Building a Web Site For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Examining Page-Building Programs

These days, everyone wants to jump on the Web bandwagon, and it seems like every program under the sun can be used to make Web pages. You can use word processors such as Microsoft Word and dedicated page-creation software such as Adobe Dreamweaver, Amaya, or HotDog. Every program has its quirks, and not all of them produce high-quality, clean HTML code.

Leaving out the Johnny-come-latelies (such as word processors that tack HTML onto their older functions), two basic kinds of page-building programs are available:

✓	Text editor: Kind of like a word processor without the frills.
✓	WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) program: Lets you develop the Web page visually instead of by working directly with the code. The main advantage of this approach is that what you see on the screen as you’re working is the same as you would see if viewing the Web page in a browser.

Proponents of pure text editors and WYSIWYG enthusiasts can get about as raucous defending their favorite approaches as a bunch of baseball fans can get about the World Series. The plain fact, though, is that sometimes you’ll want to use one type of editor, and sometimes you’ll prefer the other kind of program. The following sections describe the differences between these two types of programs.

Text editors

HTML files are simple text files. They contain nothing but the plain old letters, symbols, and numbers that you find on your keyboard. HTML is so simple, in fact, that you don’t need any ...