Web Design Competition

There are a number of applications out there that allow you to design websites using WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors. We’re going to look at the best web design software that falls into this category. We’ll also look at the benefits of using such software to help you decide whether or not it’s right for you.

The principle behind WYSIWYG editors is that whatever you see on the page is what you’ll get when your website is published. Basically it gives you an interface where you can build your website exactly how you want it to look when people visit it online.

The most popular web design software packages are Dreamweaver, FrontPage and XSitePro. Adobe Dreamweaver is the professional choice due to its massive range of features and ability to create dynamic websites. The downside being it’s difficult to pick up and use ‘out of the box’ and requires a lot of hours to learn just the basics, especially if you’re new to web design. It’s also expensive to buy.

Microsoft’s FrontPage has a lot of features but often adds needless code to the pages it creates. This can increase page loading times, especially for those who still access the internet using a dial-up connection. It’s not as user-friendly as Dreamweaver and pushes you in the direction of using Microsoft server technologies to build dynamic sites which won’t suit everyone’s needs. On the plus side, FrontPage costs less than Dreamweaver and is slightly easier to learn.

The third and final WYSIWYG web design software we’re going to look at is XSitePro from Intellimon Ltd. This is a relatively new application that has been developed with the novice or internet marketer in mind.

Because the majority of features within Dreamweaver and FrontPage won’t be used by most users, XSitePro has done away with them and left only the tools that novice-to-intermediate web designers need. It’s resulted in an easy-to-use application that can be picked up and used by just about anybody.

The downside to XSitePro is that it’s more difficult to create dynamic sites and has done away with the look and feel of traditional WYSIWYG website software. So if you’re used to working with Dreamweaver or FrontPage then you might find XSitePro hard to get used to.

When it comes to web design software, a WYSIWYG editor is really the only way to go. It makes production time far quicker, but you need to start with the right software.

If you’re a professional web designer and you want to create cutting-edge websites using the latest technologies then without a doubt you need to use Adobe Dreamweaver. It’s amazingly powerful and automates a lot of the common tasks associated with web design.

If you’re not after something quite as feature-packed as Dreamweaver and you’re a fan of Microsoft technologies and you’d like to use them on the web, then FrontPage might be for you. Just don’t go creating large pages as they could take an age to load!

If you’re new to web design or you’d like to get something that doesn’t have the learning time of Dreamweaver or FrontPage then XSitePro is for you. It’s quick to learn, easy to use and can produce truly beautiful sites very quickly. And like Dreamweaver, it automates a lot of the common tasks associated with web design.

Picking the right WYSIWYG web design software is essential to make sure you find web design fun and interesting and not a chore. You should choose based on your skill level and exactly what you want to achieve. That will give you the results you want and will make building websites something you can enjoy for years to come.

By: James Simpson

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Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

After you buy or become an affiliate or otherwise come up with your own product to sell online, you must write your sales page. Although, some sellers opt to hire someone else to write an effective sales page, you may decide you need to do this yourself.

You can either choose to use one of the sales page generators or software available, or you could write your sales page from scratch using an html editor. Whichever method is more comfortable to you is fine.

Anyhow, most people start at the top of the page with the headline. Something catchy is needed here and this is the most important section of any sales page. Why? If the reader likes the headline, he may read further. If not, it doesn’t really matter what the remainder of the page says because no one will read further. Try to catch the reader’s attention without using some worn-out cliche such as “Who Else Wants To…” . A better approach would be to try to capture the reader’s attention by presenting a problem he or she may have. ” Are Your False Teeth Falling Out When You Speak?” A corny example, but you should get the point.

A subtitle may be used afterword to clinch the attention of the reader. ” Mine Did Too, Until I Found This Solution!” The first paragraph might go into the serious problem that you used to deal with before you found the solution. Get a little personal and try to bond yourself with the reader.

Succeeding paragraphs just go into more detail and may include testimonials and even proof that the product you are describing really made a difference to you and others who used it.

An image of yourself helps to validate yourself as a real person. Your guarantee of satisfaction in words that leave the reader with no doubt that he is not risking his money helps to establish yourself as a sincere person that can be trusted.

Images and other illustrations help make your sales letter or sales page look more professional and trusted. Just make certain that you are completely truthful in your statements. The use of bullet points and divided paragraphs make for easier reading and make comprehension easier. Write on about the 8th grade level. Studies indicate that this is the average reading level. Make certain all the spelling is correct. I have closed many a sales page when I see misspellings in the opening lines.

By: Alton Hargrave

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Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

A graphic header for your website is an important element to develop trust, portray a certain look and in certain cases increase sales. It can also be used for branding if you have a network of related sites or want to develop a brand by incorporating logos.

The problem, though, is that creating a free web site header has traditionally been a fairly laborious and complicated task, depending on your level of skill and familiarity with what I can only describe as powerful software for something that should be a relatively simple task.

The pre-requisite when designing your own header would be familiarity with a piece of software such as Photoshop. First you would select the image size. Popular sizes for headers are : 600×125, 650×135, 700×145, 750×150 and 800×165. Be aware when choosing larger sizes that your site may display differently on other monitors and browsers.

Once you have decided on the size of header you want, you initially have a blank header template. When designing your free web site header, you will need to decide on what images to use and how they are going to be displayed in the header itself. With something such as Photoshop you would build up the header using layers, first selecting a background colour or image and progressing from there. You would usually include title text in the header itself as well and possibly the URL of your website.

If all this seems a long winded process to create a free web site header, there is of course the option of paying for a design company or individual to make you one for your site. As a one-off cost for one or two sites this may be a good option, but if you have multiple sites this can become a rather costly affair.

By: Dean Forster

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Caffeinated Content

A web site building software program needs to be easy to use, if you’re a novice web designer then you want a web site building software program that lets anyone create professional-looking web pages in minutes.

Another thing I look for in a web site building software program is that it’s step by step process with a drag and drop or point and click interface. I have a number of different HTML editors I use, one for highly technical sites, one to clean up or fix corrupted sites and one I use for most of my web page designing. The one I use the most often though is a step by step, point and click program (it’s a great time saver)

Another reason for using a step by step, point and click web site building software program is that you don’t need any special graphic skills or technological/HTML knowledge to build your web page. Within a very short period of time you’ll be able to build a highly professional looking website in less than couple hours.

If you’re building you web site to promote articles you’re writing or promoting a product or service through article marketing then you’ll be relying on the search engines to index your site. Search engines love web sites the regularly add new content to their web site, with a simple web site building software program you can add to your web site with very little effort.

Lets talk a little bit about cost, there are free web site building software programs, ones that charge a monthly fee and web site building software programs that you can purchase for a one time fee. If you choose a free web site building software program then you need to understand you’ll more than likely have limitations as to the different types of editing you’ll be able to do, on the other hand this can be an excellent way to learn to build a web site.

As for the web site building software programs that you will have to buy, most people don’t have a need to buy one of the high dollar programs out there and will be able to do everything they want to do with a less costly program.

I’m not a big fan of monthly fees for a web site building software program that I can pay for once an then never have to worry about it again.

Whatever you decide to do make sure you find web site building software program that will do what it is you want it to do, allows you to build your web sites quickly and efficiently, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Also remember a step by step, point and click web site building software program is and extremely efficient way to build web sites and is an excellent tool for the experienced as well as the novice web site designer.

By: V Hargis

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Create a video blog

There are many different ways to build a web site, some are easy and some a little more complicated but one thing for sure it’s a lot easier if we can find the best web site design software.

But no matter which web site design software we use there are a number of mistakes we should avoid:

Mistake #1: Using too large of a graphic header on the top of your page.

Mistake #2: Using “washed out” colors that make your web site feel drab and lifeless. Or
using colors that are WAY too bright.

Mistake #3: Using more than four colors (one of those being black!) on your web site.

Mistake #4: Using more than four different TYPES of fonts on the same page.

Mistake #5: Displaying your sales “message” on a dark colored background!

Mistake #6: Using too many “tricked out” scripts at once which causes browser “freeze”

Mistake #7: Cramming way too much content into too small of a space. (Not enough white space.)

Mistake #8: Using “busy” or “watermarked” background patterns.

Mistake #9: Specifying fonts that are TOO SMALL!

(This isn’t so much a design mistake as it is one related to the overall process…)
Mistake #10: Not clearly identifying your offer.

It doesn’t matter if you have the best web site design software on the planet if you make these mistakes your web site is doomed to fail. So which web site design software should we use? That really depends on a number of factors, level of experience, the product you’re promoting, how detailed you want you site.

I don’t promote a product in my articles but since we’re here to talk about the best web site design software, I’ll mention a couple of them that I’ve found beneficial in the past. The first is CoffeeCup HTML editor, this is the first web site design software I ever used, I found it bulky and hard to use, the next was a web site design software called Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a decent program but it’s pretty tuff for the beginner to use.

As far as I’m concerned this is the best web site design software there is a product that walks you step-by-step through what to do and how to do it. Every step is clearly laid out and labeled with big, blue numbers and step-by-step screen caps (with support by video as needed).

Saves you tons of time. All you do is click and follow the instructions. You don’t have to try to figure out what’s next. You just click the next icon and follow the steps. The step-by-step screen caps make it much faster and easier to use and follow than programs that are all videos.

Something for you if you’re a beginner or advanced student. Design Dashboard was created for beginners. But there are a few steps for advanced students as well. For example, you get EXCLUSIVE patterns that beat the heck out of the defaults in Photoshop or Elements. Those alone are worth the price.

I hope I’ve made your search for the best web site design software a little easier.

By: V Hargis

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web design software

This article explores the standard acronyms used in web design today and explains what each one means as well as the technology behind it. It will be a massive help to new starters in the field and could potentially help more experienced user gain a better grasp of the things they are working with.

The web is full of scary technologies but getting a grip on the basic ones will make life a lot easier. As with everything that is connected with computers there are a lot of scary acronyms but we will be taking a look at a few of them and hopefully giving you a boost to your general knowledge.

W3C: The W3C are the World Wide Web Consortium and their goal is to “lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth and stability”. This basically means they try their best to make sure internet technologies actually work and that everyone plays nice out there.

HTML: The most common acronym you will come across in web design is HTML. It stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and was created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. It is now overseen W3C.

HTML is essentially a simplifies programming language that helps computers (or more specifically, browsers) to understand text and what to do with it. It uses a standardised set of “tags” that surround some text to “mark it up” for a certain formatting. An example would be the tag strong which defines the surrounded text as important and generally emboldens the text.

By combining different sets of tags as well as editing their attributes you can soon open the door to thousand of possibilities for just simple text content.

XHTML: This stands for eXtended Hyper Text Markup Language. It is the natural progression from standard HTML and is a big part of the future for the web. It is part of the W3C project “The Semantic Web” and is part of an idea to get several new web technologies understood by browsers and humans and open new doors for what is possible on the internet.

DHTML: Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language is variation on standard HMTL. It involves a combination of HTML and special scripts (executed on the clients side) to create interactive effects or animation. DHTML also commonly uses CSS to help it define styles.

In today’s climate DHTML is most commonly associated with JavaScript as many client based browsers and OS support it.

CSS: As part of the evolution of the web HTML and XHTML are no longer truly used to fully decide the full visual style of a web page, only define its content and how it fits in to a style. To handle the presentation of a site the W3C worked to help create CSS or Cascading Style Sheets.

CSS has many advantages including specifying a layout for all mediums (such as browser, printer and TV) and helps to reduce site loading time and complex page by allow a single file to control every web page on a site.

This article may be of use to you in the future so I recommend you bookmark or print it out just in case you ever think, “I wonder what HTML actually stands for?” I hope it has been of some use and that your future web developments go smoothly.

By: Frank Woodford

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Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

Dreamweaver and XsitePro are both excellent web design software products that have proven themselves and have many happy and satisfied users. While there are literally hundreds of web design software products in the marketplace, these two are each leaders in the two most important market segments of software designed to make a web site

1. Power Users: Powerful, complex software programs that are primarily aimed at professional website designers.

2. New or Less Experienced Users: Slightly less powerful, but full-featured software programs that are aimed at individuals or small companies working on less complex sites.

THE PROBLEM

So, here is the problem in a nutshell. People who want to design websites for themselves or their companies are often confused by the number of choices and decisions that they have to make when evaluating website software for getting the job done. There is so much technical and confusing feature information available, that often, the result is more confusion than clarity.

THE SOLUTION

So I have put together this document that briefly tells you the 7 most important things you need to know about both Dreamweaver and XsitePro in order to get a feel for which is right for you and help you cut through all of the clutter. Here are those important facts that will help you with your decision making process regarding web site design software.

DREAMWEAVER CSS – THUMBNAIL FACTS

1. Product Description: A complex full-featured HTML editor and web authoring tool. It is the web site building standard among professional website designers

2. Target Customer: Primarily designed for the web designer professional or webmaster who is creating or working on intermediate to advanced websites for their own company, or for client companies.

3. Most Important Product Features (Research needed here for later today.)

4. Market Position: “The industry standard for web design professionals.”

5. Technical (Ease of Use): Dreamweaver is built on an architecture that is customizable and programmable. The more technical you are, the easier the product is to use.

6. Biggest Negative Factor: Without some technical background in HTML programming, or experience in web site design, Dreamweaver can be a handful.

7. Cost: Current List Price – $397.00

XSITEPRO2 – THUMBNAIL FACTS

1. Product Description: Web site builder, content management, search engine optimization tool

2. Target Customer: Non-technical individuals and small to medium sized companies who are also looking to use websites for marketing to their customers on the web.

3. Most Important Product Features: Fast-Start tutorials; SEO (Search Engine Optimization); Automated sitemap creation; design wizards all functions; affiliate program management.

4. Market Position: “Web site building and web marketing all in one tool.”

5. Technical (Ease of Use): If you can read a tutorial, watch videos and follow instructions, you can understand the product and get a website up in about two hours.

6. Biggest Negative Factor: Not the best tool for large or complex websites with lots or detailed management and coordination.

7. Cost: Current List Price… $197.00 (US)

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you are a professional website developer who has good technical knowledge and a fairly good understanding of HTML programming code, then Dreamweaver is probably an excellent choice for you. You can view more information at the Adobe website.

XsitePro is probably the right choice for you if you don’t have a strong technical background, and don’t know anything about HTML programming, and want to use website design software for internet marketing purposes. You can view more information at the xsitePro website including product and pricing details and bonuses and templates for purchasing from the link listed below.

By: Jack Carroll

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Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress

The Internet has been the revolution of the Twentieth Century. However, unless you knew how to process complicated code, previously the opportunities to make any money out of the Internet as a business were limited. The introduction of Microsoft’s Front Page, however, has changed all of that, thank the Lord!

Microsoft Front Page is such a simple Internet web page design tool kit that is the preferred software among most website creators today. The software package is user friendly that it allows web designers to:

- create web pages off line using the software package until such time as they are happy with the product. Front Page allows the design to preview how their website is going to look before they upload to a domain server.

- easily upload pre-designed websites to the website domain server with minimal complications.

- create multiple webpage website so that the website can function as it was intended to. Hyper linking between words and pages is very easily achieved with this website editing program.

- integrate complicate website artwork and graphics with minimal fuss. Indeed, it is very easy to upload pictures and photographs to a Front Page website design to that your website can benefit from having both great content and visuals.

- add audio and video. With the Microsoft Front Page software package a web designer can add audio and video streaming to their website with the minimal of complications. This function is especially useful to those website owners who would like to display the product they are selling to potential customers – after all, what’s the point in trying to sell something if the buyer can only read a description of what it is that the person is trying to sell!

- create safe-pay options. If your website is going to be a business, rather than a hobby, or a hobby and business, then you will likely need some form of safe-pay on the website. With Microsoft Front Page this function is very easily achieved.

However, probably the greatest benefit with Microsoft Front Page software is the fact that website designers and owners are given far greater degrees of control over how their website will look and operate than with any other website design software package currently on the market.

I hold a degree in web developments and I to at times are tempted to use this program, it’s simplicity is wonderful when doing quick updates for a website or big updates at that. I design websites in Alberta Canada, and I used to suggest Adobe Contribute but now It’s Microsoft Front Page all the way, the sad thing is if you can find it. Its been discontinued. But all in all a wonderful tool. Saves me a lot of time! Hats off Microsoft!

By: Todd Herman

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Website content

There are a variety of software packages for web designing available at different prices. Each one has special features and requires special expertise. If you are going to design and maintain a website, it is advisable to use a professional software package such as Dreamweaver or Adobe Golive. Software packages allow you to control some if not all components of the design of a website.

HTML of Hyper Text Markup Language is the principal markup language for web pages. HTML is the basic and core software tool for simple web design. It provides web programming from scratch by applying HTML coding on simple HTML documents. Later on, the web learner can move forward to other editing tools. HTML programming involves formatting of text, use of table and lists, and other information on using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

Advance levels of HTML programming include how to make a website of the customer’s choice, familiarization with HTML scripting, and understanding the basics of CSS. This also includes the complex structure of tables, forms and image maps. By using HTML, the web designer can pass input data to functions to check its accuracy and reject unwanted or wrong data input.

Web programming allows web learners to apply techniques of basic scripting like variables, statements, loops, functions and others. The major focus is on program flow, a well-structured program, and web designing using good web techniques and debugging process.

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a scripting language. It was originally designed to produce dynamic pages for web development. PHP is a powerful tool for making websites and can be used to make a simple web application or a complex web structure. It is usually embedded in HTML. PHP is a server-side language. One very useful application of PHP is in building a shopping cart facility. This facility is very much needed and used in online business transaction involving sales and processing payments. By using PHP, complex tasks can be performed such as maintaining cookies, cryptography, and other security issues relating to e-commerce.

Java is a general-purpose programming language specifically designed to let application developers write programs that will look the same and provide the same features and services regardless of what browser or platform is being used. With Java scripting, your website will look the same to all users.

Cold Fusion is a scripting language that enables web developers to build interactive, exciting and dynamic sites. It provides standard HTML files with database commands and conditional operators plus other high-level formatting functions to build web applications with powerful capabilities.

.NET development introduces the ASP.NET applications using the C# language. This course can be used by website designers, web programmers, IT project managers, web design project analyzers, and many more. A.NET page is officially known as a “web form”. A webform allows the user to enter data that is sent to a server for processing. It can be used to enter credit card data or to order a product.

Aside from the languages and web programs described above, there are many other software packages for web designing also available.

By: J Klein

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