Good free software you can use

To help with website building

When I first started computing there was only two ways that you could get good software; buy it or steal it.

Now there is plenty of first-class software going for free. All you have to do is to decide which piece of software you need. Below are a few suggestions. There are others in the member's club so why not join now.

KompoZer Easy Web Authoring!

KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.

KompoZer is designed to be easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding.

This program has been around for some years under a variety of names but it is now a fully fledged program that is definitely worth trying. But, as always, with increased facilities there is extra complexity. You will need to work to get the best out of this program but the effort will be worth it.

Irfanview

IrfanView is a small graphics manipulation program that I rate very highly and use all the time. For performing some tasks it has no equal in my opinion. For example:

  • you can open graphics in one format and save it in many other formats
  • you can resize photographs or graphics very easily, retaining aspect ratio or not
  • you can improve photographs by brightening or darkening, increasing contrast, changing the colour bias and in several other ways.
  • You can make slideshows you can crop photos in several different ways
  • there are many plug-ins IrfanView is very small in size but packs a wealth of facilities;

I would hate to be without it.

Color picker

A careful choosing and matching of colours is all-important when building a website. There are many free colour pickers to be found on the Internet but my favourite is Hex Color Finder by NZ software. You can download it here

It is a small program but packs a big punch.

Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program)

This is a free, open source graphics program. It is a large program, about 100 MB, and is fully featured. It rivals the big-name graphic programs. As with all large programs there is a steep learning curve.

I suggest that before you download it you find out as much as you can about it. Do a search on Google for Gimp and read about it being Wikipedia. The user manual is readily available online and will give you a good idea of the complexity of the program.

Coffee Cup HTML editor

This is one of the many free HTML editors to be found on the Internet. It is the one that I am currently using and has many useful features. There is also a paid version which has many extra features including a visual editor. A 28 day free trial is available for the paid version. Try it!

CSS Editors

There are a number of free CSS editors but none that I can recommend. I use Stylemaster but it is a paid version. You can download and use it for free but after about 30 days it loses some of its features although it remains useful. It's worth a try!

At present I only use CSS to control the size and color of text and for this any plain text editor, such as Notepad is OK.

 

 

 

 

 

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