KompoZer WYSIWYG Web Authoring

WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get.” The idea is you should be able to create a web page with little technical experience. In some ways WYSIWYG web authoring is like using a word processor to create a letter. You don’t really know how it adjusts font, font size, and centers things but you can cause those things to happen on the printed page. The end product should be what you see on the computer screen. WYSIWYG.

FREE KompoZer HTML Editor Downloads

The leading, free, WYSIWYG editor is KompoZer.  KompoZer follows the Nvu editors with bug fixes, added features and now, a new engine compatible with current operating systems -- PC, Linux and Mac. 

Nvu was developed by Daniel Glazman as an open source project sponsored by Linspire. The idea was to create a cross-platform, WYSIWYG HTML editor that could be used by novices to create web pages. Even though Nvu is open source the name "Nvu" was trademarked by Linspire.

Nvu 1.0 was released with a number of bugs but their was no further development. Charles Cooke, author of the Nvu User’s Guide, observed that Nvu was developed seemingly without a specification. He published a bug list based on his assumptions of what N|vu should have done compared to how it actually worked.

The bug-fix version, known as KompoZer, resolved most of the bugs and added new features.  KompoZer is renamed from Nvu because of the trademark issue.  It is really an update or continuation of Nvu.  KompoZer is again under active development and offers several improvements over Nvu. 

KompoZer is a Complete Package

You can get KompoZer as a free software download for Windows, Linux or McIntosh platforms. Several language packs are also available from the KompoZer web site.  The application is fully documented with a User Guide also prepared by Charles Cooke.  The KompoZer manual covers everything from installing the package to publishing your web site. KompoZer is relatively simple to use but KompoZer tutorials are available if you hit a technical wall.