Several times, in the Making Web section of this blog, I have searched and reported ways of create and design a website, without having to keep up with the html code.CMS are those programs that allow you to create a website with wizards, drop-down menus, drag & drop and so on (see the best CMS software to try for free)
Webmaster professionals, on the other hand, use the Dreamviewer program as a work program to design web pages from scratch.
This software, in addition to the fact that it is not free, still requires some study of the programming language and is not really recommended for beginners who do not intend to take a manual in hand.
Until a few years ago Microsoft had the terrible FrontPage program included in the Office suite that allowed you to design web pages as if they were Powerpoint slides.
From Mozilla Labs, the developer of Firefox browser, came out the best alternative to Dreamviewer, the opensource NVU program that dedicated an article to last year.
Since NVU hasn't been updated for a long time, the project was revived in 2009 with another opensource and free software which allows anyone to designing the graphics of a website, without using html code.
This program is called Kompozer.
Kompozer allows you to create tables, insert images, create various shapes and components of common web pages, with ease.
Il program is free and is also portable, in the sense that the files can be copied to a USB stick for use on any computer.
The user interface is very simple and easy to use.
Everything is arranged on the main page in a well-organized way, with menus and submenus coherent for each object that can be incorporated into the web page.
On the left side you have the menu to navigate between the various web pages of the site under construction while in the center there is the actual editor.
Kompozer, being updated to modern web 2.0, supports CSS style sheets which define the rules of graphics of the site.
You can easily generate the CSS style giving the rules for each title, for the writing style, for the size of the images, for the spaces between paragraphs, the borders, the thicknesses, the width of the page, the size and the font of the text. and so on, without having to absolutely know this newer programming language.
Just select the type of element you want to configure and create the rules for the CSS.
The tool also works very well for designing a web page as if it were a typical blog or newspaper article, with an image immersed in the text and well formatted.
You can easily upload a computer image and add it to the web page.
Kompozer then allows you to resize it directly from its editor, deciding its width and height, with the option of maintaining the proportions.
The wizard to create the table is very reminiscent of Microsoft Word and also its graphic style can be set from the properties.
Again, there is no complicated HTML to write.
In the same way you can add modules and selection menus with configuration wizards.
Kompozer becomes a program that really surprises even the most precise webmasters when, after designing a web page, you go to check the html code that has been automatically generated.
If, for example, it is better not to look at what kind of code comes out when saving a Word document as an html page, with Kompozer the result, I can assure, is worthy of professional quality.
It will thus be noted that the html code is clean and well formatted, not confused, allows those who know the programming of internet sites to make changes and easily find the objects designed using the visual and graphic editor.
At the end, with the preview button you will be able to see how the web page would look on the browser, if it were published on the internet.
Even in a quick test you will notice that nothing changes, that the spaces correspond to those chosen, that there are no lines or dashes scattered and that text and images are well formatted.
So, with Kompozer, if you buy a domain or if you sign up for a free hosting, you could create your own website on the fly, with speed and flexibility and publish it even if you don't have the slightest idea of what's behind it. .
Kompozer is free, licensed under the GPL and downloadable for Linux and Windows.
Download Kompozer
