How to Create a Website if You're not a Programmer

Back in the old days (a few years ago) it was imperative that you own a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor like Microsoft Frontpage, or Dreamweaver in order to create a website without knowing HTML (hypertext markup language). Today almost every good hosting account comes with a point and click method of creating webpages and pre-made website templates you can use. These will vary widely in functionality but all will enable you to get something online. (notice the services listed at the hosting providers) Something that you might not be aware of is that other programs can create HTML for you too. Programs like MS Word & Publisher have the ability to export your documents as HTML. There are also free editors available online for you to use. Here is a list of a few of them.
Nvu Free Web Authoring Software
Amaya Free WYSIWYG Editor
Web Weaver EZ
Even though it is not absolutely essential that you understand HTML code, it is important to be able to cut & paste code into these documents. Try to become as familiar as you can with how your editor allows you to add code in with the cut & paste method.

Free Graphics for Your Site

Another thing you will probably need, or want to have is a graphics editing program. I personally use Photo Impact because Photo Shop is to pricey for my taste but there are hundreds of easy to use programs. If you have a digital camera, it probably came with software that you could use for web graphics. If you don't have a graphics program and are not interested in getting or learning one, I suggest finding a good clip art disk, or free clipart website so you can have some interesting graphics on your site. (Check your host. They may provide you with a set of predefined graphics to use.)
Something to remember about creating graphics is load time for the user. Try to optimize the graphics that you are putting online in order to reduce their file size. Reduce the number of colors, physically make the image smaller, & use the appropriate file type. As a general rule use .jpg for photograph type pictures and .gif for things like logo's. The maximum number of colors you should use is around 128 (web safe pallet). If you are using more colors than this to display your images it is a waste of bandwidth because web browsers only display that many colors. Remember to keep the size of the files as small as you can because believe it or not most people still use dialup to browse the web, and trust me nobody is going to wait 5 minutes for a website to load. Here are a list of free tools to create & optimize web graphics.
GIMP Graphics Program
Paint.Net Free Graphics Manipulation Program
PhotoPlus 6 Free Image Editing Software

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