KompoZer :: Easy and free web page editing and authoring software

So you want to build your first website or perhaps improve or re-design your existing one. You could start off by learning HTML, CSS and perhaps some Java Script and then coding up the whole thing in a text editor like Notepad. This method would teach you a number of great things about what goes on behind the scenes, however it would probably take up a lot of time and energy. Time and energy you most likely don’t have. There is and easier way. An HTML editor with a WYSIWYG interface makes the job significantly easier. You will of course have to learn how to use an editor but that is much easier and quicker than learning all the code.

You Google WYSIWYG HTML editor (by the way this stands for What You See Is What You Get) and you find there are a lot of commercial products out there. Some of them are quite expensive too. Dreamweaver™ is one of the industry standards and is a very powerful piece of software. It can do more than most editors and really is a more than just an editor. It is a whole web site design and management system. The two main drawbacks to this particular software package is it’s cost ( about $400 USD) and then all the time it takes to learn all of its goodies.

There is an alternative, especially if you are just starting out and you are not sure if this web page designing and editing thing is for you. It’s called KompoZer and it’s open source software. If you are not familiar with open source it basically means it’s free. Now, by saying that I would have a lot of people come down on me making it clear that open source is not ‘free’. I agree, but to keep things simple and for most of us it is ‘free’ with a few rules. You are allowed to use it for commercial purposes, personal use is ok too of course and in most cases you can even bundle it with other software and sell it, so long as the source code remains ‘open’. You can see more on open source the rules here if you are interested.

KompoZer is available here for download and works on PC (Windows), Mac and Linux. It is lightweight and you don’t need the latest greatest computer to run it. KompoZer is not perfect by any means and there are bugs which are being worked on, but what software is perfect! Even if you cough up the dough for the commercial stuff it still has its issues. I suggest you download KompoZer and give it a try. There is a good HELP section and a link to the forums which should get you going.