How to Choose a Web Design Application

There are many Web design applications available to create Web pages. In some of them, you don't have to know HTML to create a page.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Macromedia Dreamweaver
• Microsoft FrontPage
• Microsoft Notepad
• Netscape Composer

1. Evaluate your design style. Visual designers may prefer WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) applications, where you don't need to know HTML, while technical designers like standard text editors, and others combine visual with technical.
2. Type "web authoring" or "web design tools" into a search engine. The search engine will display listings of several sites that offer retail, evaluation, shareware and freeware design applications.
3. Go to a shareware site to find a variety of Web design programs free to try (shareware) or free to use (freeware).
4. Retail sites, like Adobe, sometimes offer trial versions of their programs that you can download, so you can try them out before you make a decision. The trial versions usually work for a limited time or only include limited features.
5. Download a trial, shareware, or freeware application and install it on your hard drive.
6. Use the application's tutorials and help files to familiarize yourself with how the program works. For standard text editors, use an HTML reference guide.
7. Open an existing page in the new program to see what the Web page looks like in the program.
8. Create a sample Web site in your application. Open the new page in your browser to view it.

Tips & Warnings

• The easiest way to familiarize yourself with a program is to look at existing Web pages using the program. Are they easy to read? Are the tags well placed?