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PPC>
Web
building>
Software
Web Creator
Can’t get your Web designs to look exactly how
you want them to? Then read on, suggests Dave Cook.
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Info |
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Product: |
Web Creator |
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From: |
LMSOFT |
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Web: |
www.guildsoft.co.uk |
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Price: |
£29.99 |
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Rating: |
8 |
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We like: |
Drag and drop
interface |
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We don’t like: |
Range of templates
could be better |
Building a Web site using a tool such as Macromedia
DreamWeaver is all very well if you’re a professional Web designer.
For home user, though, such a powerful solution is not only overkill
- it’s generally a waste of money.
AOL, for example, provides its own free Web editors,
1-2-3 Publish and Easy Designer, both of which are available at the
keyword: Hometown. That said, sometimes it’s a good idea to broaden
your knowledge a tad, especially if you wish to delve a little
deeper into the fascinating world of Web site design.
Surprisingly, many Web design tools are quite
inexpensive. Take Web Creator from LMSOFT, for example. Web Creator
lets you create neat-looking Web sites the easy way – with no
programming skills or previous technical know-how required.
Three
Steps To Heaven
Using Web Creator, you can create a personalised Web
site in three simple steps:
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Select from a page template (or create your own)
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Add content to your pages
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Publish your site on the Web using the FTP wizard
And just because Web Creator is keenly priced, by no
means do you have to settle for second best in the goodies
department - far from it. To help bring your site to life, Web
Creator includes 8,500 clip art images, 5,000 animations, and 1,500
royalty-free photos.
When installing Web Creator you have the option to
install everything to your hard drive or just the program itself,
with the templates accessible from the CD. The latter option is
handy if you’re running out of free disk space, for example.
Quick Time 4.0 is also included with the software.
In our instance, though, we had to give Quick Time a miss since
there was no sign of a serial number.
Up And Running
Whether you open a new page or a page from a
template, the simple startup screen and “what you see is what you
get” (WYSIWYG) interface helps to make site creation a breeze.
Web
Creator is different in that, unlike many other Web design tools,
multimedia objects such as text, buttons, banners, images, sound,
animation and video clips are simply dropped on the page. If you’re
not happy with the position of an object, you simply drag it around
the page until you are happy. It’s as easy as that!
And it doesn’t end there. The Rollover button
feature is impressive and comparable to what you might find in
software costing ten times as much. Transition effects are also
useful for creating interest. In Web Creator, transitions can be
made up of fades, dissolves, wipes, movements, and delays.
Having finished designing your site, it’s then a
matter of uploading your creation to the host site using the
Distribution Wizard. Just remember to ensure that any external
applications required by the host are also included in your site’s
local directory.
Verdict
Web Creator’s easy-to-use, drag and drop
interface makes it the perfect tool for Web design newbies.
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