|
If you're pretty good on the computer, creating your own website using software or even handcoding it can be a viable option. Software make make it much easier to create a website.
Most people will be most comfortable with software that has a WYSIWYG interface. This stands for "what you see is what you get" and it allows you to see exactly how the software means for the website to be displayed in a browser.
The software that is generally considered to be the best for website creation is Macromedia's Dreamweaver . It generally produces the cleanest code, and as a user of Dreamweaver, I would consider its interface to be very useable. It is not as simple as some programs, but the extras allow you to do quite a bit.
Many other people prefer to use FrontPage from Microsoft. As most people use Microsoft's products regularly, many find the interface much more familiar and simple. However, the code tends to work best in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and not as well in other browsers. This may sound like a small problem, but browsers such as Firefox are gaining in popularity and really should be a consideration when you create your own website.
You can also get a free HTML editor with Netscape Communicator. This editor is not as powerful as others, but when you are on a budget, free may be just right.
If you already know HTML, hand coding in Notepad may be just right for you. There is nothing wrong with this approach; in fact, many consider it to be superior, as you have complete control over your code, but for many it is quite simply too time consuming to master HTML well enough to hand code in a reasonable period.
Any program you choose to create your website should be able to cope with CSS. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) can be used to make the pages in your website smaller by separating out all the styling of the page. This improves load times and uses less bandwidth, both of which are highly desirable.
Even if you use one of the above WYSIWYG editors, you should endeavor to gain at least a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. This will allow you to make corrections and improve the display of your website across browsers. You may never get a perfect display across all browsers; not all follow standards, but you can improve the appearance dramatically.
|
