WYSIWYG
For those of you that are new to Web Design or are looking to design their own Website for the first time, you may not be familiar with the term “WYSIWYG”. It’s one of the 3,485,838,441,833,838,110,283 computer acronyms that are somewhere in my head or found in numerous places Online. It stands for “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get”. I’ve never really found it to be so, but that is beside the point.
I started out doing my own Web Design with a “WYSIWYG” editor named “KompoZer” which is one of many that may be found Online to assist you in your Web Design efforts. Most are familiar with Microsoft’s “FrontPage”. This has now be replaced with a somewhat more enhanced set of tools under the name “Expression Web”.
Adobe also has a Web Designer that goes by the title of “Creative Suite 6 Design & Web Premium”. Of all the products out there if I had to recommend one it would have to be the Adobe Creative Suite 6.
WYSIWYG is supposed to streamline Web Design and make it effortless and nothing could be further from the truth. I never could get the hang of “Kompozer” and I wasn’t about to Pay Microsoft for anything they may make. As far as Abobe goes I’m short the 2 grand that is required to buy a ticket to that show; of course now you can “rent” the whole shooting match through the Adobe “Creative Cloud” for 50 bucks a month. However that’s 3 grand over 5 years or 6 grand over 10, and I don’t think the upgrades are going to set you back that much if you decide to purchase instead.
I personally write or “hard code” all of my Websites that I design. I just find it much simpler, instead of trying to tie on a learning curve with a WYSIWYG editor. It’s hard enough learning HTML and CSS, let alone trying to wrap my brain around a Web Design Editor. However, you will have to make that decision on your own.
If you want to write or “hard code” all of your own HTML and CSS as I do, then you should download a copy of “gedit”. This is one smokin’ hot tool to work with and you can style it to look any way you wish with different colors and templates. The best part is it’s free!
Of course I have moved on since I begin with gedit, and now code all my sites with “Sublime Text 2″. However, once through with my work I pass everything through “gedit” before going live with my designs.
