Web Design Editor | HTML Programs - A Quick Beginner's Guide 

As with all our tips and web design lessons, this one about HTML programs and text editors are for beginners. If you plan to do the best website design you'll need to learn some basics. If you're a complete beginner when it comes to using a web design editor | HTML program, you're probably wondering how you will survive the "basics" of HTML, and then how you will move forward to more complicated programming languages. Fortunately, there are some great software programs to make life easier for the beginning or more savvy web designer.

Though none seem to be perfect, web design editors for HTML have come a long way since the early Internet days! Here are some quick beginner tips for using a web design editor or HTML program so you can start toward your online goals.

What is a Web Design Editor? A HTML Editor?

A web design editor or HTML editor is a software program that creates HTML code for you. There are two main types of HTML editors. Each have their advantages and disadvantages. One is an HTML-only editor, which allows you to choose prewritten HTML codes and HTML tags to insert into your web pages or to create an entire page. This is great to have when you're trying to learn HTML because you can see the codes and how they work and test them out on the Internet to see the outcome.

Another HTML Editor - WYSIWYG

Another type of web design editor | HTML program is a WYSIWYG program. A WYSIWYG program is similar to a publishing program such as Microsoft Works or Word or Microsoft Publisher. You see the actual results as you create them. You never even have to see the HTML code unless you need to insert something directly into the raw HTML code. You'll create web pages as you would create a newsletter or flyer in a publishing program, inserting text, graphics or pictures, etc. Then, the WYSIWYG program converts what you've created into HTML for you.

Choosing a Web Design Editor or HTML Editor

There are many free WYSIWYG programs available on the Web. You might want to download several to try them out and see which one works best for you. Below are a couple I've used:

1. Netscape Composer (http://www.netscape.com) -- Offered free with the Netscape browser. We use the Netscape 7.2 in our Web Training Courses.) Warning: Netscape 8.0 browser does not come with Composer, so you must download the 7.2 version from the archived products to get the free web design editor.

2. NVU (http://www.nvu.com/) -- Similar to Netscape Composer. Also free!

An HTML-only editor that I really like (and that's FREE) is HTML Kit. It can be downloaded here. http://www.chami.com/HTML-Kit/

There are many others, but be aware that many of these free programs have "glitches" in them that you will have to work around. What can we expect for free, right? But, all in all, it's well worth the effort to use these programs. It saves you time and money!

Step by Step with a Web Design Editor | HTML Program

As with anything you learn in life, take things step by step with your web design editor or HTML program. Start with a blank page and test out various codes to see how they work. You can learn as you go, or you can take a structured HTML for beginner course or tutorial to help you along the way.

Moving Forward to Other Programming Languages

You may or may not wish to move on to other programming languages such as PHP or ASP after learning HTML basics. Decide if it's really necessary. Determine what type of design you'll need for your website. With simple websites that accept payments using a third party merchant such as PayPal or StormPay, it might not be needful to learn more than HTML.

If, on the other hand, you plan to add log-ins for your users, dynamic shopping carts, etc. then it's a good idea to become familiar with more complicated programming. Either way, you should start with HTML basics as a foundation.

There are also web design editors | HTML programs that include PHP and other language features. You can search the Web to find the program that's right for you.

What's the Most Popular HTML program or Editor?

I believe, hands down that the Adobe people have done it again with Dreamweaver. It seems that many of the in demand best website design experts are now using Dreamweaver to create web pages. It is a fairly simple program and beginners find it simple to learn.

Make Your Own Editor or Program for HTML Choice

Choose your web design editor or HTML software program using the tips above and start designing your own website today!

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