Designing Your Web Site

Once you are ready to begin designing your site, it is time to ask the question how? There are many possible solutions.

Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver is the preferred web authoring tool of most professional web developers. While this program is expensive it has many features that most other design tools can't match. One option that is invaluable is that it has the ability to create templates. Simply stated templates allow you to make changes in one place and that change is simultaneously updated on every page of your website. This can be quite a time saver if your website happens to be hundreds of pages long.

While Dreamweaver uses what is known as a WYSWIG (What you see is what you get) editor be cautious when using this mode as it can cause web browsers to perform poorly in some instances. Fortunately you have the option of coding you site by hand as well.

If you decide to purchase Dreamweaver you may want to consider purchasing one of their Creative Suite packages. Consider this option if you plan on purchasing some of Adobe's other products as it can save you money in the long run. These products are expensive but they prove to be invaluable for anyone looking to develop sophisticated websites and developing websites on a professional level.

You can purchase the Adobe Creative Suite here

Download Adobe Free Trials Here

WeBuilder

WeBuilder is a web authoring tool that has a lot of features that Dreamweaver offers at a fraction of the cost. It is not a WYSIWYG editor. However, it is a very intuitive editor.

I personally find myself using this program more often then Dreamweaver during the design process. You can view changes to your web pages in real time as you write the code. This program also offers a multitude of tools that will actually hand code elements for you. Unfortunately, this program does not create templates like Dreamweaver does. However, it is very reasonably priced. This is a very solid program that also includes a file management system.

You can purchase WeBuilder 2010 here

Kompozer

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines a basic web file management system and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing. KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding. Unfortunately, this program does not create templates like Dreamweaver does. The best part about this program is that it is free.

See free video tutorials on KompoZer here

Download Kompozer for free here

Note Pad for Windows or Text Editor of Mac

You can always design your website by hand coding your web pages on the default text editor on you computer. You can use Note Pad for Windows or Text editor for Mac. I would not recommend designing your pages this way unless you are a veteran web designer. The other programs listed above have so many features that will save you time and help eliminate a multitude of mistakes. You will also need to a separate program to upload your website to your server. A free program to help upload your website is called Filezilla.

Download Filezilla for free here