Creating a Church Web Site Tutorial
Chapter 10: Web Design Software

If you decide to design your Web site yourself (as opposed to using a service with pre-designed templates), you will probably want to buy what is called “WYSIWYG” Web design software. WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get,” and means that what you see on your screen as you design your site will pretty much be what it will look like once it is posted online. (This is the alternative to learning HTML - Hyper Text Markup Language - and “hand-coding” your Web site using a text editor.)

If you are already familiar with Microsoft products, your best bet will probably be to use Microsoft FrontPage, which retails for $170. Be aware, however, that some professional Web developers do not like this product, because Web pages built in FrontPage don’t always appear as expected for users who use a non-Microsoft Internet browser, such as Netscape. But for most users, FrontPage works well and is relatively easy to learn.

Other popular Web design software includes Macromedia Dreamweaver ($400) and Adobe GoLive ($400 ). Both of these products are more sophisticated and powerful than FrontPage— which means they also are more difficult to learn. You can download free trial versions of each of these packages by clicking on their links.

PC Computing Magazine has an in-depth comparison of these software packages.

Next: Chapter 11: Linking Up