Taco HTML Edit - 2.5.3

Let me start by giving you a little bit of my background: I am a web designer and a self-taught xHTML/CSS coder. I balked at WYSIWYG editors for a long time, until I was forced to learn Dreamweaver for a web class I was teaching. I learned that DW could save me tons of time by taking advantage of code hints and by using the spit code/design view. I'd monitor my code closely, and I learned how to manipulate DW to give me the clean code I wanted and not give me the garbage code WYSIWYG editors tend to generate. It became a very valuable tool.

Now, as a stay-at-home mom and freelance web designer, I no longer have access to DW, and I don't have the funds to buy it. So began my search for a freeware/shareware HTML editor app. I've downloaded about 5 different ones, and Taco HTML Edit is the clear winner.

-----------------------------------
What I love about this app:
-----------------------------------
- Multiple files open in tabs, and tabs can be dragged/rearranged. Save All option for all open files/tabs.

- Code hints that make typing the code faster.

- Taco doesn't try to re-type or re-format my tags. (I HATE programs that convert my clean xHTML code into non-xHTML-compliant garbage by adding unnecessary spaces, tabs, CAPS, etc.)

- The GUI is nice and clean without a lot of extra palettes and windows.

- The live preview side-by-side with my code renders CSS perfectly (other apps didn't do as well)

- Custom preferences, including code coloring, fonts, indent/no indent, vertical/horizontal split code/preview, and more.

- Find/Replace and Batch Find/Replace across multiple files.

- Very nice built-in documentation/help.

--------------------------------------------
What is good, but could be better:
--------------------------------------------
- I'm glad there's a spell check, but it could use a little improvement. It tries to spell check web addresses, special coded characters (ex. & " –) and words with special characters (ex. resumé it suggests "resumé", which of course wouldn't be xHTML compliant). I suppose I can go crazy and add a bunch of these "words" to the built-in library, but it'd be nice if they were included to begin with. Also, I wish there was a way to turn off grammar highlighting by itself. I can ignore it when I'm running the spell checker, but it underlines words it thinks are grammatically incorrect if I have Check Spelling While Typing checked.

- I like the live preview, but I've yet to find an app that does a good job of mimicking Dreamweaver's design view. I'd love to be able to add content/edit in a WYSIWYG way, with a spit screen and my code visible on the side. I don't even need/want full WYSIWYG functionality -- if I could just type in text (paragraphs) and possibly table content, I could format it in code view. It'd make editing text a little easier on the eyes if I didn't have to try and read my copy around all my tags. Sure, I can read the copy on the live preview, but then I have to find my place in the code to make the changes. Just dreaming here!

- One small "bug"(?) that I've come across (and I'm not even sure if it's an issue with Taco, my web provider, or my browser) but if I have Taco open, and I use Firefox to access my web provider's (PowWeb.com) FileManager, when I go to upload a new file, it crashes Firefox (90% of the time). If I quit out of Taco before using PowWeb's FileManager, then I don't have any problems.

Overall, this is a wonderful app, and well worth the cost in my opinion. I haven't been using it for very long, and I'm sure the longer I use it the more I'll find to love. If you're looking for a GREAT xHTML editor, look no further. Trust me -- I've tried the others and this one takes the cake. Kudos, Taco!

Oh, no! My favorite HTML editor is no longer free? How could they?

Like a drug dealer, the developer gave away the "goods" for free and once we were hooked started charging.

Guess I'll have to go mug someone!

;-)