Web Page Design for the Beginner
A Web Hosting Article Contributed by Frances Rhea
Beginner's Tools for Web Page Design
There is no special hardware needed in web page design. Any standard computer and an Internet connection are all you will need. Even an older PC is more than enough for all your web page design needs.
Html for Web Page Design
Html pages are simple text documents that use tags to tell the server how to display the text entered. Web pages are not just text and HTML; images need created and inserted into your pages. Images used in web pages should be made small in size (under 10Kb) so they download quickly.
The most important thing to remember is that if people have to wait more than 10-15 seconds to see your page, you will loose visitors. Even though high speed Internet access is growing, many people still use dial-up. Even with a 56k modem the download time is about 5.6 kilobytes per second. This means that designing web pages under 60Kb (kilobytes) is a good idea.
Using Image Optimization in Your Web Page Design
The largest part of most web pages are the images. Make them as compact as possible without making them look ugly. If you use an image editing program such as JASC Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Xara, or Macromedia Fireworks, they have a built-in process to export your images and compress them. The special export filters are designed to produce web-optimized images for your web page design.
Use a Little Common Sense to Speed up Your Design
Make sure that you really need that image that takes up half the page. If it does have significant meaning, eliminate it! Large images take up a lot of space and are generally not necessary. If you insist on using them, slice them into portions using the Slicing Tool provided with your image editing software.
Most people are less interested in great graphics and photos and more interested in the information or service your web site provides.
Web Page Design Software
Although you can create a web page with Notepad, it is not the easiest way to start out. There is a large variety of WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) software packages that can ease the process. The prices and functions of each vary greatly so you will probably want to try a few and see what you feel most comfortable with.
My recommendation is Namo Web Editor from www.namo.com. Although the price is around $100, it is well worth the price in features and ease of use.
Even if you choose a WYSIWYG editor, you will want to understand the HTMl so you can fine tune the pages when before you upload them to your server. Here is where Notepad comes in handy although there are other software programs available that will help with providing common tags and help files to complete the web design process. Some of these also have built in Page Viewers so you do not have to open your browser to see your work.
