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Web Page Design

Today I’d like to speak to those of you out there who are just getting started with websites and are looking for software for webpage design.?It can be a daunting task.?There are so many versions on the market that vary in complexity from extremely technical to basic WYSIWYG-type software (i.e. What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get, meaning it’s more of a drag-and-drop product requiring very little to no programming knowledge).

Newbies, as we’re called when we are just breaking into this game, usually don’t know much if any of the basic computer code called HTML, (or Hyper Text Markup Language).? And just to be correct, HTML is really not a code at all, it’s a “markup language” and that’s as techie as I’m going to get today!? Software for webpage design doesn’t have to be scary.

You will no doubt either want to learn a little HTML along the way or just absorb it without realizing it.? It’s handy to know the basics at certain times when you want to alter an image or a page, but it’s certainly not necessary at this time.? Just know that’s what it’s called and leave it at that.? It’s likely going to look like gibberish to you when you first start out, but you’ll be amazed how quickly you will begin to pick it up as you go along.? This is especially true if you have a good instructor who will be patient and take the time to start from the beginning as he teaches you how to use software for webpage design.

You may want to consider starting out at a place where you don’t even have to worry about software for webpage design at all.? Two websites come to mind that fit this description.? One is Squidoo.com and the other is Weebly.com.? Both use WYSIWYG editors and both are very easy to learn to use.? Both also have excellent tutorials and help sections.? You can create websites in pretty quick fashion at both locations.? Let’s talk about Squidoo first.

Squidoo lets you create what they call “lenses” that become your bone fide website.? It will have its own domain name of your choosing, but the URL will also contain the name “squidoo” in it also.? Some people are turned off by this, but it’s all for free and is extremely simple to learn to use.? These two characteristics in my mind make it a no-brainer, especially for us newbies over sites requiring you to learn to use software for webpage design.? You choose and pre-stage what squidoo calls “modules” on the side of the webpage in whatever vertical order you want and then go to the middle of the page and fill them in.? Some are text modules, which you type into just like a word processor and others are for things like uploading images or graphics supplied on the site.? In one afternoon you can master webpage building at squidoo.? It’s even kind of fun.

Weebly is also free, but the software for webpage design (also a WYSIWYG type of editor) is quite different from squidoo.? It’s actually a little more advanced, in my opinion, and I don’t mean that in a techie way.? You just have more options.? You can even choose a web template to design your site around, which can look downright professional.? Where you sort of pre-build the layout in squidoo, at weebly you build as you go, dragging in modules similar to squidoo, then adding content.? You not only can add images and graphics but also audio and YouTube footage.? It’s a little quirky to start in that the modules tend to jump on the page as you drag them down, but you get used to it.? One discovery I made quite by accident was that I completely built a site without a template.? Looking a little bland, I decided to check out the array of templates weebly offers.? I clicked on the button and a string of thumbnail templates appeared at the top of the page.? Not really knowing what I was doing, I just rolled my cursor over the first one and in a split second it appeared on my webpage in full scale, rearranging the page slightly to fit in all my content.? It was suddenly beautiful, I thought, looking at my creation.? It looked like a real designer had done it with some of that fancy software for webpage design.? I kept trying other templates in this fashion until I found the one I wanted and clicked to select it.? Done!

There are other WYSIWYG (I pronounce it wizzie-wig just for fun) websites out there, but for pure ease of use starting out, I would stay away from trying to learn to use more difficult software for webpage design and go with one of these until you gain more confidence.


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