What You Need to Get Started

This book assumes you don't have anything more than a reasonably up-to-date computer and raw ambition . Although there are dozens of high- powered Web editing programs to help you build a Web site, you don't need one to use this book. In fact, if you use a Web editor before you understand how Web sites work, you're liable to create more problems than you solve. That's because, as helpful as these programs are, they shield you from learning all the Web design nitty-gritty that can sometimes be the difference between an okay-looking Web site and a fantastic-looking one.

Once you master the basics, you're welcome to use a fancy Web page editor like FrontPage or Dreamweaver. You'll learn how these two leading programs work and you'll see a great free (!) alternativein Chapter 4.

Note: Under no circumstances do you need to know anything about complex Web programming technologies like Java and ASP.NET. You also don't need to know anything about databases or XML. These topics are fascinating, but insanely difficult to implement without some solid computer coding experience. In this book, you'll learn how to create the best possible Web site without becoming a programmer. (However, you will learn just enough about JavaScript to use many of the free samples you can find online.)