5 Great Long-standing Web Design Software Applications

Many may remember the early days of the Internet. Browser functionality was limited, and for the most part, web based content was created within simple applications such as Windows Notepad. Years later, and with HTML 5 on the way, things have certainly changed. Although there are still those that like to dice into text, and code line-by-line, rich web content has made design and development much more complicated. Fortunately, there are a number of software tools available that make the creation process a lot simpler. Whether you are a web designer by trade, or simply by hobby, here are 5 great applications worth considering.

There are plenty of Web design tools available for the budget conscious. One of the most popular publishers of content creation software for the web, CoffeeCup Software, offers two packages that may be of interest to casual and home users.

CoffeeCup's first package, Visual Site Designer, offers web designers the ability to create basic web pages with a WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) interface that allows creation of web content as it would appear in a web browser. No knowledge of HTML is required, and allows for easy insertion of Flash content with the click of the mouse. Website templates are included to get a website started, and an easy to use upload feature allows for quick publishing.

The HTML Editor by CoffeeCup providers web developers the ability to write HTML code. Websites can also be organized into projects for those that have multiple sites to create and manage. Built in tag reference and auto-complete features combined with a validation for W3C standards tool, provide the means necessary to create content up to and including HTML 5.

Corel software has been around for a number of years, and has just announced the latest addition to their longstanding family of creation packages. Included in the X5 Suite are the abilities to create websites along with the direct ability to create and edit web video and Flash right within the application. The included Website Creator X5 integrates with other software in the suite, and easily supports creation of XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and XML based content.

NetObjects Fusion has been a strong contender among website creation tools and has a very strong following. The latest version, 11, features Ajax integration, and a timeline based way of creating dynamic changes to a web page. Data can also be easily into a website with XML integration, HTML Source code view allows for color coded editing of code, and semantic XHTML features provide accessibility to search engines and crawlers.

Adobe's Dreamweaver CS5 could likely be considered to go to product when it comes to professional web design. Not only does it offer an uncountable number of features for professional web content creation, but it also nicely integrates with the other Adobe family of products including Photoshop CS5, and Flash CS5. Providing a seamless and efficient workflow, with a common interface between applications, content created with one can easily be made available to the other. Not only does Dreamweaver support both visual editing for designers and coding view for coders, but extensions available from the Dreamweaver community add functional such as e-commerce, forms, and more.

Sources/Resources:

CoffeeCup Software
Corel
NetObjects
Adobe Dreamweaver