HTML Editors

You can write HTML in any text editor, but modern code editors and IDEs provide features like syntax highlighting, auto-completion, error detection, and live preview that dramatically speed up development and reduce errors.

Choosing an HTML Editor

At its core, HTML is just plain text, so you can write it in the simplest text editor like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac). However, professional developers use specialized code editors that understand HTML syntax and provide helpful features.

Modern code editors offer syntax highlighting (color-coding different parts of your code), auto-completion (suggesting tags and attributes as you type), error detection (highlighting invalid HTML), code folding (collapsing sections of code), and integrated terminal access.

Popular HTML Editors

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is currently the most popular free code editor. It has excellent HTML support, thousands of extensions, built-in Git integration, and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Other excellent options include: Sublime Text (fast and lightweight), Atom (highly customizable), Brackets (Adobe editor with live preview), WebStorm (powerful paid IDE), and Notepad++ (Windows-only, lightweight).

For beginners, VS Code or Brackets are excellent starting points due to their user-friendly interfaces and strong HTML/CSS support out of the box.

Creating Your First HTML File

To create an HTML file: Open your code editor, create a new file, type your HTML code, and save it with a .html extension (like index.html or page.html). The .html extension tells the operating system and browsers that this is an HTML document.

File naming conventions: Use lowercase letters, avoid spaces (use hyphens or underscores instead), do not use special characters, and make names descriptive. Good: about-us.html, contact-form.html. Bad: About Us.html, contact!.html.

<!-- Save this as index.html -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>My First Page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Hello World!</h1>
  <p>This is my first HTML page.</p>
</body>
</html>

Using Live Preview

Most modern editors offer live preview features that automatically refresh your browser when you save changes. VS Code has the "Live Server" extension that launches a local development server. Brackets has built-in live preview.

To view your HTML without live preview: Save your file, navigate to it in your file explorer, and double-click it. It will open in your default browser. Refresh the browser (F5 or Cmd+R) after making changes.

Essential Editor Features

  • Syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
  • Auto-completion and IntelliSense for tags and attributes
  • Bracket matching and auto-closing tags
  • Multi-cursor editing for faster bulk changes
  • Integrated terminal for running commands
  • Git integration for version control
  • Extensions/plugins for additional functionality
  • Customizable themes and keyboard shortcuts