edit website directly online?
April 7, 2006 11:47 AM Subscribe
is there an html editor that can edit webpages directly on the website online, or do an illusion of it (ie, do the ftp-ing in the background with local copies)? Ideally it would allow a 'preview' before uploading it back to the host, and ideally you would be able to save 'drafts' locally (like with email) if you want to work on them later.
Oh, and ideally it would be free (cost nothing). ;)
Check with your hosting service to see if your server provides an online editing tool such as ezsite. If you are managing your own site check your control panel to see if any addin are availible.
posted by johnd101 at 11:58 AM on April 7, 2006
posted by johnd101 at 11:58 AM on April 7, 2006
Win SCP has a built in file editor if you like hand-coding HTML.
posted by delmoi at 12:02 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by delmoi at 12:02 PM on April 7, 2006
Check out Webstractor. It isn't free, but the company (SoftChaos) offers discounts for students and faculty.
posted by Yeomans at 12:08 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by Yeomans at 12:08 PM on April 7, 2006
bbedit's Textwrangler will save text files in the manner you describe.
posted by craniac at 12:15 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by craniac at 12:15 PM on April 7, 2006
Macromedia/Adobe Contribute does what you want. It definitely is not free though.
posted by zsazsa at 12:23 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by zsazsa at 12:23 PM on April 7, 2006
HTML-Kit does it nicely. You hit save, it uploads it. You can preview in a preview pane too. And it's free.
It's made by Chami.
posted by miniape at 12:29 PM on April 7, 2006
It's made by Chami.
posted by miniape at 12:29 PM on April 7, 2006
For me, using FileZilla with the editor preference set to Notepad++ is close enough. Set the double-click action to 'edit' and all you do is connect to your site, double-click the file, make your edits, close the editor, and answer yes, you'd like to save the file back to where it came from. You can point the editor setting at whatever editor you like.
posted by cairnish at 12:32 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by cairnish at 12:32 PM on April 7, 2006
I do this on my Mac with Transmit. Dreamweaver can do this, too--and while it's not even close to being free, I was really surprised at just how deep the non-profit/educational discount was.
posted by bcwinters at 12:33 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by bcwinters at 12:33 PM on April 7, 2006
If you're not doing commercial work, SmartFTP has an 'edit' feature that will automatically upload back to the server on each file change. If you are doing commercial work, it's not expensive.
posted by potch at 12:36 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by potch at 12:36 PM on April 7, 2006
Dreamweaver can do what you wish, not free though and many people believe it to be a bit bloated.
posted by signal at 12:46 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by signal at 12:46 PM on April 7, 2006
a bit bloated
A bit?
Lot's of good suggestions, but stay away from dreamweaver. Way overkill for what you want, and that's not even getting into how much it sucks.
posted by justgary at 12:50 PM on April 7, 2006
A bit?
Lot's of good suggestions, but stay away from dreamweaver. Way overkill for what you want, and that's not even getting into how much it sucks.
posted by justgary at 12:50 PM on April 7, 2006
See this similar question where I suggested some javascript based HTML WYSIWYG editors. They would require a little scripting on the server to save the file, but could probably work for what you want.
posted by gus at 1:27 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by gus at 1:27 PM on April 7, 2006
signal's right. just running dreamweaver but calling files from a mounted server directory (if you've got a fast connection) allows you to edit your site "live." Contribute just adds some sort of client interface with minimal HTML editing.
just get thee into a cms, anyway. all you have to do with most of them is edit the .css for design and interact with the content areas completely from within a browser.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:31 PM on April 7, 2006
just get thee into a cms, anyway. all you have to do with most of them is edit the .css for design and interact with the content areas completely from within a browser.
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:31 PM on April 7, 2006
Wordpress would be my choice. It is specifically designed for online editing and you never need to touch FTP. All web based with a preview before publish function. Also provides a WYSIWYG editor, and its free.
posted by maxpower at 4:36 PM on April 7, 2006
posted by maxpower at 4:36 PM on April 7, 2006
i've been using PSPad lately for editing of my website. I just connect up to my ftp site within PSPad, edit the file, save it, and then load up the real web page. There might be a preview type thing but i don't use it so i don't know. You can definately save items locally too. And it's free. I'm not completely sold on it, however, as it sometimes randomly disconnects from my ftp site and i have to manually reconnect. And i'm looking for something that integrates well with PHP (autocomplete, documentation, etc) so i'm not completely satisfied with PSPad.
That NVU & HTML-Kit items posted above look pretty good, however, so i think i'm gonna try them out.
posted by escher at 4:46 PM on April 7, 2006
That NVU & HTML-Kit items posted above look pretty good, however, so i think i'm gonna try them out.
posted by escher at 4:46 PM on April 7, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by boo_radley at 11:51 AM on April 7, 2006