Bologne. Many great men never owned a decent suit and many men wearing Armani are unremarkable (other than the suit they are wearing that is... an Armani IS truly a great suit.). Why am I talking about fashion? Well, tools have become, for many Internet denizens, the fashion of this century and I have always wanted to debunk this myth.
I have seen some fantastic web sites developed with freeware and some horrible things done with very expensive tools. We all have. Great tools can make it easier, if you understand their capabilities, to do great things with your talent.
A paintbrush and canvas in my hands will produce art unworthy of the fridge while Picaso created masterpieces with them. It is the person using the tool that counts, or in other words, the man in the suit.
That all having been said I now feel comfortable talking to you about the various tools available. You do not need a big budget or the latest cracking
software to have a quality set of tools. By the way software piracy is a crime, you know that already right?
Before I embark on what I know will generate hate mail I want to be clear... tools are very personal. One persons wonder tool is anothers garbage. Please keep that in mind when you rip my head off with the inevitable email.
If money is an issue (or nonexistant) there exists tons of freeware thanks to some very talented coders who generously volunteer their own time. (Check out SourceForge.net) My favorites are HTML-Kit and NVU.
The next step up is the medium priced and easy to use tools like Microsoft FrontPage. Please note that I recommend, if you use FrontPage, you also use one of the freeware packages. After your web site is done open the pages individually with HTML-Kit and do some house cleaning. Microsoft has gotten better but still has a ways to go.
At the top is Adobe. Dreamweaver, Flash et al. If you have the cash get the web bundle, it is amazing. Be prepared to work through some tutorials and probably a class or two but it is more than worth it.
If you disagree with my choices, and I know you do, go ahead and flame me in an email. I can take it. Better you vent on me than take it home to your family.
Love you all!
Elliott D. Nadelman
Software Engineer
enadelman@enaresource.com
http://www.enaresource.com
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