Web Design All-in-One for Dummies®

Chapter 4: Choosing

the Right Tools

In This Chapter

⻬ Using a Web editor (HTML versus WYSIWYG)

⻬ Choosing the right graphics software

⻬ Understanding HTML basics and code structure

⻬ Using color effectively on the Web

⻬ Choosing the right shopping cart for your e-commerce site

⻬ Determining when to hire a programmer

B

y now you should have pulled together and organized all (or most of)

the content required for the site, and you’re nearly ready to begin

working on the site design. Before you can do that, however, you must first

make a few important decisions about which development tools to use.

After that, you need to be sure that you understand some fundamental tech-

niques for using those tools.

You begin this chapter by discovering the basics of coding and

working with HTML. You can hand-code your pages using a

simple text editor, or even better, you can build your pages

with some kind of HTML or Web editor. Although not all

Web-editing programs insist that you know HTML

before you use them, having a simple understanding

of HTML’s structure and syntax can definitely help

you build the pages for the site more quickly and

efficiently. It’s important, too, that you understand

how to save your HTML files using the proper

naming conventions and correct file extensions.

After you’ve selected your Web-editing tool, you

need to look into and purchase (or download a free

copy of an open-source application) at least one or two

graphics programs. Some programs are better than others

at certain tasks, so having an understanding of what each

program can do can help you in selecting the right tools for the

job. I highly recommend having at least one vector and one raster graphics

program to create the Web site design and optimization of all the images

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Working with Web Editors

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that will appear on the Web site. While you are creating your Web graphics,

it is critical that you know how to work in the RGB color space, use Web-

safe color palettes, and understand hexadecimal color values. This atten-

tion to color inside the program you choose to work with can help ensure

that the colors in your design look just right.

In addition to finding a good Web editor and the right graphics software pro-

grams, when you are creating a site that has an e-commerce component or

needs a way to process credit card payments, you also need to look into

finding the right shopping cart solution. Your options range from a simple

PayPal setup to third-party software or host-provided carts to custom-built

shopping carts. All of these options — with the exception of PayPal, Google

Checkout, or some other outside credit card processing service — require

the site owner to get a merchant account from his bank and an SSL (Secure

Sockets Layer) certificate from the host provider to securely process online

payments.

Finally, although you may want to design and build the site entirely by your-

self, some sites have such customized and complex data-processing needs

that you’ll want or need the assistance of a professional Web programmer.

For example, if your client wants a custom-built shopping cart that caters

specifically to her products, hiring a professional programmer is a very

good idea. The last part of this chapter examines some criteria that can

help you determine when it is time to call on a programmer and offers some

suggestions on good places to look online to find one.

Working with Web Editors

HyperText Markup Language, or HTML, is the foundation code of any Web

page. The code is comprised of a simple tag-based markup language for the

World Wide Web that communicates information about how the hypertext

links, text and other content formatting, and page structure of a document

should be viewed in a Web browser. Almost anyone can learn HTML in a

short period of time because its rules are reasonably straightforward, it isn’t

a full-scale programming language, and its structure is fairly uncomplicated.

The HTML code for any Web page can either be typed out using a plain-text

editor, such as Notepad for the PC or TextEdit for the Mac, or written out

using the specialized tools in a dedicated HTML (code) or Web (visual)

editor. An editor is really the better choice for creating Web pages because

an editor can help you create the HTML quickly as well as integrate other

important technologies with the pages, such as adding CSS (Cascading Style

Sheets), JavaScript, and other programming languages to the code.

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