Expert: K. Lawrence - 2/28/2005

Question
Hi K. Lawrence,
I am totally new to creating web pages. There are so many programs out there to accomplish this task. Do the page creation products sold independently offer significantly more options than using Yahoo templates and what are the main options one would desire?
If you new nothing of HTML or programing to build a page, what would be your preference for user friendly software to deliver professional appearing web pages?

Thank you!
Mike Eidson

Answer
Hi Mike...
Well, I hate to tell you this, but, I am a Webtv expert. Webtv is a set top box that is basically for email and websurfing. It is not a computer and can not download any programs.

What you are asking me is not really in my field.

I do have a computer, but I must say, I know how to write HTML and wouldnt do it any other way. Altho I do have Office Pro on my computer and it has a pretty good editor. I make the page and then just copy it to my website....

Having said that, from what I hear from my computer friends, most all of the webpage building programs are pretty much good.

I can offer you a couple of thoughts. One, go back to the main page of the expert site and see if you can find someone on a computer to answer this question. It is a very good question, I just dont have a specific answer for you.

Two, since I couldn't download programs on Webtv I had to learn to use the free hosts like Angelfire, Geocities, etc. They all had options for advanced (HTML) and basic users. The basic option could produce a reasonable website.

It really depends on how "professional" you are talking about.

The major drawback to all of those free hosts is they put tons of popup and banner ads on each and every page. Angelfire does have an option where you can pay a bit and not have any ads. I am sure there are many out there you could do that with.

I now have my own domain and host all of my websites there. But there are many options and really too many to go into in this reply.

The WWW is huge and there are mind numbing options. My best advice is decide on what you want to do...I.E. just how professional you want your site and research the options.

I would think that pretty much any of the basic webpage creating software out there will do just fine.

Hope I helped a bit and good luck....