Do you want to add color to your text in your posts?
Do you want to change the font size?
Do you want to add some highlights to grab more attention to your blog?
Here is a list of online editors that you can type in WYSIWYG- and then with one click have it all turned into html for you without you having to know any html code. I have used all of these editors.
This is a review of the pros and cons of each of these online editors. This way you can choose which one or more that you want to use in your blogging.
When someone asks me which one do I use, I say: IT ALL DEPENDS ON MY MOOD! It also depends on what it is I want to accomplish and how.
My favorite online html editor now Kompozer. It is no longer called Nvu. It is now called Kompozer. Just click on the link to download Kompozer. Nvu and Kompozer are open source. I have Nvu on my laptop and Kompozer on my desk top. I use them both. These are free online editors that you can download right on to your computer's hard drive. It is a program that you can use off line. There are times when I like to write offline especially living in Florida. We get power outages and daily storms. So when I want to write I do not have to be on the internet in order to draft my posts for my blog.
The features I like best in Nvu: ( Kompozer)
- Offline editor
- Save draft posts to external hardrive for copyright reasons ( among other reasons)
- Work on several posts at one time and move easily file to file
- The developers are always improving the product
- I like to save most of my posts on my external hard drive to gather data for writing books later on.
- Contains a CSS editor
- Powered by Mozilla
- Just like in Firefox, you can have one screen open and edit several documents at once.
- Move between Htmls and WYSIWYG easily. ( Wish AR had that feature:)
- You can customize all sorts of things with Kompozer if you do happen to know html. When you add an image, you can change your code right underneath the photo in a box that shows up with the source code. It is really neat!
The drawbacks to Nvu:
- You have to remember to delete the first 3 lines or so of html code in draft mode on the Active Rain editor.
- To add images in Nvu, you have to have a URL for the image. That means that you will have to upload your photos to Photobucket, Flickr or Picasa Web which adds an extra step.
- BUT this is NOT the case with Kompozer! With Kompozer- you can do all sorts of cool things with your images. You can load them from your computer's hard drive, you can add alt 1 image tags and you can embed links right into your images.
To avoid this step you can grab the source code, ( html code) from Nvu, paste it in Active Rain html editor, then publish to draft. Then go back in under WYSIWYG editor in Active Rain and add your images from your computer the ordinary way.
The next online editor that I use quite a bit is the new Box. net Web Builder Page. I really like this online editor. You have to be online to use this editor. I like to use Box.net for posts that take up a lot of space such as my tutorials because the files are stored in your Box.net account. I wrote a post on how to write a post using the Web Page builder here.
The features I like best in Box.net Web Builder Page:
- Online editor
- Online storage area
- You can share the files and others can add to your post before you publish. Great for team articles.
- You can access your files from anywhere and from any computer.
- You can add images from your computer without the extra step of uploading them to Photobucket, etc.
- It has an auto save feature so if you forget to click save often; it does it by default for you.
The drawbacks to Box.net:
- Some people have said the source code does not convert correctly in Active Rain html editor. I have not ever had a problem with converting.
- You can not add alt 1 image tags in Box.net. I have put in a suggest request to their developers to add this feature.
- You can not add link titles to your links. To deal with this, just add your links after you post to draft in Active Rain editor.
When I use Box.net- I use it for the font sizing, colors and highlighting. I then add the images and links in the Active Rain WYSIWYG editor.
A very fast and easy online editor is Online-html-editor.de. This is an open source product from Germany. When you go into this program you need to click on the English tab in order to use the editor in English. Of course, if you speak German and want to publish in Germany then go for it the way it is.
The features I like best about Online-html- editor.de :
- Online editor
- Fast and Easy
- The code seems to have no issues moving over to the Active Rain html editor.
- I use this editor when I want to post something very fast such as the Thank You for Happy Birthday that I don't care about saving.
- The image feature is great. It has really good alt 1 image tag feature but you have to grab the URL so you do need to upload your images to Photobucket, Flickr or Picasa Web.
- This editor has a simple and good link title tag feature.
The drawbacks to this editor:
- I don't like how you can not save the draft unless you save it as online as an html file on a web page.
- There are too many steps in order to save files.
- It does not have an auto save feature.
- I can not use this editor if I am doing a longer post that I need to come back to later.
- You can not upload images from your computer so there is an added step.
I use all of these editors like I said depending on what it is I want to accomplish.
You can try them each out and see which one you like best or you can use them all. My favorite one is the new Kompozer! It wins on every front.
Have some fun adding some color, highlighting, font sizes and other features these html editors offer without spending hundreds of dollars on fancy programs that you have to learn. These programs have the same features that Microsoft Front Page, Adobe DreamWeaver and other high end programs have.
You don't have to learn html to use these editors. You just write in English just as you want to see it when it is published.
Then just click on 'source' which turns all your work into html code with a click of a button.
Then copy and paste that source code into the Active Rain Editor under the html editor tab.
One of the biggest tips I can give you about this is to make sure that you post to draft first, then check to make sure you like what you see in the Active Rain draft mode before you publish your post.
The learning curve on all of these is very fast and painless.
How To Jazz Up Your Blogging- Free and Easy! by Katerina Gasset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
Thank you Katerina! I've followed your great hints, and they really help! The color and font changes add interest and readability to the blogs.
Thanks Wendy. The new Kompozer is really the best now. Being powered by Mozilla helps too!
This is great......I will give the Kompozer thing a whirl tomorrow. I was wondering how to accomplish this. Can't wait to try it. So I don't need to know any HTML?
Move between Htmls and WYSIWYG easily. What does WYSIWYG mean?
Thanks for the great tips!
Anna
Thank You Thank You Thank You
I've been pulling my hair out trying to find just this.
Katerina - thanks for the info and I will check out kompozer. I have been using Nvu and I added my photos once I uploaded the blog on AR. Great info!
Ok, when you first posted about this, I was under the impression that you were no longer using nvu or kompozer, just box.net. I'm glad the confusion has been cleared. Now, I'll actually download kompozer to my comuter at home and off I go! I started using box.net already, and now I can have even more fun. Thanks!
William- they each have their own perks to use them. But the more I am using the new Kompozer, the more in love with it I become. Since I do know some html and want to learn more, you can do a split screen in Kompozer so you can see WYSIWYG and under that you can see the html and you can edit both right there. It is SOOOOO coooool!
I dd that post above in nvu because that is what I have on my laptop right now. I am typing on my desk top now and will be able to do some more fun stuff with Kompozer.
But box.net, I love for colloborating. ANd of course the access online from anywhere is too cool!
Katerina,
What a wonderful review of the "bling" programs. My posts definitely need some more pizzazz!! :)
Anna- WYSISYG is What You See Is What You Get. An acronym.
That is when you type like this in plain English without html code. When you write a post in the AR editor your choice is to write in WYSIWYG or in HTML. The tabs are up at the top of your AR editor.
Sonja- thanks!
Bob- Thanks and have fun!
Sharon- now you can do it all in Kompozer. There is So much more than their nvu. You will love it! I am learning new stuff in Kompozer each time I use it.
Thanks for the tips. I used to like all the colors and big jazzy things but now I find it distracting and rather have simply black and white with some photos and bolding. But everyone has different tastes
Heather- yes, everyone has different tastes and many people overdo it on the color thing. I purposely did so on this post to show all the examples of what one can do.
Sometimes I don't have a photo or image that says what I want it to say but adding the color and highlights can have the same effect.
Many times people don't realize that some of my posts have no images because they were so glued to the bling. Of course, everything in moderation:)
Thanks........it will be my new toy!
Anna- a great toy it is too:)
Anna
WYSIWYG is What You See Is What You Get.
I feel like I did as a kid just before school started and I got a brand new box of crayons, 64 in a box. Can't wait to play with my new toy. Thank you so much for doing the work and laying it out for us in an easy-to-understand format.
Kathy- You are welcome. I feel like a kid with my crayons too. Since I still have kids and grandkids, I get to smell Crayola often and still love that smell! I still color with them too:)
I've bookmarked this one. I know basic HTML and a tiny bit of CSS code, but I'm usually just don't want to take the time to use it, except for my header, which I now just copy and paste from previous blogs, and change the wording in the header, so it fits the post.
This is awesome though, since you've provided a list of actual editors that make it easier for us to make our posts look more snazzy.
Thanks!
Tried Nvu before but Kompozer sounds like what I need. Always something new to try. Thanks for all the options! Thanks again for the RealBird class as well!
Does it work with the Mac? I'll go look, no need to answer. I haven't done a colorful post since I got it. I do miss that but not enough to go back. No crashes or viruses or anything since I got it.
Thank you for providing us with different options and also with posting the pros and cons for each.
I use Frontpage since I have it from 2003. I've never heard of these tools/ websites and I'm glad you pointed them out.
Thanks for the info--So much to learn and so little time. : )
Katerina - Great tutorial. I've been looking for a HTMLeditor that plays nice with Active Rain. I'll have to bookmark this post for later reference.
I have alwasy wondered how people were able to do that to their posts...cool...thanks..
Katerina - You know how much I love Nvu thanks to you! It sounds like Kompozer has a few added features that Nvu does not and I wonder if I should uninstall Nvu and downlaod Kompozer instead.
Katerina, thanks for the run down of these. I've been wanting to research these options.
Katrina, I've used NVU for a while and like it. Since I know HTML, sometimes it's just quicker for me to write the code in notepad and paste it into AR. I am going to try KompoZer. Thanks so much for the great information.
Whoa! I'm all ears but this is moving way too fast! I'm saving this and having a small course everyday. My major prob is that I don't have nay teens at home any more. I really want to be here but I have to say I'm not!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I saw something similar to this on AR a while back and didn't bookmark it, and of course couldn't find it. And then you came along, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Now all I have to do is figure it out, DUhhhhhhh!
Katarina, thanks for the tips! I've been writing straight HTML since [1990??] and I've been really annoyed with trying to deal with AR's buggy take on HTML -- when I would add code, it would disappear UNLESS I posted in draft mode then went back... and it didn't always take that! Since you work with all three of these tools and AR plays nicely with them, I'll take that as the HTML version and use offline editing instead of coding straight into AR.
BTW, isn't .de a German domain code? And they would be speaking Danish in Denmark, Dutch in Holland, and German in Germany? Just got hung up on that -- I could use a German HTML generator :)
Thanks, this is great information. I have been wanting to figure out how to jazz up my posts like the rest of you savvy people, just hadn't had time to research the magic tricks. This makes it look quite simple.
Hi Nestor and Katerina: Thanks for the list - I will try Kompozer.
:)
Missy- You can use Kompozer with your Mac.
Matt- Kompozer is great! I like it more each time I use it.
Loreena- I would never have the patience to learn front page. For all my websites I use drag and drop software that is a cinch to use.
You can also use Kompozer for web site building also and have more than one window open at a time, since it is powered by Mozilla.
Lisa- and they are so easy to use and fast. I know some html too but it takes so long to type in html and then double check it like a second language.:)
David- You are welcome, We are doing the real bird class again on June 24th.
Use Kompozer, you will have fun with it, fast and easy too.
Christine- You are welcome, have fun trying them out.
John- I am working on cloning myself, as soon as I know how, I will let you know:)
Hi Katerina -- I always wondered about the photo integration and your concrete steps solved this question, what a very informative compare/contrast post. This post can stand on it's own and contains a ton of good info. I would love to see AR have a better built-in editor that say, does have of Kompozer.
Katerina, You certainly do get around, I don't know how you find the time! This is bookmarked for future use but by the time I get to it, you will have probably found another favorite :) Thank you for always sharing.
Donna- Download Kompozer first and then after you are working with it, uninstall Nvu. Because if something happens you will not be able to get Nvu again. Kompozer has tons of added features. I especially like the all the image tags and additions to make that process easier and faster. There are some other cool features you can read in my comments here that you would love.
Shoshana- You are right, I was wrong, sorry about the error, I need to go back and change that, yes it is Danish in Denmark. You are also right about the domains. I should have figured that since I lived in Germany for 4 years. LOL, de is for Germany, dk is for Denmark.
Shoshona- The reason your html does not always pick up in AR html editor is because they have added some filters and do not allow certain html code.
But Kompozer moves over nicely. I have had some people say that they do not get the same code with box.net and sometimes they get a nonallowed code from box.net source code when put into AR editor. But I have not had any issues with it.
I like Kompozer the best because it is offline, easy to save files on your hard drive and you can use split screens so for you that would be great since you know html code already.
Katerina - Thank you! I ALWAYS learn something new every time I log on to AR. I'm bookmarking this post because I've always been jealous of the pretty colorful posts ;). Now I can have them too! Look out...
Chris- one of the best things that AR added is the auto save. That is a great and very important feature especially when AR gets buggy.
I would love AR to be able to interchange html and WYSIWYG instead of having to post to draft and then go back in.
Carole- One step at a time. The thing that happens is I can not get around to everyone I want to, to comment on their blogs when I am writing these tutorials and doing the research:)
Kompozer is very simple. You can learn it quickly. Do a little at a time.
Katerina, I have KompoZer on my dock but I don't know how to use it! I read about it when I first started blogging but just got the courage to download it. From my understanding, NVU was the precursor and they are not doing updates on it anymore but I think it's the same people? Anyway, it looks really fun - was looking in Books-A-Million today for a book to teach me how to use it. Any suggestions?
Sharon
Robert- These play nice in the rain:)
Kim- Yes, now you can have them too!
Janna- It is quite simple, just type and click:)
Konnie- I am glad you found out the secret! Have fun learning this new tool.
Andrew- You are very welcome. They are simple and fun.
Sharon- Yes, it was Nvu. You can no longer get Nvu. Kompozer is their new product, powered by Mozilla. Use it just like you would Microsoft word or any other text editor program.
After you have your post the way you want it, just click on the source tab, the edit, then select all, then copy, then paste into AR html editor, then post to draft, then come back and fix anything that needs fixing in the AR WYSIWYG editor. I have a post on Nvu tutorial that explains it all step by step.
Jackie- With Kompozer you can also do a lot of added features, once you learn it, it would be faster than html. It is more efficient than Nvu.
Lisa W- You can learn this one step at a time. Download the Kompozer and use it like you would any typing program to begin with.
Ed- I am glad this post came around just at the right time, everything shows up for a reason:)
THANKS A BUNCH NESTOR & KATERINA! YOu guys are Awesome! As always-Thank you for sharing.....
I have Kompozer on my computer... but I generally just write in A|R or WordPress. But I don't embellish as much as I should.
Lane- Like I said, it all depends on my mood. When I write my tutorials and AR coaching type posts I usually jazz it up in Kompozer.
Most of my localism posts are just in AR editor especially when I am running against time.:)
But I also write alot when I am not online. I love to write and that is where Kompozer fits in nicely.
Katrina: The color really adds life to the post. I will have to check this out.
Thanks again for all the great tips you provide. I'll be sure to tell my associates to follow your posts on Active Rain.
p.s.-I'm giving a blogging class in a week at our KW office of about 160 associates that is largely centered on Active Rain
Vickie- Thanks! That is awesome. I hope you can inspire some of them to start blogging:)
Roland- These are some great tools to use. Have fun adding some jazz and bling to your blog posts.
Need to go and check all these out -- they sounds like excellent resources.
Thank you for the info, I wasn't aware there were that many free html editors with some many features. I'll be testing them all out in the next few weeks, to find which I like best.
Katerina - Thanks for the info. I was starting to use the HTML editor in ActiveRain and going back and forth with WYSIWYG but found it very cumbersome. Much easier in Dreamweaver but yours are free!
Katerina,
I always learn so much from your posts! Thank you for letting me know what's out there.....now I'm off to load Kompozer....thanks again!
P.S. Are you going to the FAR conference in Orlando in August? Would love to meet you!
Katerina - I downloaded Kompozer and I'm having problems installing it. It looks like that it is not unzipping. Do you have any suggestions?
Oh, you're the best, Katerina! I had been unsuccessful in trying to use the html codes shown in your older posts to get some color. Now I have another method to try. Awesome!
Katerina,
Thanks for sharing the tip on HTML editors - I was wondering if there was something out there to use just the other day. I typically use my Microsoft Expression Web software and the photo thing is a drawback in that I do have to upload them. I am going to give it a try. I appreciate the information.
Kathryn
Thank you, I have wanted to do something different for awhile and this looks great. Now I just need to fin some spare time!
Good suggestions, and with summer coming up, I'm going to try this.
Thanks for the post.
Brian Madigan
I often wondered how your got your posts to look good with all the fonts and color. thanks so much for the tips and links. I am planning to try these and improve my posts.
Katerina, I wrote a post about this yesterday, too. If you use this free online html editor you can copy and paste directly to the AR WYSIWYG editor. No switching to source code or messing with the AR html editor (which can mess up any edits).
Roger- This post is a review of 3 editors, your link, online- editor- being one of them. It is not my favorite of the 3. I don't like the file save feature and you have to be online in order to use it. While in many parts of the country that may never be an issue, here in Florida it is a big issue.
We have power outages, hurricanes, lightning, etc and have to unplug all of our electronics from the walls including surge protectors and battery back up systems. But I can use my lap top on my battery and continue to blog which is my favorite thing to do besided playing games with my kids during the power outages.
I did the review on 3 products and allow you all to use and choose the ones you like the best:)
Robert- When you download the program, click on the WIZARD option at the top of the unzip program. After you unzip just click on the file folder of Kompozer. Then click on the logo of Kompozer and it will open the program. I had the same thing with nvu. Opening zips is not my strength:) you can call me tomorrow and I will walk you through it. It is really easy once you know what to clickLOL, it took me a while to figure it out,
Wow Katerina, this is great information. I'll have to check it out because I never add color to my posts and would like to. The best I have done is BOLD... woo hoo, how exciting is that? LOL
Katrina - Wow, what timing (hug). I was wondering what happened to Nuv.
As a side note - when i used it before, i would make the changes then pick apart the HTML as I would rather understand what I'm doing - but then, spring hit and i got busy :)
Nice CoachKaterina! You rock. This is a great explanation for non HTML writers (geeks as I would call myself lol) . You're always so awesome. I'm glad we're connected on FB now!
I don't use it to actually write the posts in, so the save feature isn't a problem for me. I like it simply because you don't have to switch to source code to paste back into AR and you can paste directly to the AR W..G editor, too. Different strokes and all! Thks.
ALoha Nester and Katerina,
Once again thanks for the great tips. I saved this program on my computer and I am going to give it a try.
Steve
Katerina --- great post --- just full of good information --- I use Google to write my post, then convert to HTML and copy to Active Rain. It works for me. I plan to check out some of these, though. Thanks.
Katerina, your post was very timely for me. I was working on a blog yesterday and struggling with this issue; how to jazz it up. As usual, your posts are very informative and helpful. I also wanted to say thank you for running the SEO to the Top webinar that we just completed. I know I still have a lot to learn and develop, but your webinar was invaluable in jump-starting me on what would otherwise be a very steep learning curve (and I have been succesful at getting some longtail keyword posts on the first page of Google). Thanks again.
- Scott
Great post! I used to use Nzu for website editing, but when I stopped using my own editing I stopped using it. I am going to have to download Kompozer and start playing again! Great info... Thanks!!!
Great post! I used to use Nzu for website editing, but when I stopped using my own editing I stopped using it. I am going to have to download Kompozer and start playing again! Great info... Thanks!!!
Thanks for the helpful advice!!! I am having fun learning how to use these different programs!
Katerina:
I was very exited when you mention in your awesome seminar SEO to the top that you had written this post. I have already tried Kompozer, but had a hard time with it. At the en of your post you explain what I was doing wrong. So, thanks again, Tere
Katerina,
Thanks for sharing this info with us, useful info, as always!!!!
Nice post. You guys got me using NVU awhile back and when I got my new system I started with Kompozer. Although it involves the additional step of uploading the photos to photobucket, I like the portability that gives me if I happen to be working on another system I can still use my photos. I also love the ability to enlarge the font because the standard AR script is a tad hard on my old eyeballs. Keep the hints coming.
What great information and for that I think you - again. You seem to be frequently posting and sharing such helpful blogs. I truly appreciate it. I'm going to check our Kompozer. Sound like it and I may be a hit!
Scott- Woo Hoo! I am so excited that longtail is working for you. I appreciate you taking the SEO To The Top Webinar course and glad you found value in it. Keep on doing what I taught in the class, that is all the white hat way, no hocus pocus, just real stuff to get to the top of google!
Gene- The main reason I started using Nvu a long time ago was exactly what you said, AR font is just too small and hard on my eyes. If I am having that issue so are many of our readers then too, who are my age and older. I get thanksed so often for having the larger size fonts. I remember the first post and you told me that you had started to use Nvu and because I read your blog; I have seen your progress in using Nvu.
Awesome! I wondered how people did that. thanks for all the great info!!!
To add images in Nvu, you have to have a URL for the image. That means that you will have to upload your photos to Photobucket, Flickr or Picasa Web which adds an extra step.
The extra step can have a very big seo benefit. Because you can add a back link to your website from flickr thanks to the picture you uploaded.
Jeff- yes, this is true and I need to do more of that. I just have to choose how to use my time. I can not take 2 hours writing a post and uploading to flickr etc. It would be great if I could and that is where Elance is going to come in. I am interviewing different people at Elance to do some of these chores so I can just keep on blogging;)
Started working with Kompozer tonight. This is going to make a huge difference in my web presence.
I just download Kompozer and love it! Thanks for the links and reviews!
Nestor & Katerina - I have been looking for something like this for a while. I just downloaded kompozer, so I will see how it works. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks again for all the research that you do and share with others. I will definitely try Kompozer and probably Box.net also!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I saw this when it was first posted, and then lost track of it. I'll try to figure out how to make it all work!
HI Katerina,
Yesterday I was on the phone with Gabe at RealBird telling him what an awesome lady you are for all your ideas, help and support. I am so glad I am taking the SEO class and learning some of this first hand.
I also wanted to tell you that I did a post Thursday evening on Crossvilel Short Sale, which is a strange animal around here, and my buyer agent googled Crossville Short Sale and my post came up on page one and the very first spot! I'm so excited to do and learn more. Thanks for this great post too.
Katarina,
I've been using Kompozer is there a trick to getting the pictures to transfer correctly. The picture boxes transfered , however the images did not. I'm sure its something simple I'm missing.
Katarina, great advice and review, I will look at Komposer right now.
Thanks so much for this, I'm off to give it a try!
Katerina,
i printed this all off tonight. Thanks; big help.
Wow, thanks for all the info, definitely downloading the programs right now. Looking forward to creating interesting blogs..
Down loaded several of the programs and I am already having fun with all the ways you can use them. Thank You again!
great tips, thanks coach!
YOu are ALL welcome! Thank you for learning new things!
Thanks Katerina. I was an Nvu user, but hadn't worked with it in awhile. Knowing very little about html it's helpful to know that they are constantly improving. I'll have to try adding an image without Photobucket. I wasn't able to do that before.
I'm finally getting around to doing this. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for sharing the Kompozer link. I found it a few weeks ago and it made my blogging efforts so much easier! :)