Ian Swenson .com

In the last article of this series I talked about coming up with concepts about (1.) what you want your web site to accomplish and (2.) what you basically want it to look like.

Just as important as those two points are the tools you use to construct your site. Most people go with some sort of WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor like FrontPage or Dreamweaver.

Poppycock, I say!

You have much more control and can exact much more robust designs if you (*gasp*) hand-code. Yes, that means you have to learn a bit of HTML/CSS/PHP, but that’s where I come in. Future entries in this series will help you with those languages.

HTML, CSS, PHP, Javascript

The only program you need for the following is a text editor. Unlike the rest of the web publishing world, I work off a PC, which means my tutorial will be exclusively geared toward Windows. In Windows you have two basic text editors: Notepad and Wordpad. Notepad should never be used. It’s horrible. Wordpad is always your better option because it has less text formatting issues and has better search/replace features.

However, I recently discovered Notepad++. It performs GeSHi-style color formatting and is superior in tons of other ways while still being lightweight and free. Get the installer here (at time of this article the file is npp5.0.Installer.exe).

If you’re reading this via a feed, there are more pages on the web site. If you’re already on the web site, IGNORE THIS!