Simple question - I think,

I keep reading about Editor V14, Responsive and "Semantic" but I'm afraid I don't get the whole picture of how it might apply in my case. I'm planning what would be, primarily, a family website but with some pages devoted to people and companies I've worked with in the past. Access for most of the site would be by invitation and login. A couple other areas would be accessible to anyone, but of interest only to certain people with similar interests.

In other words I'm not selling something or creating a BLOG or publishing content for the general public. As a result I presume that I don't really care one fiddly about search engines, etc. So . . . What would be the advantage for me to upgrade to Editor V14 or purchase the Responsive Layout Maker?

BTW - Thank you for your great products.
Peter

Welcome to the forum Peter,
Before any question asked I would advice you to download a trial version and test it out yourself.
By the way , HTML Editor has free version as well .
But for Responsive Layout Maker it's layout maker as it sounds, it's not Responsive website designer .
By the way , Responsive website designer under development and being said it will be soon appear as stand alone product.

With Responsive Layout Maker you make a layout of your website that how it will appears on other devices such as desktop and mobile and export and then the rest you can edit ( if you have knowledge of HTML, CSS and JS coding ) with Coffeecup HTML code editor, If not then I would advice wait for upcoming Responsive website designer, and while we all waiting for Responsive website designer to come out of the oven we play around and get familiar our-self with Responsive Layout Maker which the output of exported file can be open and edited with Responsive website designer . ( Upcoming Responsive website designer = Visual Site Designer for no coders but responsive )

I personally in love with Responsive Layout Maker. it save lots and lots of time before mess up with coding.

In simple way to answer your question if you are really coder and know HTML, CSS and JS you don't need any of these application you can do it with any code and simple text editor.

And if you want to stay with this new trend of " responsive " go for Responsive Layout Maker and use free Coffeecup HTML Editor and wait for Responsive website designer.

There's some inexpensive responsive themes available for the html editor. You could easily tweak one of these for the look you want but would save yourself a bunch of time having the basic frame work already working.
https://www.coffeecup.com/store/themes/ … or-themes/

To answer your question on what the benefit of upgrading to HTML Editor v.14, it would all totally depend on what version you're working with now.

For a family private website nothing SEO is important. There is no advantage to upgrading to V14 or RLM unless a good portion of your family wants to or you desire them access to the site via phones and tablets. If you are doing sites other than the private family one then Yes, upgrade buy both.

I maintain, operate a family private site also. It runs just fine on PCs and tablets with normal size considerations and coding with the HTML Editor V14. (I always upgrade as I do other sites and I've gotten the CC Editor since the first one was made available). Most of my family members that use the site are middle age or older and PCs and Tablets are the mainstay. A very few of the younger harp about smart phone use and I just tell them they can recode when they take over and all us older farts are gone. So for as I can see it the decision is really govern by family makeup and preferences.

HTH some,

TomH