HTML Editor:

[Duane]

I am using textedit and in steps 3 and 4 of the of the HTML Editors Tutorial it explains how to save the file.My first issue is textedit tells me I have two choices to save the file; One- save as a .rtf file or two- save as both .html.rtf file.So I save as .html.rtf file. Step four of the tutorial then says save the file open a browser, select the file and it will readthe source coding I did to view the result. My issue is that when I select the file it just opens as I saved it, NOT in the browser.I don't understand how to insert my file into the browser to view the end result. The tutorial is NOT very clear on this at all. Below is directly from the tutorial: What am I not understanding?? Thank you,Duane Step 3: Save Your HTMLSelect Save as.. in Notepad's file menu.When you save an HTML file, you can use either the .htm or the .html file extension. There is no difference, it is entirely up to you.Save the file in a folder that is easy to remember, like w3schools. Step 4: Run the HTML in Your BrowserStart your web browser and open your html file from the File, Open menu, or just browse the folder and double-click your HTML file.The result should look much like this:

[justsomeguy]

Don't save an RTF file, that's a word processing document. You need just a regular plain text file, with a .html extension. That's all an HTML file is, just text. If your text editor doesn't let you save as anything except an RTF, use a different editor. They use Notepad as an example because it is a plain text editor that will save text files. If you need a text editor, try Sublime: http://www.sublimetext.com/

[Duane]

justsomeguy, Thank you for the tip, I am downloading it now...

[davej]

You can have an issue opening the file with the browser. If your file associations are set properly then the .html file should appear in the folder with your browser icon -- meaning that double-clicking on it will open the browser. Otherwise you can start the browser and then use File>Open File... in the browser to find and open the .html file, although each browser is a bit different.

 

You don't want to save as a .rtf file. That is "rich text." You want plain ascii which is a .txt file.

Edited October 23, 2013 by davej

[thescientist]

also, here's a thread with a bunch of text editor suggestionshttp://w3schools.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=760

[Labtec]

Go with Notepad++. I've tried out so many and I found that Notepad++ is best suitable for myself. It depends, some people like Dreamweaver but when I first used it about 1 month ago, I was tearing my hair out,so it will never be used again. I just use Notepad at college because it won't let you install any programs. I prefer a simple editor which has useful features such as syntax highlighting. I don't want any 'design view' or autocompletion/suggestions of HTML tags etc. I think that gets you into bad habits. Best to learn HTML from manually coding, to be honest, 50% of the tags you will probably never use, you will find yourself using the same tags repeatedly. I'd say he most common HTML tags are <div>,<h1-6> and <p>. Of course, give yourself broader knowledge by studying as many tags as possible. Although it's frowned upon, I'd even suggest learning about tables as you may find yourself wanting to present PHP/MySQL database information inside a table at some point. Best to just completely write the code yourself, that way you will know exactly what your file contains. I found that dreamweaver adds inline styles to your elements, which is very outdated as all styling should be done in an external stylesheet (imo). I hope this gives you a little more insight! Kind regards, Labby

Edited December 22, 2012 by Labtec

[xhtmlchamps1]

Don't save an RTF file, that's a word processing document. You need just a regular plain text file, with a .html extension. That's all an HTML file is, just text. If your text editor doesn't let you save as anything except an RTF, use a different editor. They use Notepad as an example because it is a plain text editor that will save text files. If you need a text editor, try Sublime: http://www.sublimetext.com/

[xhtmlchamps1]

very good answer for the html files and its composings

[Guruman2]

Now i can see that this forum is the best of all forum i have being visiting since and i would like you people to come to my aid in my questions. Thank.

[lovewebdesign]

Thanks for the answer, I've also learn a lot from this post.

[Hadien]

I started off with notepad long time ago. Then moved to ConTEXT for the longest time. Loved context, but since it's no longer being kept up (was programmed in Delphi). I recently moved to sublime, which basically expands on what context gave. I pretty much use a portable version on a flash drive since there's numerous workstations I move to. The only thing I dislike like about sublime is that it loves trying to close my parens/brackets/quotes automatically at the wrong times. Other than that love it.

[davej]

Is sublime open source? I think I should try to get involved with an open source editor project. No matter what editor you choose there are always some things you won't like about it. They either don't have a feature you want or they have too many features that you don't want as a bunch of clutter and confusion.

[thescientist]

that option is definitely configurable

[justsomeguy]

I don't think Sublime is open source, but it's very powerful and configurable. There's a course here that I want to go through when I think about it in my off time:

 

http://net.tutsplus.com/articles/news/perfect-workflow-in-sublime-text-free-course/

[davej]

On the one hand I really need to get away from using plain old Notepad, but on the other hand I'm annoyed by the idea of needing a tutorial just to learn to use a darn editor.

[justsomeguy]

I've been using Sublime for years without going through that, it would make a lot of what I do more efficient if I knew the shortcuts. I would never use Notepad for anything at this point though, I don't think I've used Notepad for 10 years or more for writing code. There's not a single benefit to using Notepad. Look at ConTEXT if you want a lightweight editor. If I'm on a machine that has nothing more than Notepad and I need to edit code then I'll typically install ConTEXT. I also use ConTEXT if I need to open text files that are several hundred MB, other editors get very slow.

[davej]

Well, at this point I'm usually writing little tiny programs.

[guradio]

im a newbie in HTML as well im using notepad++ its better than notepad because you can see the lines and they have color to differentiate things.

Edited November 9, 2013 by guradio