I get a lot of questions from people who want to create their own website about what software is the best and easiest to learn. The problem is that many of the entry level website design software that was fairly easy and affordable has matured or disappeared. For the beginner, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web design software is much easier to learn. You can use any text editor for raw HTML code and check it with a web browser but that may be too much for a beginner.
A good way to describe WYSIWYG is to think of a word processor like MS Word. You can see exactly how the formatting will appear in the print out on the screen. Same principal on the WYSIWYG web design software. And if you can use MS Word, you can probably use the WYSIWYG web design software. In fact every since Office 2000, MS Word can be saved in the HTML format and be viewed in a web browser. But the code is huge and there are other issues that cause problems so it s not a good choice for other than a quick and dirty web page.
Part of the problem is that as technology advances, it can become more difficult. A perfect example is Dreamweaver. It started out as an HTML editor that was easy to learn and had a lot of features. It was also very affordable at around $90 $100. Adobe bought the company a few years ago and now it is a monster, has a learning curve that hurts, and costs $399.
FrontPage by Microsoft is another good example. It started off as a quick and easy way to create a website, cost about $79 and was easy to learn. Now it has morphed into Expression, the price is not too bad at $150 but now comes with a learning curve that hurts too since it s based on CSS. And to say it has issues is being more than kind.
Part of the problems with both of the latest versions of Dreamweaver and Expressions is the new CSS standard. In a nutshell, CSS is used to define the user interface of a website and to separate content from presentation. It can be a big time saver in that all pages can have the same look and feel but different subject matter. Design it once and use it on every page. If you have a 500 page website, that s a huge advantage.
If you have a small website with every page being different, it s a pain. If you re a beginner just learning web design it can increase the complexity by leaps and bounds. Plus, like all great new technology, there are a few gotcha s with CSS and that adds to the fun (or in most cases problems). Rookies have enough trouble figuring out HTML, let alone advanced CSS techniques.
About the only good choice for a beginner left is a web design software offered for free called Kompozer. It s loosely based on the original Dreamweaver software and has many of the latest technology features including CSS. It does have some issues, but they are minor for the most part. And it will give the beginner a chance to see if they want to pursue web design for no cost and a few hours of time.
New users can get their feet wet and learn a lot about web design with any WYSIWYG editor. There are good tutorials available and forums for Kompozer to help answer questions. All free for anyone. So the price is definitely right, and you really can t go wrong if you just want to find out if web design is for you.
Komposer has a huge following and is very popular. There are free templates (pre made designs for specific subjects and purposes) that can speed up your web design efforts too. To find the latest version of Kompozer, just do a search in Google for the website. You will also see all the support websites and other Komposer resources.
In my humble opinion, Komposer is the best choice for most entry level folks who want to take a shot at designing their first website. If they want to get into the more advanced design techniques, then they can spend the $100s of dollars on the higher end software and go for it.
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