Adobe's Dreamweaver web development tool is a multi-faceted utility that makes it very easy for both the novice and more advanced web designers to get started and follow through with the website.
Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get) which means that it hides a lot of the backbone code (HTML, CSS, etc.) and instead lets you focus merely on design. However, it also allows you to directly tweak and flat-out write the code if you do feel you need that type of control. One of the more useful features of Dreamweaver is the Live View window. When selected, it shows you what your website will look like while you are updating your code. Another great feature of Dreamweaver is its Tag Lookup feature. When writing your code and you start to type a tag it will pop up a list of tags that you can choose from and will even finish the tag that you have started typing. It is also very organized as every file is organized into tabs that you can switch between at the top of the program.
The biggest downside of Dreamweaver is the price. To buy it alone its $300 unless you buy it as a part of one of the Adobe packages which can run between $1000 and $2000 depending on what you want. But, when it comes down to it, you're paying for a quality product which should not disappoint. So long as you have a cool 300 to spend I would reccommend Adobe's Dreamweaver to any aspiring web developer.
Kompozer is a WYSIWYG editor, like Dreamweaver, except free. Though not as popular as Dreamweaver or as full-featured as it, it is capable enough to create a website.
Built on the Mozilla platform it is entirely free and features many of the same features as Dreamweaver. They have the same tag lookup feature (though not as intuitive) that I love about Dreamweaver. They also have a tabbing feature in which you can open and manage different files. The live editing feature is not included though it isn't particularly needed. A great feature that isn't normally included in free web editors like this is upload by FTP to your web dowmain. This means that you can have it upload all files as a directory and as you work on the project it will update the directory and thus update the website.
For being a free program it has enough to warrant its use and is a great alternative to the pricey albeit great Adobe product.
RJ Text Edit is a free utility that is capable though sub-par when compared to Kompozer and Dreamweaver.
Unlike the other reviewed web tools, this is not a WYSIWYG editor and is instead along the lines of a notepad or regular text editor. However, it does have a tag lookup feature like Kompozer and Dreamweaver and an HTML viewer that allows you a visual of what you are doing as you do it (though it is inconveniently placed in another tab that takes you away from your code.) This application is not for the novice web developer as it is for straight html, css, php, or whatever type of coding you are doing.
RJ Text Edit is closer to Windows Notepad than the other reviewed projects and not nearly as well done. It's free, but there are better editors out there.
