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Who doesn’t own a webpage nowadays? If you’re
thinking about spicing up your webpage or (heaven forbid)
move your webpage off that blogging host, consider some
of these web design programs that will make mastering
the art of html a breeze (well, not exactly, but with
these WYSIWYG—What you see is what you get—tools,
you’ll be a designing maniac in no time).
Dreamweaver MX
This is probably the best web design tool. Dubbed as
the “Swiss Army Knife” of web developers,
Dreamweaver at first could be quite overwhelming. But
with a little practice, you’ll wonder how you ever
survived without it.
Don’t let the “flash” and “perl”
options intimidate you. What rocks about Dreamweaver
is it supports CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which means
you get to preview your work before uploading it. It
also integrates seamlessly with other Macromedia products,
so if you’re a genius when it comes to creating
Flash presentations, adding them in would be a cinch.
If you’d like to learn a little bit about html,
you can also split the work screen to show the WYSIWYG
screen and the HTML encoding (what better way to learn
than to see what the code actually looks like?). If
html encoding is your kind of thing, you can ditch the
WYSIWYG option altogether. And when you get really good
at html, Dreamweaver offers a “code hinting”,
which displays code options as you type, as well as
“Snippets”, which is a panel that stores common
pieces of html code that you always seem to need.
Dreamweaver generally takes a lot of time to learn,
but take heart, Padawan. It’s worth the training.
Microsoft Frontpage 2003
For those who love working with Microsoft Office’s
tools (especially Word), this is the web design program
for you.
It’s easy-to-use interface makes it easier to
access the editing features (unlike previous editions).
Just like Dreamweaver, it splits the screen to show
the html coding and the site’s lay-out. It also
features CSS, which means stacking up layers an option.
Its Coding Editor also has the Microsoft IntelliSense
software, which presents possible choices for the code
that you’re laying out.
Although not offering as much eye candy as Dreamweaver,
Frontpage is perfect for small business and school projects.
Adobe GoLive 6.0
If you swear by Adobe’s products, then this is
a no-brainer for you. The format is just like any other
Adobe program, so getting familiar with this software
will be as easy as pie. It also integrates all the Adobe
products in it—you’ll get to work closely
with Photoshop, Illustrator, and LiveMotion. Which means
you get to drag other Adobe files into GoLive. How sweet
is that?
But as with any other Adobe program, if you’re
not familiar with most Adobe products, it needs a little
time to get used to. It’s quite a heavyweight tool,
and if you’re not serious about putting up that
webpage, you might end up trading in this software for
another.
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