Hello, and Good WYSIWYG?

[Zen_Clark]

Hello all, I have been using Linux (Debian) for about a year now and greatly enjoy it.
I joined here in order to ask a few questions I thought you guys might be able to answer.
In my spare time I'm working on a MUD, my first big project, that I have gotten no where so far, but has been fun messing around with.
When not programming or playing a few games, I like to play with electronics and mess around with Amateur Radio.
I was wondering if any of you have had any experience with Open Source WYSIWYGs and which you preferred.
Also, are there any good tutorials on making a site look pretty? I need a web site for one of my projects and have little experience in making things look good.

[oz]

Welcome to the forums, Zen_Clark!

We hope you'll have fun here and can visit often...

oz

[Dapper Dan]

Html editors mystify me, but a friend swears by nVu...

[muskrat]

If your taking about WYSIWYG HTML editor, I wouldn't advice it. Because they tend to add a bunch of extra code that's just trash. And if/when you edit it with another WYSIWYG you'll have more junk. For example, you add a small table with one WYSIWYG and edit it later with another WYSIWYG, removing the table or just moving the table. It might leave bits of code that the second editor doesn't understand when the frist editor built the table.

Also they tend to build, for choice browers, of which you can specify, but then it'll be broken for other editors.

If you understand programing, it shouldn't be any problem to learn HTML, PHP, CSS and the few other languages you'll need.

I believe Bluefish has a WYSIWYG mode, but I run it in text mode.

[Zen_Clark]

My problem was not learning to use html, my problem is having the time. If I wanted to program something, I would be working on my game. I need something to allow me to make a quick and fair looking site in which to get some traffic running through. I also need something that can help get a mere geek to produce something somewhat pleasing to the eye of an average person. I want to able to spend more time on the game then I spend on the site.

[Cabhan]

Frankly, if you're doing static pages and not using JavaScript, writing a good site probably wouldn't take particularly long.

Having said that, Nvu, as mentioned, is very popular. I believe that Mozilla Composer is WYSIWYG, but it's certainly somewhat outdated.

If you change your mind and decide to go the write-your-own route, I highly recommend either your text editor of choice or Bluefish.

[Zelmo]

Quanta Plus is another good one. It's the only one I've seen on Linux that has a split view to see code and WYSIWYG at the same time.

[flipjargendy]

I can't say that I'd ever recommend a WYSIWYG. I'd suggest learning basic HTML. It's easy, I read a few articles when I was twelve years old and taught myself. There is an abundance of information on learning HTML on the web (Google: Learn Basic HTML).

That was when I used Windows and didn't even know about editors (if they existed then) that would color the text if you typed something incorrectly. I saw Quanta was mentioned. I've used that for the past few years and love it. It is an HTML editor. If you use Gnome and don't want to use KDE apps then Screem is another alternative. From my experience, Quanta works better.

[oz]

I believe that Mozilla Composer is WYSIWYG, but it's certainly somewhat outdated.

Agreed, if the quality of the code is not important, this would likely be the easiest route. Otherwise, I'm another fan of Bluefish.

[harner]

Bluefish and Nvu are favorites of mine, but look into a project called Joomla. The site is made for you, and all you do is load a template or create your own (or edit another one). Just make sure your host supports PHP and MySQL.

I just used it recently and I have to say, wow. The news and blogging feature alone is worth a try. Give it a chance, I'm sure you'll like it.