Zero Cost Web Authoring Software
If you want to take a stab at designing your own website, but are not quite ready to buy software, Nvu has a pretty smart program for you to try. It’s a state of the art WSIWYG web program that will enable you to create nice looking websites, absolutely free.
WSIWYG is the abbreviation for “what you see is what you get.” That means that as you design your website, you will see exactly what it will look like as you go. Nvu is more than just a WSIWYG web authoring program. Some of its features include:
- An automated spell checker that will underline all of your misspelled words as you go;
- The ability to call W3C’s HTML validator so that you are designing valid, clean documents;
- A color picker that will conform with most web browsing standards. You can just point your mouse to the color that you want, or you can easily select a color from its red blue and green components and adjust its hue saturation and brightness;
- A CSS editor that will take the complication out of creating stylesheets. You can see your style settings applied ‘”live” to the document you’re editing; and, among other things,
- An FTP manager that lets you specify your publishing data (i.e., your username and password and the folder where you want to upload your web site). The FTP manager will show you when a page was last edited.
There are many other components to Nvu’s free website design program. The bottom line is that the software is very easy to use. It is ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create professional looking websites without having to learn HTML or web coding. You can download the free website design software here.
For the small business owner who wants a more sophisticated web site that includes RSS syndication, search engine optimization and more, I highly recommend XSite Pro. XSite Pro also includes a WSIWYG editor but comes with many other bells and whistles. Every website I’ve designed using XSite Pro has indexed within a day or two in the major search engines. Don’t take my word for it — read the testimonials from XSite Pro’s users. The software is less than $200 (from this link - it’s normally $297) and worth every penny.
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