Web Design Tools

Should You Use A Tool to Get Started?

Unless you plan on setting up a "no frills" plain Website that has only a couple of pages you want to get a good Web Design tool that you can use to create your site.  A Good Tool will be of tremendous help when it comes to creating a site that has more than a few pages and it will allow you to have some fancy things like animations or interactive elements.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.  There are some people who are so good at HTML coding that they create Websites without using a Web Design Tool.  They use a few programs to help them with things like scripting, text manipulation and data base work, but they code the entire Websites by hand.  For the rest of us normal people, you should plan on using a Web Design Tool.

Two Kinds of Web Editing Tools

As you look at Web Design Tools, they will generally fall into one of two categories.  The categories are HTML Editors or GUI Editors (pronounced "Gooey", which means "Graphical User Interface").

1.  HTML Editors are tools that help you write and edit HTML code.  They have things like "tag" and "code" creation functions that help you quickly create code.  But you will be the code author so you will need to be quite knowledgeable of HTML code in order to make much progress with one of these tools.

• Macromedia Homesite by Adobe (www.macromedia.com/software/homesite) -
• CoffeeCup (www.coffeecup.com)
• NoteTab  (www.notetab.com) - (Three versions are available, the "Light" version is Free)
• Selida (selida.camelon.nl) - Free from Amartllis Software
• Amaya (www.w3.org/Amaya)- Free Open Source web editor offered by W3C.-

They take some time to learn because they usually have so many functions to choose from, so even though you don't have to work directly with the code, you have to get familiar with the many options before you can become very productive.

Even with GUI Editors, it will greatly benefit you to learn at least basic HTML so you'll have more control over your work and be able to add, delete or edit the HTML code when you need to.  No matter how good the GUI program is, eventually you will need to edit the code.

Nvu (www.nvu.com) an Open Source program from Linspire.  It can be downloaded for FREE to design a Basic Website.  They would like you to make a cash donation for the program.  It will help you with the basics of Web Design and allow you to design a home Web page without knowing a lot about HTML.

Popular GUI Web Building Tools

If you're serious about designing a professional looking Website and are willing to spend some money, here are some of the more popular Proprietary Web design programs:

• GoLive! by Adobe  A powerful Multimedia tool
• Dreamweaver by Macromedia More expensive than FrontPage, but has more capabilities, more towards the professional end
• FrontPage 2003 by Microsoft Easier to learn than Dreamweaver. It will be discontinued at the end of 2007 and replaced by MS Expression Web.
• MS Expression Web by Microsoft  More robust than FrontPage and a bit more like Dreamweaver.  If you have been using FrontPage, then a switch to Expression Web will be easy.
• Fusion by NetObjects  A less expensive Web Design program.

When you use these software tools you will have complete control over the design and maintenance of your Website.  You'll be able to write HTML code either by hand or by using menu selections, which is a great help to someone that does not know HTML very well.  They also allow you to create and place objects with a few clicks of a button.

Of course, the more features a program has, the longer it will take you to figure it out. 

You might be able to set up a very basic Web page in a few days, but figure it will be months before you'll start getting a handle on the entire program and be able to do all the things you want to do.

Another option is that many Web Hosting Companies offer Free GUI Website Building tools to create your Web Pages when you sign up for one of their hosting plans.

No one can become an expert overnight, so keep in mind that there will be a learning curve with all programs, even with the FREE and Open Source programs.

What About Using Web Templates from Internet Sites

To help you get started quickly, there are many sites on the Web that offer Web Templates, for a Price or for Free.  Some of the Hosting Companies offer this service as well as have a Free Web Design Tool for their customers.

Templates are an easy way to get started.  The are basically a pre-put-together page layout that you can copy for all of your pages and then you just add some text and graphics and you are almost ready to publish your site.

With the free templates, the designs will be very simple and not have "bells and whistles" on them.  The more you pay, the more you get.  With templates that you buy, the designs are more professional looking and some come with pre-made navigations structures or drop down menu systems and other extras.+

The downside to using templates is that if you want to make numerous changes to the template layout, then it's almost just as easy (and probably less confusing) to start from scratch and build your own page layout than to try and redo an existing template.

Here's are several websites that offer FREE Web templates:

1. Free Layouts (www.freelayouts.com) - Free Website Templates, Myspace Layouts, and Flash Templates.
2. Open Source Web Design (www.oswd.org) - An Open Source Site where you can add templates to their data base if you have some you'd like to post on their site.
3. Open Web Design (www.openwebdesign.org) - A community of designers and site owners sharing free web design templates and design information.

In the next topic on Planning Your Site,  I'll talk about how to plan out your site before you start constructing it.  Some of the things covered will be Determining the Goal of your site, Developing the Layout, and Developing your Content