Web Design Programs

htmlvalidator.com pro version for pc

tabbed windows, built in validator, coloured syntax, help files, tag inserter, many features. also comes as a bundled deal with TopStyle for CSS validation and editing. it has many states, hotkeys, and kicks *** because both of them explain what's wrong and what valid attributes, attribute values, et cetera would be. Supports many server-side languages natively, you can add your own extensions and filetype associations.

bbedit.com for mac

grep, open from/save to ftp, multiple search and replace in unopened files, coloured syntax, serious helpful features, like new document form that sets up all the links in the header, et cetera.

westciv.com.au for StyleMaster, pc/mac CSS editor that is comparable to TopStyle, but not as intuitive (to me). Competition between the two is thick, so frequent updates and the help files and the programmer in general are amazing.

Prices are on the sites, all under $100US.

Thanks for them... but I was looking for something more like a layout designer...
I don't know the standards and all since 1996 which was when I first learned HTML, and I learned version 1... so I'd like something LIKE frontpage, where I can create a layout graphically, then have it made into HTML for me to learn from... understand?

Gotcha, but I'd have to say it's probably in your best interests to either invest in Dreamweaver and get all the extra pieces for supporting includes and javascript and such, or figure out how to slice a mockup into parts of a page.

It'd be far cheaper for you to simply look at the page logically and code from there.

I often print off the mockup and draw lines on it to indicate the divs or table cells (depending). It's easier (for me) than undoing the crap that even good WYSIWYG editors put in the code.

But if you need a WYSIWYG editor, Dreamweaver, hands down. But take the time to learn it properly, you can make incredible crap with it if you don't.

Dreamweaver has Homesite (similar to HTMLValidator) and TopStyle bundled with it (lite version of TopStyle) last I saw.

Alright...
Well I'm either going to re-learn HTML at the 4.0 level then add in xHTML, or get Dreamweaver
Which do you suggest? How about a book? or a good online tutorial?
Who knows... maybe even a class....

xHTML isn't much more than tidy coding, a few tags like font, b, i, center etc are phased out and included in style sheets (CSS) but for the main html tags just write them all in lower case, close all single tags ie becomes

, and etc.
If you have written html before you wont have much trouble, if you've used editors and fixed there errors then you'll have to learn to do it properly. Once you do a few pages and validate them you'll find where your going wrong, validating them is a good way of learning tidy x/html

Have a look at my html site (link in signature) for a refresher into HTML if you want, and keep an eye on it cause I am updating the site now with xHTML and CSS, not sure when I'll get it finshed thou.

Good luck

Dreamweaver MX does xhtml quite well but it's like anything it does what it's programmed to do and you can't beat learning it so you can use Dreamweaver for speed and easy designing then tweek by hand. It does have addons for php, asp etc. Best bet is to download the 30 day trial version and see how you get on with it. I like it!

I downloaded the Dreamweaver MX trial... and I'm going to go through the help pages to make some sense of it, more than just a simple site

Busy, I'm working my way through your HTML tutorial... seems great
thanks