Web Design Software

A look at the different packages available and their compatibility with the shopping cart software on our website.

Compatible web design packages

In practice just about any program capable of editing html code can be made to work with our software, but since most web designers just want to create a site quickly with minimal of fuss, we decided to take a look at some of the editors available together with their tools and price tags.

Web design software has advanced greatly since the first days of the internet. Just being able to build a page with some scanned images and basic text and tables is no longer good enough for the average user, but now the the divide between DTP and web design is narrowing. WYSIWYG editors with their ability to precisely lay out a page without any programming knowledge are now an essential tool for many designers. However the ability to directly edit the html is still important for many designers.

The major software manufactures all have products each vying for a share of the market. Including Adobe, the Flash and Shockwave developer Macromedia and of course Microsoft.

The requirements for the needs of the users for web design software is very broad. From the high end developers who require large database driven sites, to the bottom end and the first time users who just want to get their site up and running. We will look at both WYSIWYG and HTML editors. From those aimed at beginners to those intended for experienced users.

Some programs under test use a DTP approach to web design, which is something that pure HTML editors find difficult to achieve. The programs combine the two styles probably being the most practical and useful.

For HTML purists, the code that produces by these programs produce can often be extremely inefficient and long winded. However they do produce sites that are quicker to develop and actually work.

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