Plan  27 

Choose the right software 

Choose site-building software 

When the Web first gained popularity, Web sites were built by hand-coding HTML. 

Hand-coding remained essential because point-and-click site creation programs weren t 

sophisticated enough to produce commercial-quality Web sites. The first versions of 

FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Fusion, et cetera made creating sites much simpler than hand-

coding, but sites created with them looked simpler as well. 

Now the current crop of point-and-click Web publishing programs can be used create 

high-quality sites. While it s still helpful to know HTML, it s no longer necessary. Here 

are overviews of the most popular site-building programs: 

Adobe GoLive 

Most of Adobe s programs are meant to 

be used by professional graphic designers, 

and GoLive (version 5; $285) is no 

different. Its spare interface will be 

familiar to long-time Adobe users, but 

people who aren t graphics professionals 

may find it challenging to learn. Once 

mastered, however, Go Live s advanced 

features can be used to create 

  professional-quality sites. 

Macromedia Dreamweaver  

Dreamweaver (version 4; $299) is one of 

the easiest to use site-building programs, 

and the clean code it generates looks 

consistent on a wide variety of computers. 

Templates are easy to create, and pages 

can be changed repeatedly with no ill 

effects. For these reasons, Dreamweaver 

has become popular among organizations 

building Web sites in-house. 

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