Website Design Tools

Web Design Tools then & Now

With the availability of many design tools, designing your website is much easier than it use to be. Eleven years ago, when I built my first website, I had to do so using notepad, which is a text editor that came with Windows 95, this took quite a while.

WYSIWYG Design Tools

However, today there are many affordable web design tools on the market that you can use to create a website in little time. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You get) HTML editors such as Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, allow you to easily edit and create a website. Adding images (pictures) and other components like forms and buttons can also be done with the help of HTML editors.

Most of these tools are pretty easy to learn and master and there are tons of written video tutorials on how to use them. These editors give us results that are on a level that rivals websites created by actual web professionals.

Some of the more popular HTML editors are:

• Adobe Dreamweaver CS5
• CoffeeCup HTML Editor
• Komodo IDE
• Microsoft Expression Web

To get the entire list of the top 10 HTML editors, visit Top Ten Reviews dot com. please note there are some free HTML editors available as well. Two that come to mind are CoffeeCup and KompoZer.

Pre-Designed HTML templates

Now a days, if you do not want to deal with the hassle of trying to create a unique website, there are thousands of website templates that you van either download for free or purchase at a cost. By the way, websites templates are pre-designed websites shells, that you just add your content (information) to. There are several sites that offer pre-done templates, one of the more popular ones is Template Monster.

Using WordPress for Your Church Website

As I mentioned earlier, there are two types of website platforms, 1. static (HTML) or 2. CMS, which is short for content management system. By far, the most popular CMS is WordPress.  WordPress addresses many of the issues that sometime plagues church websites.

• You do not need to be familiar with HTML, CSS or PHP
• Needing multiple people to make changes
• Easy to add new pages and make changes

WordPress is free and there are also thousands of free templates (called themes) that are available. However, there are also some fantastic pre-designed themes that have been created specifically for the church. many included several built-in features that churches would benefit from such as:

• Pastor’s Blog Page
• Events Calendars
• Church News and happenings Modules
• Sermon Media Mangers
• Podcast Publishing ability
• Social media Feeds
• Online Giving Modules… and more

WordPress does require some installation and setup. Here is a quick list of the steps involved:

1. Purchase a Domain Name (i.e. YourChurchName.org)

2. Purchase space to host your website from a hosting company.

3. Install a the latest version of WordPress on to your website

4. Create, install and configure a MySQL database (Blue Host does this for you when you install WordPress)

5. Purchase, install and configure the WordPress church theme of your choice

6. Install and configure any WordPress plugins. Plugins are programs that give your WP site additional functionality (i.e. Photo Gallery)

7. Create your website pages and posts in the WordPress Dashboard

8. Add your content and images ===> That’s It! You’re Done!

If you would rather someone else do the work for you please contact us and we will be happy discuss rates and process.

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