I downloaded and have been using Macromedia Dreamweaver to edit a php page.

I've been getting irritated because at times Dreamweaver will insert html tags into the page and this causes my web page to look distorted as Im making changes.

The page however looks ok when it's uploaded, but it makes editing the page difficult because I have to upload it and see it in the browser to see the final results.

Does anyone else have an alternative program to recommend?

Thanks,

Ralph
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This problem is not specific to dreamweaver. You can't predict the output of a PHP file until you run it.

edit: of course, you can always install the PHP interpreter on your machine. This way, if you want to check the output of the file, all you have to do is to save it in your webserver's document root and visit it through the browser. This way, you don't even have to be connected to the Internet to test your files.

Unless you want to run a webserver and php locally, but it still must be parsed locally now before you can view it.

I recomend EditPad Lite.

As with all web languages there comes a point when simply editing the code yourself in notepad is better than using a visual editor.

UltraEdit is quite good for php.

One feature I like is you can edit your file directly over ftp, so you don't need that extra step with an ftp program to upload.


Lats...

I use a variety of editors, and have sampled tonnes.

I have settled on the (rather expensive) Zend Studio. It is absolutely amazing. Just download the trial and see for yourself :)

Alternatively, if you're not developing commercially Zend offer a "lite" version for free.

I also use Edit Plus, it's similar to UltraEdit, and I think the choice between which to favor is an individual one, neither is certainly miles ahead in terms of what they offer.

I hope this helps

- Davey

IMHO there is no alt to dreamweaver. ( :eek: bold statement there)
If you go into the preferences, you can change the way it behaves so that it will not auto-fill code for you.
I use dreamweaver just like I used to use UltraEdit and html-kit- but it is also the best wysiwyg out there too. I don't think that many text editors out there show that drastic a difference to the one that comes with dreamweaver MX for me to go back to using more than one environment to code for the web.
To view a file from dreamweaver hit the F12 key.
To view a page after php download something like the phptriad and run the scripts from your apache/htdocs dir.

ok if u have a mac i recommend you should get BBedit it is the best php editor out there and it is the reason for why people turn to mac imagine a text editor with every language built into it this is it its great