Notepad++

Some say Dreamweaver is for noobs and Notepad is for men and I could argue there is some truth in this. As a web developer using a plain text editor aids the learning of clean coding, sound semantics and CSS property:value pairs. However Dreamweaver isn't without it's useful features like syntax highlighting and built-in FTP.

Notepad++ is like the helpful offspring of Dreamweaver and Notepad. At it's core it is a plain text editor but it comes with all kinds of niceties like:

• Built-in FTP allows you to work in real time on your servers
• Tabs allow you to easily work on multiple files at once
• Not only is syntax highlighted but also connecting braces and html tags
• The webedit plugin and shortcut mapper allow you to easily wrap html tags around content
• An 'Edit with Notepad++' option is added to the context menu to allow fast editing of files
• Default file type can be set for any new tabs opened
• It's open source with a good community with lots of interesting plugins easily installable.

Give Notepad++ a try and see what you think!