Micheles Paint Shop Newbie 101The Top Best Web Design HTML Editors and WYSIWYG. Learn How To Serve Your Own Website From Your Home Computer and more. What is WYSIWYG HTML and how do you use it? Dreamweaver CS4 is out!Version 2
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The Top HTML editor used by experts around the world, and is highly recommended is "Dreamweaver." We ourselves have used a few editors since 1992, and each one was useful in someway. Dreamweaver is for a website owner that is very serious about their business or personal websites. This is the cadillac of HTML editors and with the top experts in the field using it then you know it's the best.
New user interface
Work faster and smarter across Adobe Creative Suite® 4 components with a shared user interface design. Toggle quickly from one work environment to the next with the workspace switcher.
You can view the layout of the web page while you're building it, see the code in code view, and it offers multiple tools such as references, validations, browser checks, link checkers, site reports, FTP logs, and server debugging features. It has everything you need in just one program. I have used Dreamweaver for a few years now, and I wouldn't even dream of using anything less when it comes to my web site!
Dreamweaver has a bit of a learning curve, but I would rather suggest that you start learning with the best. Start using the best editor from the very beginning so there is no time wasted learning other programs that will not give you the professional results that Dreamweaver CS4 will. You will not be left to figure this program out all by yourself because you can find tutorials to help you and the help files within Dreamweaver are excellent. The current version I am using is Dreamweaver CS4, and you can use it today. Download Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 directly. Available only at Adobe.com.
You will then be able to easily design, develop, and even maintain websites with just this single program.
There are many editors out there, but sadly they seriously limit how far you can go with creativity. Dreamweaver allows you to be creative!
What is Dreamweaver CS4?Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
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Design your web pages under real-world browser conditions with the new Live View in Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS4 — while still retaining direct access to the code. Changes to the code are instantly reflected in the rendered display. Design your pages in Dreamweaver so end users can edit their web pages without help from you or additional software using the InContext Editing online service. As a Dreamweaver designer, you can limit changes to specific regions on the page.
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Above we went over a web design program that will be the best bet, but still it sadly might not fit into your budget. Now we must find a piece of software that will not make a mess of our web sites, but yet has the ability to do what we need to do. Now I am not saying the below program will do what Dreamweaver can do, but what I am saying is that it has a very long positive history with designers all over the world. This is why I will be talking about here today. When I tutor others on web design I always give them the choices to download a trial of a HTML editor, and I give them three basic page designs to do. I understand we all have to start somewhere, and that is why I had to make a choice. I had to choose other HTML web design programs that I felt would benefit my viewers the most and also fit into their budgets. In this situation the HTML editor I recommend and it is called Web Easy Professional. Why did I make this choice? The reason is you're on a budget and I wanted to find something that would give you a lot for your money, and with this program you are basically buying a business in a box.
If you would like to practice with web design then I recommend the editor that has been around for years. I have used this editor off and on for years, and it is called CoffeeCup HTML Editor. If you want to get right into building a website or just to practice then this is a program I highly recommend. Each wed design editing program has its own levels and features. This is why I am recommending the Top two web design programs that will fit into your budgets. The prices are low enough to fit into your budgets and the education that you get while using these programs is priceless hands down! When you are ready you will move up to what the experts use, but until then I highly suggest Coffeecup.
The Coffeecup Code Editor - The Most Downloaded HTML Editor on the Web since 1996 is now even easier to use with almost 10 years of refined features. This helps new people who are learning HTML become Webmasters faster. More advanced users will find the Code Editor is exactly what they need the most without extra buttons they won't ever use. It's a mean, clean, coding machine.
The Visual Editor - What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) This is a remarkable way to create pages without knowing HTML. Just Drag and Drop Images and Text and you are ready to upload! You also have the ability to create a page in either Editor and go back and forth between them to make changes. It Makes Unbelievable Web sites Fast and Easy.
Download CoffeeCup HTML Editor - Click Here
Why I added this information here: The reason I added this information to this page rather than giving it a page of its own is because Dreamweaver works great with servers at home! If you have Dreamweaver, and a broadband connection you can easily serve your web pages from home.
SAVE MONEY! I want to pass on the information to my viewers. Having this knowledge and program can save you over $120.00 a year just on basic web hosting alone. Dreamweaver will pay for itself and I will show you how to do this. If you have a decent connection such as a cable internet or higher you can serve your own website from your very own computer at home for free! What I mean by free is that you do not have to pay a hosting company to serve your website each month. I'm sure you're already paying a large fee for your ISP each month so why not go ahead and just buy a domain and then host your own website from your own computer? Dreamweaver has an easy site manager setup feature so that you can start designing and serving a web site in no time at all. Best of all what you do to your site is done in real time! This means no uploading via FTP, no BULL!
How can you serve a website from home? Just install a server for testing on your own computer, and I will explain that below. Then what you need to do is pick up Dreamweaver, install it, and follow along wit hthe site manager as it makes setup a breeze. Once you are ready to go live you simply upload the site to your remote folder on your computer, and whammo you're officially a webmaster of your very own website. It is so cool that you can design your website locally on your computer and click preview to see all of your work as it would be shown on a remote server. To get started you just need to follow these steps:
Do you have a cable connection? Having a cable connection would be ideal for this type of setup. If you do not have cable, and you feel this is something that you would love to do then here is my suggestion. Check into a strong all inclusive cable connection such as Comcast High Speed Cable Internet.
We highly recommend 6.0MB of Broadband...7Xs Faster Than DSL...Order Now from Comcast
1. Get a domain name first: There are two ways I would recommend this. The money saving way is to go to this link www.GoDaddy.com and see if the .com you want is available. The other option will cost you a bit more, but in the end you have full control over your domain. Visit www.dynDNS.com and check out their premium and free services. I suggest you spend the $27.50 for the domain, and the $9.95 to register the domain as private for a total of $52.45 that you will have complete control over for one year. This means you will now have your very own custom DNS. I know this all sounds a little expensive, but in the end what you have is FULL control of your website, and you will learn so much about being a true webmaster. That is all it will cost as you will not have to pay hosting fees. You already pay for your cable connection so why not use it? If you consider these costs compared to using a hosting service and not having control over your domain name ... there is no second thought there. Go see if your domain name is available. If you notice your domain name choice is available then SNAG it up fast because someone else will if you don't.
HINT: See our buying a domain tips page.
2. Purchase an HTML Editor: We recommend Dreamweaver Creative Suite 3 to Design, develop, and maintain standard-based websites. Order Now!
from the Adobe website secure server. If Dreamweaver eats up your budget then consider the budget HTML editors below.
3. Server software: We recommend these two (we prefer janaserver) Janaserver or WAMP Server. Each server program has help available via forums, help files, web sites, and more. A great tip is to print out the help files and read them over before you start installing the server. You will also need a DynDNS Updater
4. Install PHP and MySQL: (optional) design language within your website. PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. Visit the PHP website to freely download the PHP package. You will also like to have a database management program. MySQL Community Edition is also free.
NOTE: If you prefer to not host your own website we have put together a list of the top web hosting packages for 2008.
Ok what is this WYSIWYG? (pronounced wiziwig), and is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get which means it shows you the design content during editing and the output appears very similar to the final product. To be exact WYSIWYG editors are authoring tools with a predominantly presentation-driven user interface. Do I even want this feature? Yes, it is a nice feature to have. Most people will want this feature because it is nice to see the web page you are designing in real time. This feature is very helpful to someone that has no experience with freehand HTML coding. It is also very helpful for advanced web designers because it saves both newbie's and advanced users time. Seeing your work in front of you while you are doing it really helps save time rather then constantly checking and testing your work.
There are many editors out there, but sadly they seriously limit how far you can go with creativity. Read more to find out why.
HTML Basics or a Web site of horrors:The horror's of taking the easy way out! Learning from experience is what I will call this story. A very good friend of mine told me they were using a program that spins web sites. They went on to explain how easy it was to use the great features of a full drop and drag web design program. They were working so hard on their website, and I checked their source code to see how things were going for them. My jaw hit the desk and at this point I was ready to say "STOP" you're wasting time. I wanted to tell them to use Dreamweaver, but at this point I realized I cannot do that. One reason is that they couldn't even open their web pages in Dreamweaver even if they wanted to. The program she was using generated the the source code into a file that needed converting upon uploading the website to her server. The second reason is that she did not use HTML often enough to know how to code a website so she was using a drag and drop nightmare program. You really should know some of the basic current HTML code uses before you even start designing a website and using a drag and drop programs can cause a real mess for you when you are ready to move up in the design world. My personal opinion is that using drop and drag program can only set things up for a website that isn't even worth the search engines time to spider and index. Just looking at the code from that website I could see the spider would not like the site, and that it was a search engine optimizers nightmare.
The proof is in the results: The end result was a website that was very easy to make, but even after six months there was no traffic, and no sales. This was mostly due to a poorly designed and optimized website with a terrible editing program and secondly by someone that did not know today's HTML.
The solution to the mess made: Any top web design expert will tell you that you should learn basic HTML before you jump into web page building. When I tutor someone the first thing I tell them is to take a free course online that covers the "basics" of HTML. Once they realize it is their input that causes a nice output they get excited and want to learn more. When you become familiar with web design and HTML coding you will want to stay current with the newest HTML standards as the results will show in your web sites design. You can keep up with the standards by visiting and reading the non-profit World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web site. When you keep up you will gain the skills you need to be a successful website designer.
The bottom line is to save yourself from a major problem later and this is why I suggest you go with something that is professional that will produce a quality website from the very beginning. I highly recommend Dreamweaver. Get past the scary look of the program and you will be on your way to designing incredible web sites that are up to today's standards.
Graphics on site: This web sites graphics were all made by me using the Corel
Paint Shop Professional program. We are currently working with software by Corel, and you can buy Corel Software directly from official site Corel.com
. All animations are typically made with Corels Animation Shop 3.
Animation Shop 3 Download (11.2 MB)