TTW WYSIWYG Editors

• Open source
• Commerical
• Remotely hosted
• Other interesting developments
  

---

To be listed below the editor must be TTW ("through the Web" - it works within a browser) and WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get" - you don't see HTML). Some editors allow you to toggle between "view" and "source" modes - this is a bonus but not a prerequisite for this list.

The "Remarks" are based on supporting Web pages - I haven't installed and used all of these editors so I can't vouch for this information.

Interesting background reading:

• The Universal Canvas - piece on the topic by Jon Udell, BYTE Magazine
• The Universal Canvas Revisited
• For Internet Explorer 5.5 only - Leveraging Scriptable Editing in Your Web Pages
• Also How to Create an HTML Editor Application

Unfortunately, at present, the devil has all the best tunes in this area (which means that IE5+ offers the path of least resistance - at the expense of accessibility). However, watch the CONTENTEDITABLE space in Mozilla land. What Xopus have done is to implement "contenteditable" for Mozilla. Life is soon going to be sweet one feels .....

.... check out ComposIte for another Mozilla-based solution. And Xopus and Bitflux Editor are now open sourced! [It now looks as though Xopus is only available commercially.]

And we now welcome skyWriter to the scene .... and htmlArea now supports Mozilla 1.3. Midas is another Mozilla-based solution - see also
Cross-Browser Rich Text Editor which works with Mozilla 1.3+ & IE5+. Phoundry V4.0 now offers Midas support and so does Epoz. And some how I overlooked Mozile - another Mozilla-based but XML-aware solution.

Two attributes added (by popular request):

• X - works with XML
• Z - Zope-based solution available (including CMF, Plone et al)

I've only tested things in a small number of cases so I'm heavily relying on product descriptions and user feedback.

---

Open Source

Project/Product	License	X	Z	Remarks
aynHTML	GPL			Win/IE5.5+ only
Bitflux Editor	Apache Software License	X		Mozilla 1.x /Netscape 7.0-based. Written in Javascript. Usable with XHTML & XML Documents.
Bs_Wysiwyg Editor	Developer			Win/IE6+ only
bpEditor	GPL			Win/IE only
Campfire	GPL			Implemented as a Java Applet (browser-compatibility reason). Tested on Netscape under Unix, Macintosh and Windows (Versions up to 4.7), Internet Explorer under Windows (up to version 5.5). douglas.arellanes@mdlf.org says: "It is currently not available as a stand-alone application, but can be relatively easily extracted from the Campsite source code."
CMFVisualEditor	GPL		Z	See IE Editor for Zope
ComposIte	MPL			Anything that will run Mozilla. ComposIte is a chrome overlay which enables a streamlined Mozilla Editor for html composition in textareas. One installed you'll be able to edit a textarea the wysiwig Mozilla Composer module.
Cross-Browser Rich Text Editor	?MPL			IE5+/Mozilla 1.3+ for all rich-text features to function properly.
Easy Web Editor	LGPL			Win/IE only.
EditThisPage	?			Win/IE only. Off-line now?
Ekit	GPL			Java2
Epoz	GPL		Z	A cross-browser-wysiwyg-editor for Zope (and Plone). Epoz allows you to edit Zope-objects with a wysiwyg-editor. No plugins are required. You only have to use a recent browser (IE >= 5.5, Mozilla >= 1.3.1) that supports Rich-Text-controls (called Midas for Mozilla).
FCKeditor	LGPL			Win/IE5+ only.
FreeTextBox	?			Win/IE only. ASP.NET control written in C#.
htmlArea	BSD		Z	Version 2.03 - IE 5.5+ for Windows only. Version 3.0 (alpha) - IE 5.5+ (Windows)/Mozilla 1.3 (all OS) cross platform functionality. Zope solution.
HTMLEdit	?			Java, has bugs, no source, was on JavaBoutique but withdrawn. Off-line now?
HTML Text Editor	LGPL			Javascript, Win/IE only
HTML Text Editor Applet	GPL			Java, JavaScript
HTOpenEdit	?			Win/IE only, DHTML
IE Editor for Zope	GPL		Z	Win/IE5 only but not Zope only. Extended to work with Zope Presentation Templates and CMF/Plone (CMFVisualEditor).
IEWedit	GPL			Win/IE
IEMethod	?			Win/IE and Zope only
js_edit	?			Win/IE only, PHP. "This Project Has Not Released Any Files."
Midas	MPL			Rich text editing control for Mozilla. See demo (you need Mozilla 1.3).
Mozile	MPL	X		MozillaInlineEditor is an in-browser, context-sensitive, XHTML editor that allows a user to edit all or just specific editable sections of any XHTML page from the comfort of his own browser.
NetWedit	GPL			Netscape 4+
of_wysiwyg	LGPL			Win/IE5.0+ only
Online Content Editor	Demo?			Win/IE only
ProtoPad	?			Win/IE5.5+ only. Also availible as an executable.
Richtext Editor	LGPL			Win/IE only
scHTML Editor	?			Win/IE only. Includes an built-in JavaScript Editor, Form Editor and MetaTag wizard.
Simple HTML-editor User Control for ASP.NET	Open Source 2002			Win/IE only. The README.TXT file says: "Requires: Internet Explorer 5.5+. Limitations: Only one editor control per page. Author: Kim Bach Petersen · kim@kensho.dk. Version: 1 Build: 2"
skyWriter Visual Editors	Open Source			<bobdoyle@skybuilders.com> says: "Our skyWriter for Internet Explorer is just the Dynamic HTML Control from Microsoft. Our skyWriter for Mozilla may be the first full HTML visual editor for Mozilla (since Bitflux and Xopus are XML editors). The important thing about both skyBuilders skyWriters is that they are open source and license free. No per-seat or per-server charges like the leading tools. Of course they aren't as sophisticated as Ektron at the moment, but we hope to add more features."
Text Editor	?			Requires FlashMX
tGedit	Open Source			Win/IE only. tGedit is a WYSIWYG HTML Editor that can be easily inserted into forms and applications using a simple Cold Fusion custom tag. Requires ColdFusion Server 4.5 or later. "Pro" version has extra features and is redistributable.
tide	LGPL			Javascript, PHP? Win/IE5 only. No download yet
WYSIWYG HTML Editor	?			Win/IE only
WYSIWYG HTML Editor	?			Win/IE only (is this the same as the one above?)
wysiwyg_web_edit	?			IE and Netscape (but with ActiveX plug-in from www.esker.com)
XS DHTML Editor	LGPL			Win/IE only, DHTML, JavaScript

Commercial

Product	X	Z	Remarks
ActivEdit			Win/IE only
Adminimizer Pro			Win/IE only
Advanced Content Editor			Win/IE only, $59.95. tim@electricjet.com says: "An updated and MUCH improved commercial version of the Web-based Content Editor. I have found it to be one of the better implementations of the MSHTML Editor and it is CHEAP, plus you get full source code and unlimited usage". The blurb says "Requirement: Server: ASP, IIS (as the main component actually is actually a client side script, so this is required only for running the sample project & image library management)" though I doubt (and hope) that ASP and IIS are not mandatory. marinus@cs.utwente.nl says: "The examples that are provided with it are focused on ASP and IIS, but it's easy to implement in Zope". Interesting license - see Web-based Content Editor.
AOI WYSIWYG Editor			Supports IE/NS/Mozilla on Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP and Mac OSX. Requires Blackboard.
authentic 5 Browser Edition			Win/IE5.0+ only (ActiveX).
axWebEd			49 Euros ("shareware"). Win/IE only. Add-on for phpWebEd.
csPublisher			Perl-based CMS which includes Win/IE5.5+ only WYSIWYG editor. $99.
dhtmleditor			Hans-Jürgen Petrich <petrich@tronic-media.com> says: License: Free for private usage, license required for any kind of commercial usage ( http://www.p42.net/dhtmleditor/license.txt ) Remarks:  Win/IE5.5 +,  Mozilla 1.3+ , pure DHTML, no plugins, fully customizeable with a API for custom buttons, listboxes, behavoir, very easy to embed in existings projects, CMS or AdminScripts, will replace (optional) textareas automatically.
edit-on Pro	X	Z	3980 Euros for unlimited CPU license - 30% educational discount. Java 1.1, XHTML compliant. Version 3.0 of the RealObjects XHTML / XML editor was released in December 2002. Silva 0.9 offers experimental support for V2.1. Also used in Zope TurboIntranet and lesser attempts at Zope integration.
Editize		Z	$127 per commercial URL - unlimited users. Java, XHTML compliant. Plone solution available.
EditLive			Java and ActiveX. Supports Mac OS X, Windows and Solaris. Supports XML, WebDAV, internationalization, 508 compliance. Version 2.0 was released in December 2002. Pricing starts at $199. ActiveX edition also available.
EditWorksPro			Win/IE5.0+ only, PHP + ASP.
eWebEditPro			Windows only but IE or Netscape
eWebEditPro+XML	X		Windows only but IE or Netscape and support for XHTML/XML
eWebWP			Built upon Macromedia Flash MX technology. Unlimited user license for US$99.
flash HTML editor	X		Requires Flash. Supports XML.
HTMLeditbox			Win/IE5.5+ and PHP. $9.95
Html TextBox			Win/IE5.5+. ASP.NET server control. Available in four versions (Standard version is free).
JWebEdixx			Java 1.4 or higher is required. Table and Stylesheet support is coming up.
LIME (Less is More Editor)			HTML Editor of Q42. Runs only in Win/IE5.5 + 6. Allows multiple users profiles, image uploads, block moving and editing, css styles. Needs PHP or MS-ASP running on a server. Rest is done client side.
OU Courseware Advantage			Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP and Internet Explorer 5.5 and higher, or Netscape 4.0 and higher. Macintosh 8.1 or higher, or Mac OS X and Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher, or Netscape 6.0 and higher, or Apple Safari Internet Browser. Requires Blackboard Learning Systems version 5.5.1 or higher running on Windows, Linux or Solaris; Blackboard Building Blocks Capable Client; Blackboard Building Blocks. Pricing is per annum based on number of users (e.g. 100 users $2,500 per annum, Windows only).
Phoundry Editor			PHP-based solution. Integrated HTMLtidy support. Using this feature, the Phoundry Editor will generate syntactically correct HTML or XHTML. Version 4.0 introduces compatibility with the Mozilla browser. This means that the Phoundry Editor is now available for Mac OSX, Linux, AIX, HPUX, OpenBSD, OpenVMS, OS/2 and Solaris, besides Windows which was already supported. In order to run the Phoundry Editor on Mozilla, you need to have Mozilla 1.3 or later. The Mozilla version of the Phoundry Editor should be considered beta-quality. The reason for this is that the Mozilla WYSIWYG component which is used (called "Midas"), is not as mature as its Microsoft counterpart. Future versions of the Mozilla browser will hopefully improve on the quality of the Midas component. $149 - one domain, unlimited use.
r.a.d.editor			Server: Microsoft ASP.NET Version 1.0. Client: Internet Explorer 5.5 or later for r.a.d.editor rich text editing. Single license $125.
RichTextBox			Win/IE only.
SnippetMaster			Win/IE5.5+ and PHP. Lite version is free.
SoftChalk			The SoftChalk WYSIWYG Editor was built using Java applet technology. It works with both Windows (XP, 2000, NT, ME, 98) and Macintosh (MacOS X) Internet Explorer (5.0 or higher), Netscape browsers (NS4, NS6, NS7 or Mozilla), and Apple's Safari browser.  Requires Blackboard Learning System 5.x or 6.x , Level 2 or Level 3. $2500 per annum.
soEditor			Win/IE only. Lite version is free.
SpellChecker			Html editor and spell checker for $199 ASP or Java spell checking.  Currently supports Mozilla Gecko 1.4 and IE 5.5+.  Working on IE 5.0 support as well as some more functions such as insert image, tables, commaonly used terms, special symbols such as copyrights trademarks, Euro's and the like.
Textarea Rich			Win/IE5.5+. Lite (£9.99) and Pro (£19.99) versions available.
tGedit			Win/IE only. tGedit is a WYSIWYG HTML Editor that can be easily inserted into forms and applications using a simple Cold Fusion custom tag. Requires ColdFusion Server 4.5 or later. "Pro" version ($100)  has extra features and is redistributable.
warp.cms HTML Editor			Requires Flash and PHP. Non-commercial use is free.
Web-based Content Editor			Win/IE only. $24.95. Interesting license: "Yusuf Wiryonoputro grants you, the licensed developer, the right to use the SOURCE CODE, customize it according to your needs, and distribute the SOURCE CODE, without any royalty whatsoever, provided that: You do not distribute the SOURCE CODE, in whole or in part, in any form that does not add primary and substantial value to the SOURCE CODE, and that the resulting product must not compete with Yusuf Wiryonoputro's SOURCE CODE PRODUCT on the market level. You do not permit (either by explicit or implicit means) further distribution of the Yusuf Wiryonoputro's SOURCE CODE by your end users."
WebEdit Pro			Win/IE only
WebWord			Win/IE only. Not clear if widget is available separately without consultancy. "We can implement the WebWord WYSIWYG content editor into any custom PHP, ASP, ColdFusion application."
WYSIWYG HTML Editor			Win/IE only, but only $179 per URL (i.e. www.domain.org and support.domain.org would require two licenses)
Xopus	X		Runs on Win/IE 5.5 + 6 and on Mozilla 1.x on any platform. Works with XML, XSLT and XSD

Remotely hosted TTW WYSIWYG Editors

(thanks to nelsonthomas@earthlink.net for the initial list):

Edit My Site Online

HookFryServe

liveSTORYBOARD

OmniEdit

OmniUpdate

siteBricks

SuperUpdate

WebsiteSimplicity

WYSIweb

Other interesting developments

• XForm Web Service - Transforms MS Word documents to XML format
• POI - APIs for manipulating various file formats based upon Microsoft's OLE 2 Compound Document format using pure Java
• WordToWeb - automatic HTML publishing for MS Word (scriptable; can be run from command line)
• Logictran - Word/RTF to HTML/XML
• YAWC - Word to XML conversion
• MajiX - RTF to XML conversion; open source Java
• icoya WordXML - Word to XML conversion
• xDoc Converter - Word to XML conversion
• Docma - extends Silva which is built on XML from the ground up (Silva2PDF, Silva2Word and Word2Silva on the road map)
• Office 2003 (aka Office 11) XML
• DMC HTMLFilter