3 Essential Web Site Building Tools

Web site building can be a somewhat arduous task especially if you're new at it. If you're thinking of building more than just a handful of websites, you should consider getting 3 essential tools for your webmaster arsenal.

A web design software is the first thing that you need. It is THE most essential tool, unless you're thinking of hand coding your whole web site. To hand code a website, all you need is a text editor like Notepad.

If you are just beginning to learn how to build a website, you may want to find a software that has a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface. A WYSIWYG software is one that lets you work visually, as opposed to seeing just a bunch of code.

The most popular web design software used by many professionals in the industry is Adobe Dreamweaver. If you're still a beginner, however, Dreamweaver can be a bit of an overkill. You may want to check out a free web design software called KompoZer. Both Dreamweaver and KompoZer lets you design in visual mode but at the same time allow you to fiddle with the underlying code. If you don't have any intention of messing around with code, you may want to give VisualSite Designer a go.

You should also seriously consider getting a web graphics software, even if you're not going to create your own graphics. It will come in handy when you need to create a quick graphic or do minor graphic tweaks such as cropping, optimizing, reducing or increasing size etc.

If you've decided on Adobe Dreamweaver as your web design software, you may want to get Adobe Fireworks for your web graphics software. They work together very well. As should be expected, I guess. I find it to be an excellent software for web graphics and have yet to find something better.

If you're after something cheaper, you can easily use Photoshop Elements. Photoshop Elements has a feature that will allow you to save your images for the web. If you only have minor touching up to do with an existing image, you cmay even get away with a free online image editor like Picnik.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is just a method of sending and retrieving your files to and from your server. Many web design software already have an FTP feature built into it. An FTP software will come in handy when you want to upload files and change the permission of your files.

When you look for an FTP software, it should at least have the following features:

• upload in ascii or binary format
• change file permissions

A bonus feature would be to be able to edit the content of the files right from within the software.

There are many FTP softwares out there. I've been using WS FTP for as long as I can remember. The only thing I find lacking is that it's a bit slow when I have lots of files to upload. If I need to upload a large amount of files, I use 3D-FTP. If you're after a free FTP software with a full set of features, you may want to give Filezilla a spin. Or if you're a complete beginner, CoffeeCup Free FTP is the easiest FTP software that I know of.

There you go the three web site building tools that you simply must have to make your web building venture easier to handle. Now, you're ready to make your own website.