Coding your HTML by hand gives much better results than using a WYSIWYG program. You can get
layout that you want, and make small adjustments easily.NotePad comes free with Windows - but a much better text editor is NoteTab Light. This has a sidebar with HTML tags - double-click to enter tag you want, with a dialog box for those that have options or preferences, such as size, colour, placement, etc. Download it from http://www.notetab.com/ . There is also a NoteTab mailing list, where you can ask questions, and exchange tips and tricks - subscribe to basic list by sending a blank e-mail to mailto:NoteTab-Subscribe@eGroups.com
When you're used to coding, an award-winning program is First Page from http://www.evrsoft.com/ . It runs in easy, normal, expert and hardcore modes - so you can learn to use it and continue to keep up with your web page output. Version 3 is due out any day. A built-in browser lets you view your pages as you create them, there are buttons or menus for tag creation, JavaScript wizards, HTML reference guides, template facility, and much more. Don't buy an HTML editor until you've tried this freeware!
You'll need to check your pages for errors. I use CSE Validator Lite from http://www.htmlvalidator.com/ You can also buy a PRO version, but I've found free version enough for my needs. You can correct errors directly in main window, and each error is explained as you highlight it.
Graphics often need a bit of a tweak before you add them to your pages. Cropping, making background transparent, resizing, or just finding that picture that you **know** you've got somewhere on your hard drive! Irfan View can carry out all these tasks, and includes a great browser which loads at click of a key, and displays thumbnails for you to choose from. Available from many freeware sites (see below), you can also download from http://softwarecenter.net/irfanview/
Uploading to your server (the computer where you web site is stored and accessed from) is done using File Transfer Protocol, or FTP for short. Two good freeware programs are FTP Explorer from http://www.ftpx.com/ and WS_FTP, available from many freeware sources (see below). Both have graphical interfaces, very similar to using Windows Explorer. You can download a free WS_FTP tutorial in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format by Steve MacLellen from my e-book library at http://www.freesitebuilder.co.uk/library/library.html If you haven't got Adobe Acrobat reader, use link on my library page to download a free copy.
