The Help Centers

As a long time web developer I often choose my tools by wrote.  Web tools are something that each web developer or designer has a personal take on.  Since I’ve been creating web content for about 13 years. I’ve run through a bunch of web tools and found what works and doesn’t work for me. Read More Below...

First off every website is different and can use different tools.  But for the most part the tools fall into two categories, client side and server side.  The client side tools are programs like FrontPage, Expression Web, Dreamweaver, NVU  and many others.  They allow you to edit the site and allow you to work with each page.  Server side tools run on the server and allow you to make updates to the site from a webpage rather than a separate program Google Pages, Geocities, and even Wordpress are great examples of web publishing tools that you can use.

To select the tool best for you first think about what your goal is at the end of the day.  Do you want to learn web programming?  Do you want to just get your site up? Do you mind not having a lot of control over the source code?  Do you want your own domain?

If you just want to get your site up quickly and easily with minimal knowledge the best tools to use are web based.  You can often find sites such as Geocities and Google Pages that will let you place static web pages quickly up from a web page.  There’s no installation and you have a a considerable amount of flexability in how your site appears.  You will probably have to put up with some advertising but if you just want to casually put content up it’s an inexpensive and easy publishing option.  Sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Blogger also provide a channel for your creativity on the web.  While you don’t edit pages you produce content and they handle the rest.  You are limited in how much you can do and format but if you’re just looking to get your voice on the internet these also may be a good idea.

Taking things a step farther you can purchase hosting and have a more complex content management system in place .  Systems such as Drupal, Joomla are powerful tools that let you create large websites.  You  can download, purchase or create a series  of template files that your content is published in.  While installation and initial configuration may be difficult the resulting website can be very powerful and extensive without having to manage a lot of individual html pages.

For client based site editors there is a bit more to get in trouble with.  You DO get the benefit of being able to edit and modify files and have 100% control and freedom.  However with great power comes the opportunity to really screw things up.  Because I am  a developer I use NuSphere PhpED.  It’s VERY powerful and and has a lot of functionality for building larger PHP websites.   For the novice web developer building simple web pages it’s just over kill and then some.  Visual Studio, Eclipse are other tools that fall into this ‘professional geek’ category.  Moving back from the edge there’s Dreamweaver.  It has  a nice balance of functionality and ease of use.  However the cost is rather high and for the casual hobbist and many sites even this is a bit much.  There is a bit of a learning curve and for the user who is used to Microsoft applications it’s not a very good  fit.

Then there’s the tools for the simpler static websites.  NVU a free open source editor is good but some can be frustrated by it’s lack of features and helpers.  It’s a great free tool and you can quickly get your feet wet.  FrontPage(discontinued) and Expression Web from Microsoft are great tools for designers who are looking for a bit more control over their site but don’t want to learn too much.  With WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) editing and a lot of bells and whistles this tool gives you a great way to build your website.  There are many web developers who will scoff at using these tools but for a way to get your site up quickly and easily these tools can’t be beat.  There are  some pitfalls and dangers when using these tools that you have to look out for but overall you can get a good looking website with a moderate amount of work.

Editor	Platform	WYSIWYG	Edit Source	Dynamic Pages	Scripting	Cost
Notepad	Client	No	Yes	No	Yes (badly)	Free
PhpED	Client	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	High
Visual Studio	Client	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	High
Dreamweaver	Client	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	High
Expression Web	Client	Yes	Yes	No	No	Moderate
NVU	Client	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Free
Wordpress	Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Free
Geocities	Server	Yes	Yes	No	No	Free
Google Pages	Server	Yes	Yes	No	No	Free
Drupal	Server	No	No	Yes	No	Free
Joomla	Server	No	No	Yes	No	Free

While the table above has some info over the next few weeks I’ll be putting more info on how to(and not to) use on each of the tools.