WEBSITE BUILDING TOOLS

When you have registered a website domain
name and associated it with a website hosting package, you’re ready to start using your website
building tools. You will achieve the best results if you are building a website by hand. You may
want to consider any website hosting
packages on offer from your hosting provider, or use any website tools you may
already have or can find here.
When you surf the internet, you use your web browser — and the
power of your computer — to download and convert HTML files into the
visual, aural and textual content you see on the screen. At its simplest, HTML is plain English programming
code that contains the textual content, page structure and instructions that determine how your browser should
display your website, as well as links to other pages.
If you click the View menu option in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox
and select Source, you can see the code for the web page you’re viewing. You don’t need to know how HTML
works or how to write your own because the site building tools here and the website
software will enable you to create complex sites without ever
seeing HTML code.
However, HTML is easy to understand, and if
you take the time to learn it, you will be better equipped for the ongoing development of your
site At the very least, it will help you to appreciate the underlying structure of web
pages when you do make a website.
HTML Code
HTML
code can be written in an application as basic as Windows Notepad. Briefly however a HTML editor highlights the tags (the elements
that defines how content appears) in different colors, numbers each line and can insert
tags for you, making each line and can insert tags for you making the
HTML easier to read and create.
A free lightweight editor that includes
syntax highlighting for a number of programming languages, including HTML
separates your content from the instruction tabs. These tell
browsers what to do. When you create a new HTML file, the basic
structure is already in place and you simply add the content, while formatting and structure tags are just a click away.
Word-processing applications such as Microsoft Word and Open Office are also
potential HTML editors. Both allow you to save a document as a web page,
so they can create an HTML file and a folder that contains all the images on
your page. You can combine the table function with inserted images and
formatting to create quite complex HTML pages
Website Building
Tools
Almost all web hosts offer some form of site-building tools to help
you get your website off the drawing board and on to the internet. Even many free hosting accounts provide
limited access to site-building tools. At their most basic, these provide templates that give you varying
degrees of freedom over the final look of the page. This template approach means you can get a somewhat
presentable website up and running within the limitations imposed.
Yahoo!’s free GeoCities web hosting provides a little more freedom while
still adhering to the template formula, allowing you to rearrange page elements to fit your desired format.
If you have a definite vision for your site, though, these tools are likely to be inadequate. Google
Sites (sites.google.com) provides greater control, and the tools on offer are comparable to those of some commercial
software packages. Sadly, the interface is a little clunky; and it isn’t always easy to achieve the desired
results. Paid-for hosting services tend to provide more comprehensive site-building tools, and these
sometimes include commercial web-design software.
Whether you opt for an HTML editor
or with a wizard-based design tool, such as XSitePro it is possible to produce an very attractive and functional website. Text-based HTML
editors can give an incredible level of control over the look of your pages and how
they function, though it can be hard to focus on design when you’re deep in code. XSitePro website building
tools is the choice of many and make it easy to focus on the
design, and gives you full freedom to produce the site you really want.
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