Text Editor

[JohnBoucher]

Even if you use a WYSIWYG html editor, you need a good text editor.

Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) is a free text editor that will make your life easier. It has syntax highlighting, auto completion and much more.

Using a text editor is much more efficient when coding. It's a tool that you need to have. There is also a portable version that runs from a flash drive.

[DoronS]

We've used NotePad++ for a lot of web coding. The option to use a portable app is nice, especially when you're working on school computers.
If you're on a mac, both XCode (part of the mac developer kit) and Komodo Edit (http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit) have worked out as free solutions, even though they are a little more complicated than NP++.

[ajd]

People might also check out vi/vim/gvim...the learning curve is quite steep, but I find them very efficient to use.

[Zach O]

If you're on a mac, both XCode (part of the mac developer kit) and Komodo Edit (http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit) have worked out as free solutions, even though they are a little more complicated than NP++.

Not nearly as free, but TextMate (http://macromates.com/) and BBEdit (http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/) are good text editors on Mac.

For a free Mac text editor, TextWrangler (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/)(also made by Bare Bones) is a good editor. All of these have functionality such as syntax highlighting for multiple languages.

[Boydean]

I have been a huge fan of Textmate for a while now. Spend my entire working days in it, and a large part of my school days as well.

Although I have been getting into Vim lately and really liking the 'two modes' type interface. As said before — has a bit of a learning curve, but when you can get past the basics its super powerful.

I rarely use Windows, but when I do I usually download Notepad++.

Side note. I hate IDEs. Whenever I use one I am reminded why I love things like Textmate and Vim. They are so bloated, and have so many features that I don't need. Its just preference and need based decisions though.

[keehun]

Notepad++ has never really been my favorite... I use Notepad2. It's a lot simpler and barebones, but there's just something about Notepad2 that bugs me.

But, I'm on OSX most of the time. I use TextMate for almost everything. I've written shell scripts that automate my work flow and TextMate's ability to be called from the command line
mate someFile.txt
cat someFile.txt | mate
echo "Some Text" | mate
has been really helpful.