HTML EDITORS

Know the difference between web design software and e-commerce software. Web design software (commonly referred to as “HTML editors”) provides you with the basic tools for designing a website. Only those readers developing a brochureware site or going the email order processing route should consider using this type of product. For those readers taking one of these paths to e-commerce, any of the following products should suffice:

CoffeeCup HTML Editor (www.coffeecup.com). This software makes it easy for even a novice to create a website. It comes with more than 40 website templates, 125 JavaScripts, a DHTML menu builder, numerous graphics, wizards for frames, tables, forms, fonts, and more. It also provides helpful and easy-to-follow documentation on how to use the software. Cost — $70.

EZGenerator (www.ezgenerator.com). Working with this software is almost as easy as working with a word processor. Just type, select, drag-and-drop your pages to build your website. The product provides 2000 template variations so you can change the look and feel in one simple click of the mouse. It also automatically (well almost) creates your website navigation for you as you create new web pages and categories. Cost — $100.

HotDog Web Editor (www.sausagetools.com). This is one of the most popular HTML editors. The HotDog Pro 7.3 provides a comprehensive set of web editing tools including Linkbot, Interactor, and Paint Shop Pro. As such, the HotDog Pro provides the web designer with the complete tools for the creation and management of a professional website. But it still offers intuitive features and customizable tools so that even the novice user can create great looking websites. Cost — $100.

Microsoft’s FrontPage 2002 (www.Microsoft.com). If you are a first time web designer, this may be the product for you. Frontpage 2002 can help the novice to get their website up and running easily and quickly, especially if the designer is familiar with the Microsoft Office suite of products since it uses some of same buttons and commands. The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface is invaluable since you don’t really need to understand HTML codes and scripts. This turnkey product also makes its easy to add DHTML effects (changes on demand are also quite simple). The product has an insert form function, too, which makes adding forms for emails and guest books a breeze. The primary problem with Frontpage 2002 is that if you aren’t hosting your website yourself, you may have to work a bit harder to find a web-hosting service that allows FrontPage extensions. Cost — $150.

SiteDesigner 2.0 (www.sitedesigner.com). SiteDesigner is a WYSIWYG website authoring tool, that has a drag and drop editor. This makes SiteDesigner extremely easy to use. Once you set up a master page for your site (using the templates that are included with SiteDesigner, or using your own images), every web page you create thereafter can inherit that master page’s properties. The SiteDesigner generates extremely clean HTML code (some WYSIWYG editors add a lot of unnecessary code meaning pages are harder to troubleshoot and take longer to load). Cost — $100.

Stone’s WebWriter 3 (www.webwriter.dk/english/index.htm). This award winning Danish no-nonsense HTML editor offers easy-to-use dialogues, right-click editing, code completion, and syntax high-lighting so you can design your website without knowing HTML. WebWriter is for the professional as well as the beginner. With WebWriter you can build JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets, and image maps. Cost — Free (private use) to $800 (for a large enterprise that needs unlimited licenses).