In my search for a language-sensitive HTML editor, I have finally turned to Xcode. Xcode is Apple’s software development environment. It’s free, and usually comes with your Mac on the software install disk.
I’ve been looking for some sort of reasonable HTML editor that understood HTML, and colorized the elements. It turns out that the answer is Xcode.
Xcode does a lot more than edit HTML. It is intended to develop entire Macintosh (and iOS) applications. It is a very big and potentially scary application. However, using it to edit HTML is trivial. You don’t have to create a project or anything, just select open from the file menu, and away you go. Here’s what it looks like:
Update: Apple’s Dashcode is even more appropriate. It is intended for creating Dashboard widgets, and gives the same great editing features as Xcode in a lighter-weight application.
Enjoy,
-Jamie
Xcode has some hidden bonuses that make it a much better solution, in my opinion. If you drag your site folder into the organizer window [Window > Organizer], you get an overview of all your site’s files, just like an Xcode project. You get some great extras thrown in like snapshots, find & replace text and code folding. And the syntax highlighting works on HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, etc….
The XCode Editor is pretty awesome, especially the extras like project view.