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Adapted from Build Your Own Web Site by David Karlins
Regulars at unleash.com may be wondering what tool best suits you for Web design. Should you hack thru HTML? Format with FrontPage? Design with Dreamweaver? And what about even easier-to-use JavaScript based scripting programs like the one Yahoo Geocities provides?
In my new book Build Your Own Web Site, I expand on a series I wrote a couple years ago for unleash.com. Let me share a quick survey of available programs with you now, and invite you to read the entire first chapter of the book for free if you’re interested in more info.
As you may know, programs like Microsoft FrontPage, and Macromedia Dreamweaver allow you to generate HTML (the markup language used to format Web pages) using a WYSIWYG page window. FrontPage’s page design window looks a lot like Microsoft Word, while Dreamweaver’s interface looks more like a graphic design program. For those of us on super-low budgets, Yahoo/Geocities’ PageBuilder is an option, with an interface that looks something like a low-tech video game. All three of these programs write HTML code for you so you don’t have to learn HTML. On the other hand, if you know HTML, or you want to learn it, both FrontPage and Dreamweaver provide windows where you can see or edit HTML directly.
In addition to generating HTML, PageBuilder, FrontPage, and Dreamweaver all generate something called Dynamic HTML, or DHTML for short. CSS and JavaScript are components of DHTML, and FrontPage and Dreamweaver both generate both CSS and JavaScript.
Web developers sometimes refer to the HTML generated by Web design programs as either clean or dirty. Clean code is HTML (and DHTML) that can more easily be interpreted and edited by someone who knows how to write code. Programs that produce relative clean code have the advantage of allowing pages to be edited by other developers, regardless of what tool was used to create the page.
For instance, a page created in Dreamweaver can be easily opened in FrontPage because Dreamweaver produces relatively clean code. On the other hand, a page created in GeoCities PageBuilder will be difficult for a designer to touch-up using Dreamweaver, FrontPage, or by directly editing the HTML, because PageBuilder produces relatively dirty code.
The two most practical approaches to professional level WYSIWG Web design are FrontPage or Dreamweaver (Adobe’s GoLive is as powerful as Dreamweaver, but it doesn’t have enough of a market share to make it worth learning for aspiring Web developers). Let’s take a closer look at FrontPage and Dreamweaver:
FrontPage’s menu and toolbar-based interface allows you to design Web pages in an environment that will be comfortable to users of other Microsoft products like Word, PowerPoint, or Publisher – as shown here.
And FrontPage integrates smoothly with other Office tools—you can easily move text, clip art, and even a PowerPoint slide show into a FrontPage Web site. FrontPage also includes the most accessible Web database management tools available without programming. If running an online mailing list or managing an online discussion forum is a big part of your Web plans, you will probably find FrontPage the weapon of choice.
Be forewarned, however, that if you want to take advantage of FrontPage’s database features, you need to contract with a Web host that supports FrontPage extensions—special files on the Web server that are necessary for many of the most useful features of FrontPage to work. Most Web hosting companies do provide FrontPage extensions, but if you’re planning on using FrontPage, be sure to include that in your checklist when you shop for a Web server.
Dreamweaver MX has a powerful database management tools as well (older versions of Dreamweaver require a separate program, UltraDev, to access online databases). For beginners, however, it’s much easier to find Web hosting companies that support the database features in FrontPage. FrontPage retails for about $125, and recent versions run only under the Windows operating system. It is not available for Macs except for a very old version, FrontPage 1.0.
Dreamweaver is the premiere choice of professional Web designers because it is the most powerful software available for designing Web pages. Dreamweaver generates more animation and interactivity than other Web design programs, using what are called behaviors. Dreamweaver is an ideal Web design tool for developers who want to edit, or learn HTML—you can display your page in both a WYSIWYG design view and code view.
The Dreamweaver community has created a wide array of additions to the program called extensions that are available for download at the Macromedia Website. Dreamweaver’s features come at a price—the program retails for about $400. The other price you pay to use Dreamweaver is that the software takes longer to learn than FrontPage. If you’ve used graphic-design tools such as Flash or Fireworks, the interface will look familiar. But if you are more comfortable with Word, you will find the Dreamweaver environment chaotic and confusing. Even the Windows version of Dreamweaver looks more like a Macintosh program, which is fine if you’re comfortable with the Mac surroundings but adds to the disorientation factor if you’re more comfortable in Windows.
If you already know how to use HTML, you’ll STILL want to create your Web site in Dreamweaver or FrontPage. Both these programs allow you to type HTML directly, without generating it in a WYSIWYG page editor. Dreamweaver in particular has a helpful and easy-to-use HTML page editing features.
For the ultimate do-it-yourselfer, you can try to use HTML along with a separate FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program to move files to your remote server. If you’re comfortable writing your own HTML code and using an FTP program to manage your own file transfer to a remote server, you probably don’t really need this book. Instead, arm yourself with an advanced level HTML book such as Peachpit Press’s HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide, by Elizabeth Castro.
If you use Dreamweaver or FrontPage to create your Web site, you can begin to teach yourself HTML by looking at the code that gets generated as you compose and format your Web pages.
The bottom line is that you can go a long way in Web design and create very professional quality pages without learning HTML.
Let’s take a quick look at other options for creating Web pages:
For more resources on setting up your own Web site, and choosing a Web design tool, check out www.buildyourownwebsite.us
Choosing a Web Authoring Tool · Eight Steps to Implementing a Web Site · Step 1: Grabbing a Domain Name · Step 2: Publishing Your Web Content - Finding a Web Server Provider · Step 3: Develop Your Web Strategy · Step 4: Design and Create Your Site · Step 5: Publish and Test Your Site · Step 6: Promoting Your Site · Part I: From CorelDRAW to the Web · Part II: Creating Web Page Background JPEG Files · Part III: Creating a Hover Button in CorelDRAW
Flash 5 Tutorial 3: Using Masking in an Animation · Flash 5 Tutorial 2: Creating a Logo with a Shape Transition · Flash 5 Tutorial 1: Create a Splash Screen
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