Either the Visual Studio editor stinks, or I am visually impaired, or both. Well, for sure I am visually impaired. Does anyone here use a different HTML editor to build ASP.NET screens? I know that there are lots of HTML editors out there, stuff like Hotdog and such, but is there one that handles ASP.NET pages, that maybe is a better editor for visually impaired folks like myself to make our pages look better? I kind of envision something like FrontPage where you can draw tables (a la Word). But I know FrontPage generates a lot of bad HTML. Just for fun I tried to load an .aspx file in FP and it just opened Visual Studio for me. What a smart program.

Have you tried Dreamweaver? It is far better than FrontPage in the HTML category. It has ASP.NET functionality now but I have grown so used to not using a visual designer at all in ASP.NET (due to the miserable failure that is the VS.NET ASP.NET designer) that I just stay in code view (and code-behind view). Dreamweaver isn't as good in code view as VS.NET and it doesn't lend itself to code-behind (my preferred MO) so I stopped using DW after a few weeks.
If you want to try it, you can download a fully functional time-limited version at Macromedia's site. If you decide to buy, you just plug in your key and the time limitation is gone, no uninstall/reinstall needed.

There's a snippet here on their ASP.NET support

http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/productinfo/features/static_tour/support/#02

It costs $299, which might be ok if it's a really good tool. All my code is code-behind, though. I can't stand inline code - yuck! Are you saying it does not support code-behind at all?

Anybody else using DreamWeaver or a similar product?

JimFoye wrote:

It costs $299, which might be ok if it's a really good tool.

As far as I know, it is the best design tool by far.

JimFoye wrote:

Are you saying it does not support code-behind at all?

hmm... "at all"? I am sure there is some support. I have done a site using Dreamweaver and codebehind. Since 95% of my work is done in the code view, I didn't bother seeing the limits of Dreamweaver's design abilities as far as ASP.NET goes because it isn't as good a C# editor as VS.NET (of course).

Like I said, the fully-functioning trial is free, you can test it to see if it fits your specific needs. If you use the ASP.NET designer in VS.NET, you should probably try every competitor because VS.NET's designer is seriously flawed.

Have you tried WebMatrix? It doesn't do code behind but id does most other things pretty well and it's free

netclectic wrote:

Have you tried WebMatrix? It doesn't do code behind but id does most other things pretty well and it's free

I'm aware of it and was going to look at it, I wasn't sure if maybe it was something that people learning ASP.NET and didn't want to spend money for VS got.

Now this whole question takes on more meaning. I just learned I'll have to give all my .aspx pages to an HTML designer to pretty up. Now....what tool should she use?? She doesn't have VS. She normally uses FrontPage. On my system FP just loads VS.

I Agree the HTML editor in ASP.Net sucks...soooo many bugs It is amazing how you learn to work around the bugs. The bug i hate the most is where the designer looses the Event hookups for C# - I really hate that one.

Does anybody know if these bugs have been fixed in the new version of VS?

How does "A complete rewrite of everything ASP.NET (including editor)" sound?

Otis wrote:

How does "A complete rewrite of everything ASP.NET (including editor)" sound?

hmm...not sure that it is ever gonna happen. I just need the editor to be fixed.

Atleast VB.Net does not have that anoying bug that i mentioned in my previous post. - small blessings

wayne wrote:

Otis wrote:

How does "A complete rewrite of everything ASP.NET (including editor)" sound?

hmm...not sure that it is ever gonna happen. I just need the editor to be fixed.

Well, they rewrote it, so you better believe it . I'm not sure if the editor is better, as I've not used it yet but what I've seen is very promissing, and the 500,000 unittests they've written for ASP.NET and the editor also sounds like they mean business this time

Atleast VB.Net does not have that anoying bug that i mentioned in my previous post. - small blessings

heh, but if I recall correctly VB.NET and asp.net have other issues, like deletion of member variables (which was fixed by the ONE public fix they released!)

Here, HTML is written in Homesite btw, which I then pick up and dump into aspx pages or controls and add code-behind logic. Skipping that asp.net editor designer altogether.

Here, HTML is written in Homesite btw, which I then pick up and dump into aspx pages or controls and add code-behind logic. Skipping that asp.net editor designer altogether.

Sounds like a good idea.

Otis wrote:

Here, HTML is written in Homesite btw, which I then pick up and dump into aspx pages or controls and add code-behind logic. Skipping that asp.net editor designer altogether.

Definitly a good idea! Homesite is still my favourite html editor, i've been using it since version 3.something back in the Allaire days and thankfully Macromedia didn't messed with it too much when they took it over. I'm currently running v5.5 and i don't see me needing to update to a "better" html editor anytime in the near future.

I now have the same situation with another customer where the graphics designer needs to modify my .aspx pages when I get finished. He uses DreamWeaver.

I'll look into Homesite.

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

wayne wrote:

I Agree the HTML editor in ASP.Net sucks...soooo many bugs It is amazing how you learn to work around the bugs. The bug i hate the most is where the designer looses the Event hookups for C# - I really hate that one.

Does anybody know if these bugs have been fixed in the new version of VS?

Oh, I've been bitten by that bug!!!!

Has anyone figured out how to add a skeleton event handler? In old VB, you would see all the possible events for an object in the combo box, you could select one and the code editor would create it. I can double-click on a button and that works fine, but what about other events?

If you like homesite, you might want to look at TopStyle Pro. It's written by Nick Bradbury, the guy who wrote Homesite and sold it to the big boys.

http://www.bradsoft.com/topstyle/index.asp

arschr wrote:

If you like homesite, you might want to look at TopStyle Pro. It's written by Nick Bradbury, the guy who wrote Homesite and sold it to the big boys.

http://www.bradsoft.com/topstyle/index.asp

Not sure if it still does but TopStyle Lite used to come with Homesite.

Otis wrote:

Here, HTML is written in Homesite btw, which I then pick up and dump into aspx pages or controls and add code-behind logic. Skipping that asp.net editor designer altogether.

What about the "dynamic HTML", generated by the code-behind logic or HTML which only is available within asp.net? For example, validation (controls) and "grid-like"/repeater controls.

Now that we are talking about this anyway, could you perhaps give your view on how to handle "grid-like"/repeater controls: Back when I was using PHP I just used e.g. an array which "printed" a news page (a repeating area). All sorts of HTML controls where used to build up a row (single news item) and I just didn't care (well almost) how the code would look like. Now programming in asp.net I always find myself wanting to use controls which are fit for the required task and do nothing more (or less). In WinForms I can do so: a grid. I just design the grid, give it some data en voilá. But a grid in a webpage just doesn't feel right...

JimFoye wrote:

Either the Visual Studio editor stinks, or I am visually impaired, or both. Well, for sure I am visually impaired. Does anyone here use a different HTML editor to build ASP.NET screens? I know that there are lots of HTML editors out there, stuff like Hotdog and such, but is there one that handles ASP.NET pages, that maybe is a better editor for visually impaired folks like myself to make our pages look better? I kind of envision something like FrontPage where you can draw tables (a la Word). But I know FrontPage generates a lot of bad HTML. Just for fun I tried to load an .aspx file in FP and it just opened Visual Studio for me. What a smart program.

Me and HTML go WAY back... Back in the day, I used Homesite exclusively. No wait... I think the first thing I used was HTMLKit... Then it was Homesite and Dreamweaver.. Then Dreamweaver was all I needed. All this time, I avoided Interdev and later VisualStudio like the plague. But 2004 was an interesting year... Some people think I'm crazy, but I've gotten pretty used to using VS.NET 2003 for pretty much everything. It definintely takes some getting used to because it doesn't always do what you need it to do. Sometimes it does want you want it to but not very well.. and as it has already been said in this thread, sometimes it does things without you telling it to. Still, it's nice not having to jump back and forth between 3 or 4 programs just to write HTML.

I've tried the VisualStudio and Dreamweaver combo and it just didn't work very well.