Buildor Lite is a convenient, totally browser based online WYSIWYG web page editor. It costs nothing to use the lite edition and it will offer you a number of basic but powerful options for your non-CMS web site.
In 2010 there were more web pages available than there were people in the USA. This doesn’t sound like a big figure until you consider that each page is maintained and created by someone. More pages than the grains of sand on your average beach, it would seem. For every single page out there, someone had to design it, create it, and publish it.
While there are lots of programs out there for managing your website, and many pages these days (like blogs, for instance) work on a CMS (content management system) that won’t allow for the types of creative edits that open framework pages will let you use.
When you have a site that doesn’t have a CMS and you want to edit a specific page, without editing other pages, you can find that it gets a bit complicated. One of the best ways to make it less complicated and more fun is to load the page you want to edit into the Buildor Lite WYSIWYG editor.
The Buildor Lite program is entirely hosted and run online, so you will have access to it no matter where you log in from. It supports OpenID log ins so you can use your Google or other existing account to get right to the nuts and bolts without worrying about filling out registration forms. There is also a Pro version, which does have a cost associated with it for everyone except teachers and students. Both of them can use the Pro version for free, forever, but the rest of us only get a 50 day trial of the Pro version. The Lite version works quite well, however, and if you’re not looking to edit every little pixel of your page and just do some basic things, the Lite version will suit you just fine. It still allows you to edit, preview and publish any non-CMS page. Buildor is meant to be used to create and edit pages that are basic web frame, that means no fancy flash based parts of the page.
A WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) is a great tool because it shows you all the changes you are making, as you are making them. It will also give you a nice clean copy of the HTML used to create the page, and will even allow you to access your FTP site to upload pictures or entire pages from the Buildor Lite editor. So, you’ve got total control of the editing process as well as the edits themselves. Let Buildor Lite handle as much of it as you want and then take the HTML code and manipulate it to your heart’s content. This is the best feature of Buildor, in my opinion, since so many of the other WYSIWYG editors I have used do not offer you the option to get the HTML or CSS code for your pages. While Buildor Lite doesn’t have heavy support for CSS, the pro version does so if you need to run any CSS code the Lite version may not be for you and there are other editors that might support it. So, with Buildor Lite you can edit any existing page on the web, then save it to your desktop or even upload it directly to your FTP site to update the live page. Additionally, if you would rather, you can run Buildor Lite as a Chrome extension instead of just an online page. This can be useful for the slower, single core CPU computers.
Bearing in mind that it is currently in open Beta phase, Buildor Lite has already shaped up to be an excellent addition to your online page toolbox. There’s a great and in depth tutorial page, that has lots of step by step pictures and examples, and the overall sense of support from both community and developers on the Buildor pages looks to be unusually high quality. For example, when I had a question about Buildor Lite, I got an email response in less than 24 hours, which is much faster than I would expect. I found Buildor Lite to be fun and easy to use, as well as effective and completely free of course. What more could you ask for in a basic WYSIWYG editor? I’d recommend this one for anyone who either wants an easier way to update non-CMS pages, or for anyone who is looking to learn more about HTML and how it is used to build and edit pages. Since Buildor will give you the HTML code for any page you have on the web, and allow you to edit it and see those edits live in the code, it can be a massively useful learning tool. I wouldn’t suggest it as a tutorial on page building all by itself, as it’s not designed for that, but it sure is a handy tool that will help you along that road of education. Until next time, my friends.
Check out Buildor Lite here.
