Create Your Own Web Site

A personal Web site provides a forum for a wide variety of purposes such as recording your family history, showcasing information on your favorite hobby, or posting photos of your grandchildren.

You no longer need to be a computer wizard to create your own Web site.

We suggest starting with Poor Richard’s Web Site, a book by Peter Kent that describes a low-cost method for setting up your own Web site. The book contains information such as how to get your own domain name, how to avoid common mistakes in Web site design, and how to find free programs that add pizzazz to your site. Published by Top Floor Publishing ( http://www.topfloor.com ), the book is available in local bookstores or call 800-247-6553 or
click here.

There is a lot of computer software available to help you create and manage your Web site.

            Microsoft FrontPage ($140) relies on WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing and graphical site management tools to build a Web site without any HTML programming skills required. If you want to build a Web site quickly, this is the way to go.

            Adobe GoLive ($289) allows you to create a Web site with complex features. This software program is favored by professional designers and programmers. One of the nice features of this tool is that it enables you to preview your site in the major browsers on multiple platforms. If you are looking for a Web site production and management tool with lots of sophisticated features this may be the right choice for you. An additional level of graphics sophistication can be added using Adobe ImageStyler ($129). This software enables you to create attention-getting graphics such as banners, backgrounds, and buttons. Best of all, whenever you want to change the look of your site, you can update graphics using batch capabilities.

            Macromedia Dreamweaver/Fireworks Studio ($399) has everything you need to design, build, and manage a professional Web site. Macworld magazine selected this software as the Best Web Authoring Software and Best Web Graphics Software in 1999. Clearly this software is worth considering if you want to create a Web site with sophisticated features.

The software described on this page is available for Macintosh and Windows.