoring and Management Tools
Here are some of the more common brands:
How should you decide if you should buy something?
It is best to try out the freeware first, then shareware, and then trial versions of commercial software before investing. Be sure to gather and compare the following types of information at the time you are considering a purchase.
See HTML Tools/Editors Castro pp. 303-305 (alt. pp. 349-352)