Friday 12 October 2012

The Right Tools Make Web Design Much Easier

By Jeff Wagner


Since the invention of HTML in the late 1980s the focus has switched to web design. Early web pages were hand coded using a text editor, while this is still possible there are many tools that make things much more accessible for the average user. It's no longer the case of coding a document but more one of designing one with the right tools.

A number of standards exist for site design. The first accepted standard was limited to text, images, tables, and hyperlinks. Although this was very functional it severely limited what could be designed.

Due to the limitations browser developers started to develop their proprietary standards, which meant that pages designed for one browser might not display correctly with another one. At this stage of development sections of the code had to detect the browser and offer different pages, although this is still the case later improved standards has made things easier although it has relied on compliance from both the designers of browsers and from designers.

Standards testing can highlight areas where a page breaches standards. Online tools scan a page for errors and issue a list of alerts for breaches of compliance. Many applications that are commonly used for sites have this ability built in and lessen the need to continually check. The applications produce sites that work with different platforms and reduce the need to tweak for different environments.

Page creation applications help to make things significantly more straightforward. With the tools it's possible to create the bulk of most pages dragging and dropping content in a similar way to desktop publishing. Basic pages can be created with little or no knowledge of HTML, however more advanced pages still need advanced skills.

Web browsers have generally pushed web standards. Many development tools comply to these standards sufficiently for pages to work on different platforms. Basic web design is possible for someone with limited knowledge but advanced pages still require experts.




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