In today’s webinar we talked about Web Design tools. When you’re first learning how to create web pages, the simpler your web editor the better. You want to be able to focus on the code itself, not be distracted by all the bells and whistles in the software.

HTML pages are plain text documents. Whatever tool you use MUST be able to save plain text files with no formatting. You can create web pages in Notepad — you don’t need anything fancier than that. We even started a web page in Notepad during the webinar. It’s nice, though, to have a tool that is meant for HTML code.

We looked at TextPad, a $32 tool that has some shortcuts for creating web pages. If you decide to buy that tool, however, be sure to download this HTML definitions file (HTMLTAGS.TCL) and replace the one that comes with TextPad. I adjusted the default TextPad HTMLTAGS.TCL file because it still uses upper-case tags and some tags that aren’t used anymore.

Next we looked at a well-featured, free web page editor called HTML Kit. I used this one when I took CSS classes at a nearby community college. You can download it from http://www.chami.com/html-kit. HTML Kit has both syntax coloring and syntax prompting, which help you visually as you work with the code.

Finally, we looked at FrontPage and Adobe GoLive as examples of full-featured, professional web design tools. They offer syntax coloring, syntax prompting, a built-in FTP tool for uploading files, and a structural file that organizes and tracks all of the files in a site.

• FrontPage and its successor, Expression Web, go to great lengths to shield users from HTML code by providing design layout views that simplify creating web pages.
• FrontPage has been very popular with users who are starting to create their own web sites because there are hundreds of design templates available.
• Adobe GoLive and Dreamweaver are advanced tools used in conjunction with other Adobe Products like Photoshop and Illustrator.

If your web design tool does not include the ability to immediately upload your files to your web server, you’ll need an FTP tool. There are two that I’ve used and/or recommended:

• CuteFTP  http://www.cuteftp.com
• VanDyke SecureFX http://www.vandyke.com/products/securefx/index.html 

In addition to web design tools, you will probably want to look into the following supporting tools:

• Color chooser/constructor: Amiasoft Color Pro http://www.amiasoft.com/colorpro
• Menu builders:
  • Ultramenu http://www.ultramenu.com
  • Deluxe Menu http://www.dhtml-menu.com/
• Creating and editing MP3 files for podcasting: Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio http://snipurl.com/pcpt_audiostudio 
• Creating and editing videos and DVDs: Sony Vegas Movie Studio http://snipurl.com/pcpt_moviestudio 
• Creating screen capture videos: Camtasia http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

There are more tools you can use, but these will give you an excellent start.

Webinar Date: February 27, 2008 

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