Very simple HTML editor

August 9, 2023 8:50 AM

I've been updating a simple web page with vi for years but I'd like to switch to a simple WYSIWYG that ideally will also scp the resulting page to its final destination. Free is good. Suggestions?
posted by Tell Me No Lies to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I don't know for certainty because I've never tried to do this, but i'd be surprised if you couldn't use VS Code and a combination of extensions to do something that closely resembles what you're trying to do. I suspect HTML rendering is included by default , but the scp functionality would require an extension (vscode-scp was the first hit when i searched).
posted by cgg at 10:34 AM on August 9, 2023

This is a tough space; you basically have Dreamweaver as the full-featured 900lb. gorilla and then a litany of programs no one has ever heard of or that have been discontinued. Most people that want this have shifted towards website hosting companies that offer easy in-browser tools for this (i.e. SquareSpace), since the overlap between users technical enough to be able to handle uploading their own site but not technical enough to write HTML is not very big.

That said, you might take a look at this list of Dreamweaver alternatives as a starting point. That's probably how I'd approach this. SCP support will limit your choices significantly though.

If you're willing to settle for a live preview instead of actual WYSIWYG editing, there are indeed VSCode extensions for this as well as for SCP (though I have no experience with either of these and there may be better options out there).
posted by Aleyn at 11:33 AM on August 9, 2023

VSCode should support live, active preview of your HTML (i does for Markdown for example). So not exactly the same thing as WYSIWYG editing in say Word or Dreamweaver but close. It would be much akin to the metafilter commenting UI.
posted by mmascolino at 12:15 PM on August 9, 2023

I like bootstrap studio for simple static html pages - no scp support but you can automatically run a shell script after export or it supports sftp. It's not free ~50USD but its not a subscription.
posted by samj at 4:25 AM on August 10, 2023

Yep. As prolific vim plugin author Tim Pope says...
posted by dmd at 6:01 AM on August 12, 2023