Does anyone use a very simple (basic) html editor for inserting content into a page for use with REW’s CMS? I downloaded a trial version of Dreamweaver, but I do not need all the features Dreamweaver has. A recommendation on a simple editor for paragraphs and heading tags, and image insertion, would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.nvu.com

and, it's free!

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Thanks, this program is simple and to the point. Perfect for imputing content into the CMS.

I'm happy you are finding it useful. Professionally, most of us use Dreamweaver 8 but it can be rather intimidating.

After a few days of Nvu use, please return and let us know your experiences.

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This is a great question, and I look forward to hearing more answers.

It is always wise to use the cms's "Expert mode" if you can handle it, but that is made much easier when you have a good html editor on the side - I use Dreamweaver too, but it's much more powerful than I need - likewise.

The problem with using the CMS editor in HTML mode is that it deletes a lot of whitespace. It runs all the text together rather than organizing it logically for a human's comprehension. Even though I work with the CMS, I prefer to avoid using the editor for actually composing content. I'd rather compose it in another application and then copy/paste into the CMS editor.

This is not to rag on the editor we use in our CMS in particular. I've noticed the exact same behaviour in other editors that run in a browser window and save content into a database (which is the mechanism we're discussing here as well). I find it harder to work with than a well organized and indented page.

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Fergus Gibson
realestatewebmasters.com

Aye - it's best to use an editor on the side, and paste its code into the cms in expert mode.

Fergus, this phenomenon you're talking about - the cms removes white space....do you mean that it will turn this:
<h1>Fergus Knows Best</h1>
<p>....Well, that's what HE would say.</p>
<img src="/fergus-mustard-bath.jpg" />

into this?:
<h1>Fergus Knows Best</h1><p>....Well, that's what HE would say.</p><img src="/fergus-mustard-bath.jpg" />

So you mean, after you've carefully entered the human-friendly code, then hit update, THEN it removes the breaks?

That is precisely what I mean. It actually turns all white space into single spaces, so each line break becomes a space and all the content runs together in huge blocks. It is very hard to follow for someone who is still learning XHTML. Dreamweaver has an automatic code format function that, if the user copies the text to Dreamweaver for editing, will make it readable again.

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Fergus Gibson
realestatewebmasters.com