Given that its name is TopStyle, it’s not surpising that so many people still think it’s only for editing style sheets. TopStyle did start out strictly as a CSS editor, but starting with version 3.0 it blossomed into a full-blown HTML editor for hand coders.

Every week I get people asking me to recommed an HTML editor to use with TopStyle and invariably they’re stunned to hear that they can use TopStyle to edit HTML, so I thought I’d take a moment to highlight TopStyle’s great HTML editing features.

First and foremost, TopStyle is simply the best tool for CSS creation and validation – nothing else comes close. If you already use TopStyle for CSS, why switch to another app just to edit your HTML? As this page illustrates, there are many time-saving benefits to using an HTML editor which knows so much about CSS.

When you’re ready to preview your work, you’ll love how TopStyle provides a side-by-side IE/Mozilla preview which enables viewing your HTML in both browsers at the same time.

You also won’t find better HTML validation in any other tool. Why? Because TopStyle integrates directly with the W3C HTLML Validator as well as the CSE HTML Validator. And of course you can use TopStyle’s HTML Tidy integration to clean up your HTML – and even convert your HTML to XHTML.

But perhaps the biggest benefit is that unlike other HTML editors, TopStyle was designed from the ground up to help create standards-compliant XHTML. Most other HTML editors were created several years ago during the “tag soup” stage of HTML, so their XHTML support was grafted onto a rickety foundation. Plus, TopStyle isn’t overloaded with toolbuttons that insert outdated HTML tags. Instead, you rely on simple, customizable keyboard shortcuts for inserting HTML tags, which keeps TopStyle’s UI uncluttered and responsive.

Of course, these are just a few of TopStyle’s HTML/XHTML tools. A more thorough feature list can be found in the release notes:

TopStyle Pro 3.0 release notes
TopStyle Pro 3.10 release notes

If you haven’t tried TopStyle for HTML editing, do yourself a favor and download a trial version. You won’t be sorry :)

PS: Be sure to check out the Flash demos which show off TopStyle’s integrated HTML/CSS editing and validation.