Flying Freelance: Web-Design and SEO Lens

Recently someone asked me why I got into computer science, and so I've put some more thought into that question since.

I loved video games all the way back when many computer games were still text-based, and I still do now. A lot of people think of video games as a waste of time, and that the internet is something that will slowly melt your brain, but for me computers and the myriad applications of them have always stirred my imagination.

So here was the answer that I gave the person whom asked me why I got into computer science, but it applies to a lot of my interests:

"It has such a great diversity of applications for one, and really takes a lot of skill at taking lots of little parts (pieces of code for example) and making them work together as a whole. That it also can be a great creative outlet, and have artistic applications is a huge draw. Plus it can be challenging, and there's just so much to learn."

DreamWeaver CS4



The Good

Dreamweaver CS4 is an all around excellent tool, which will definitely make building websites faster and easier. It has both a code view mode for editing HTML, CSS and any other code you use, and a handy design view mode so you can view what your website looks like.

You can use Dreamweaver as a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, but where it really shines is using the design view mode in along with the code view mode. It's very easy to switch between code and design view mode, and you can even split the screen between both if you want to work in them simultaneously.

Dreamweaver has a huge amount of highly useful features, including some pre-generated by easily editable AJAXy type effects which are quite nice.

The Bad

I'll admit sometimes it's so easy to use the WYSIWYG side of DreamWeaver that it can be a little too easy to starting falling into the habit of being a lazy coder.

I strongly recommend against relying too much on WYSIWYG editors, especially when you are new and should be working hard to get your coding skills up to snuff.

WYSIWYG can be convenient but will only get you so far as a web-designer.

Not all of Dreamweaver's pre-generated code is valid, and DW templates can become broken if you are not careful about moving around or renaming certain files.

Finally this program is quite expensive.

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Microsoft Works

The Bad

If you are wondering why I even bother to include Microsoft Works, it's because some people do actually use Works to make websites, and occasionally I get asked if it's any good for building websites. No! It's not!

Microsoft Works is an extremely limited tool as far as what you can do with websites, it's strictly WYSIWYG (again what you see is what you get), and the code is just a terrible mess full of errors. Even text written in word and then pasted into another web-design program can have problems because of Work's special characters.

Bottom line

Use Microsoft Works as a word processor, not to build websites!

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NotePad++

You can download Notepad++ here FREE



The Good

Notepad++ is a very simple and free website creation program, which allows you to create html, css, and javascript files and more.
It has a feature that allows you to easily launch the page you are working on in any web browser that you have installed on your computer, so that you can see what the page you are working on looks like so far.

This editor has no pre-generated code, or other such fancy features, it is not a WYSIWYG editor. This is a good thing in that the only way you can get away with being a lazy coder is by finding someone else's code and copying and pasting. It really isn't worth it to use Notepad++ unless you really want to get to know how to build websites from the inside out really well.

The Bad
No WYSIWYG features, no nifty pre-generated codes such as the ones you'll find in programs like Dreamweaver. Again this is a good thing and bad thing. This is a very bare bones program.