+ RSSMaking A Web Site Using Free Software
Making a website is not as difficult as many people think. Today you are able to download free software that makes it possible for anyone that wants to, to create a Web Site.
Some years ago you would have needed to know how to code HTML. That is no longer the case. There are many software products available that make it easy to produce a web site. Having some knowledge of HTML is an advantage but by no means a necessity.
There is open source software available that is every bit as powerful as the paid for variety. Open source software is created by a community of programmers around the world that work together to produce useful software. Just to highlight how good much of this open source software is; Have you heard of Apache Server Software? Apache is the preferred software used on most servers today. This is open source software, free.
The free open source software I have used is called NVU (pronounced N-View). If you search Google for nvu you will then be able to choose a download that suites your operating system.
How To Use NVU
When you open NVU it looks like any word processor program. It works much the same too. There is, though, one major difference and that is how you set it out so that you control where things will be placed.
Unlike a word processor, you need to be able to work with images as well as text. You need to have control in placing each component where you want to. When you first start this, it will seem difficult. The truth is that everything is difficult until you know how. The purpose of this article is to help you master being able to place components just where you want.
As I said earlier, the screen looks just like a word processor. The text features work the same as in a word processor. You can choose the font, size, bold it and all the things you can do in a word Microsoft Word.
The key to achieving this is tables. It is by means of tables that you will be able to place objects where you need them on a web page. You will find that if you import an image and then want text next to it, the text carries on from the image as though the image was just part of the line of text. To overcome this you need to create a table with 2 columns. In one column you place the image and in the other you place the text.
You can create tables inside of tables. You can change the background color of any table or column. You can set the width of your table in pixels or percent. Percent allows you to create a table inside another table to a set size depending on the size of the table it is created into.
Tables are what give you control over how your page will look. They are like the bricks in a wall that allow you to place the windows where you want to in the wall. You can create tables and make them invisible. You do this by setting the border width to zero. This means that you have been able to place objects where you like, but how they are held there is unseen.
This is the main thing you will need to master. Once you understand this the rest of the program will fall into place. In mastering this free software you are now able to use such programs as Dreamweaver and Microsoft Front Page as they are similar to use.
