If you are keen to publish your own website you will need to think about how you are going to create and edit the pages. There are different ways of doing this. I've described a couple of them below.
Content Management Systems
This is basically a simplified way of adding and managing content using pre defined templates. You can add or remove elements from the templates so that eventually you will end up with a website with the style and design you are looking for. The system can usually be set up and administered through your web host and it is particularly useful for large websites. As with all software you need to spend some time learning how to use the system but it is quick and easy to use.
Creating a site from scratch using your own software
Another way to create your website is to get yourself some web editing software and create it from scratch. If you are just beginning to dabble and you want to get a toe in the water this is the way I would recommend. The reason for this is that you will learn how a web page is put together and you will almost certainly learn some HTML. This is short for hyper text markup language and although it sounds grand HTML is simply the code that is used to program your browser.
If you ask a webmaster what software they recommend they will usually say Dreamweaver. This is extremely popular with webmasters and it costs a fortune. If you are dabbling you won't want to spend hundreds of pounds on software like this. It is highly recommended for the experienced webmaster and those who want to make a career out of it but frankly it isn't necessary for a small personal website.
What I would recommend is that first of all you have a look at the software you already have. Some of the Microsoft products such as Publisher will allow you to create some passable pages. There are many other web editing programs available and some of them are free to download from the internet.
The program that I use for my websites is Microsoft FrontPage 2003. This cost me £40 from ebay and it came with an OEM licence. This means that it was perfectly legal for me to buy the software but I can only install it on one computer or a laptop or additional hard drive.
Many web editors look down on FrontPage but I find it perfectly adequate for my site. A cut down version of this is FrontPage Express which used to come free with Internet Explorer. This was the first web editing software I used and it was easy to transfer it to the full version of FrontPage as the site grew larger. You may have FrontPage Express already on your computer but if not then you can download it for free here FrontPage Express.
In the next article I'll be looking at how to get your newly created pages onto the internet. Good luck and happy editing.
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