I am not clear, is the Visual Designer tab on the HTML editor equivalent to the VSD package?

If not, what is the upside to VSD?

Thanks!

Hi Catfish,

We offer two different applications that you can choose from which will allow you to create your site: HTML Editor and Visual Site Designer. The Visual Editor tab in The HTML Editor is somewhat like the Visual Site Designer except it lacks the options in Visual Site Designer.

The main difference between HTML Editor and Visual Site Designer is access to the raw HTML. Visual Site Designer will generate all the necessary HTML for you and allow you to focus on the design of your page. You can insert text, images, links, etc. and drag them anywhere on the page. You can even create shapes such as rectangles and circles, or add effects like glow, bevel, and shadow. Because everything is stored in the .vnu file for Visual Site Designer, it cannot open preexisting HTML files to edit.

The HTML Editor, on the other hand, can open any HTML file and edit it with either the Code Editor or Visual Editor. The Visual Editor will also allow you to insert text, images, links, etc., but you cannot create shapes or effects within the program. Those would need to be done outside the software and inserted as images. Because the HTML Editor edits one file at a time, as opposed to the entire site, you have more control over things like filenames, directory structure, etc., and how these elements are uploaded to the server.

If you have any other questions, let us know.

Hello Catfish,

they are entirely different program setups. VSD is extremely visual, allowing also for you to insert HTML and FLASH etc. code where needed. If you're wanting a visual editor then VSD would be the way to go.

The HTML Editor does have the visual tab setup on it, but it's definitely not as robust and feature packed as VSD is and VSD is the main program CC outputs for visually designing sites. The HTML Editor has had the visual tab in it either from day one or not long after. It's been used by many over the years, but the trend has moved to VSD as the visual editor now. Although I want to say that the HTML Editor's visual tab is usable, feature to feature it's not as packed as the VSD program is and VSD is setup much more user friendly now too for old and new users of the program. All in all it's the better choice for visual editing.

Like I said, I can't say the visual editor in the HTML Editor isn't ok, it's just not as good. And you cannot "feasibly" swap between the code and visual tabs of HTML Editor as they are not compatible with eachother and will change the code on you each time making placements very difficult, so if you're wondering on that aspect if you can have both in one like that, the answer would be no unless you have a ton of patience for re-adjusting your code.

All in all I guess I would mostly recommend VSD.

Having said that, if you're trying to alter an already current site, keep in mind that you cannot import already created pages into VSD, it is a stand alone program that contains its own file system and keeps it in a special file name extension that doesn't have import capabilities, only export.
If you're starting a brand new site, or wanting to redo one that you don't mind starting from scratch then it's perfect!

Thank you for the input! It appears I'll need both platforms... there should be a discount for that!

I already own the HTML editor.

:-)

Looks like Monica and I were on the same time frame there LOL