Website Design Software - Tools of the Trade

Everything a Web Designer Needs

There are really only a few things that a designer needs to build a website from scratch. Website Design Software such as an HTML editor, a FTP Client and a basic photo editing program are neccessary and really all that you need to get started. Since this article is meant to be for a beginning level designer, I will also touch on some other web design tips.

HTML Editor

An HTML editor is a software application for creating web pages. HTML markup can be written with any normal text editor, but specialized HTML editors can offer some added convienance and functionality. (More info on HTML Editors).

Every designer has their own preferance, when I first started writing HTML I used notepad. The program is on basically every computer and it is super easy to use. What I like about that as a beginner is that there is no highlighting or corrections happenning. It forces you to figure out what is broken in your code. I soon moved on to notepad++. I really like this program because it does all the highlighting of your code, it has basic search and replace functions, and it's totally free. The program takes basically no resources to run and is super fast.

Choosing a FTP Client

Once you've got some code together your going to want to put it on the web. An FTP Client is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. In lamen's terms it the software that's going to transfer the html files you write over to the server of your hosting company. FTP clients are super easy to use. Everyone I've ever had has drag and drop functionality. The grab the file thats on your computer and drag it over to the server. Really straight forward. I really don't have a preferance here, there are times when I use CoreFTP and times when I use Livezilla. Both are free and reliable.

Photo Editing - Time To Add Some Pics

Now unless you are going the all text route you are going to be adding some pics. If you're on a budget there are numerous free programs out on the web for simple crops and resizes. As you start to progress you will need something more versatile. Hands down, Adobe is the way to go. I use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator constantly. There are not any programs out as reliable for image based or vector artwork on the market. Grab a suite that has both as well as a couple of other greats such as Flash, Dreamweaver and After Effects.

Now You've Got the Tools

Once you have all of the tools, you just need a hosting company. They come a dime a dozen. Look for something with unlimited bandwidth and a good reputation. This is a highly competitive market, so if you have any problems move your sites to the next one as soon as possible. One other thing to keep in mind, when choosing a hosting company ask yourself what are your core needs? There are some very limited hosting companys that do not work well with content management systems, beware!

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