Is there such thing as an HTML preview software?

Question

I thought it would be cool if there was an HTML preview software, where you could type up an HTML beta build for a website, and have an application create a preview for it. Does anyone know of any application like that?

Answer 1

Any web browser displays HTML. You can open a text file in Internet Explorer or Firefox. If you want a HTML editor, you can try Adobe Dreamweaver. If you want something free, NVU is the best free alternative to Dreamweaver.

NVU - Finally! A complete Web Authoring System for Linux Desktop, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view") makes managing a web site a snap.

Answer 2

The term for what you're describing is WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzy-wig)

It's an acronym for "what you see is what you get".  There are too many to count.  The problem with WYSIWYG editors are CSS.  For the last ten years there's been a movement to separate content and presentation.  Not all editor show you immediate presentation changes as a result of your CSS alterations.  Dreamweaver does a good job.  With that in mind it's important to note that the display for whatever editor that you're using won't be a hundred percent.  They all have their own style sheets, and methods for dealing with display.  Different browsers behave differently to CSS, and IE has become the obstacle that designers are forced to deal with.  Dreamweaver does allow you to view your project, from the file menu, in different browsers for the complete presentation.  But as mentioned earlier you could always do that manually without dropping some serious cash.

Here's a link a site that I think you may find interesting.

This site allows you to see your site on however many different browsers you want.  The problem is that it's only screen shots, no functionality.

http://browsershots.org/

Answer 3

KompoZer is a free download WYSIWYG.  (What you see is what you get).  Generally people build their site in the normal mode and the program writes the code.  http://www.kompozer.net/download.php,  You can work in Normal mode, which is how the site looks, or in Source, which is the code. You can paste the code into the Source page and click Normal to see how it looks.   If you download this, it delivers a zip folder.  Open the folder and delete folder Mangle, which is spy ware, before you unzip  and install the program.  It is a good little program, not so sophisticated as Dreamweaver, but it serves well.

Answer 4

There's always DreamWeaver.  They have a preview when you code you can see what will be displayed.  Bad part is that DW is extremely expensive for what you get (IMHO).

Best of luck,

Chad

Answer 5

You can preview your HTML in any browser.  You don't need a special application.  Just save and refresh.

Answer 6

That's what developers use their huge stable of Web browsers for. Just upon up the HTML file in each browser locally, and see how it renders. Or, directly edit to your FTP and view the changes live in your favorite browsers, hopefully including IE 6.0, IE 7.0, Gecko 1.8/Firefox, Safari, and Lynx. I add Lynx, because it reveals curious errors that others gloss over, including missing image tags needed for screen reading. You could replace that one with something like Dillo; if one can't get the core fundamental data you've got in a simple embedded-type browser, you should think again about accessibility.