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Web Pages Made EasyMar 27 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Will make your life a heck of a lot easier. Use as is for basic design, incorporate code for more complex applications.
WYSIWYG (pronounced wizi - wig). What does it stand for? Not very technical actually. It stands for What You See Is What You Get. The basics In the early days of the web - as we know it, pages were popping up all over the place. Some good, some bad. That still holds true today. Only with the introduction of wysiwyg tools, you no longer have to be armed with an HTML code book in order to create a well laid out site. What wysiwig software allows you to do is create an HTML page in the same way you would create a word doc (simple explanation). Let me clarify HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. It is a simple tag based language that tells your browser how to display a web page. You may already be familiar with some of the tags, seeing that you are able to add bold and italic tags to your opinions. HTML formats the page, instructs the browser how to display fonts, images, colors and tables (and other properties as well). You can create any HTML page using only a basic text editing tool (such as notepad). To do this, however, you will need to understand the tags and be able to edit your page without much visual feedback until you save the page as HTML and open it with your browser. Here's where wysiwig software comes in wysiwyg software allows you to create an HTML document and as the name suggests; what you see is what you get. The way you create your page is the way the web browser will see it and understand it. How does it work? Well, you edit your page, change the fonts, colors, images, tables and such (using pre-built buttons and menu options offered by the software), and the software automatically creates the HTML tags for you. Isn't that great? Yes and NO. Pros and Cons Yes, wysiwig tools give you the power to create attractive, well laid out pages. No, it is not the best tool for editing more complicated code such as java, asp, perl etc. (these languages are more versatile and allow for interactivity (such as button rollovers), dynamic data (database based) etc.). What to look for? The more developed softwares do allow you to add your own HTML tags and other code. They also offer pre-built scripts you can add (also with the touch of a button), such as rollovers, simple javascript, forms, and the like. Other features the better softwares may offer: 1. programming aimed at a specific browser or version 2. automatic form processing scripts 3. site reporting/integration They will usually offer both an editing mode and an HTML mode, where you can see the tags that were generated and add your own tags and code (if you inclined to do so). They may also offer a preview mode so that you won't have to open the page in your browser to see what it will look like. These softwares are usually the better choice as they will allow you to quickly and easily create nice looking pages, and as you gain more experience, will also allow you to add more interactivity into your pages. My personal favorites There are many wysiwig softwares on the market today. My personal favorites are Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Other popular softwares include HomeSite and HotDog PageWiz. There are many more on the market. For the novice, I would recommend going to download.com and trying a freeware version. Macromedia Dreamweaver also offers a trial version available for download on their site macromedia.com. Microsoft Frontpage allows you to order an evaluation CD ($6.95), which also comes with a tutorial and a Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 evaluation. A full version good for 45 days.  |
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by texas-swede
