Look what I can do - Nvu

I downloaded Nvu a few days ago. I heard about it from a Yahoo Group I'm in. Learning HTML is a great hobby if you're looking for a way to keep your mind active, but writing HTML can be really time consuming if you also like to write. Between writing and designing your page you can literally spend all day sitting in front of your computer. For some people that might not sound like a bad thing, and I actually spend most of my time on my computer, but I like to do other things besides blogging and making web pages.

There are a lot of programs designed to automate the task of making web pages. All of them are good depending on what you want to do, and how picky you are about how you do it. Some people just want to put up a web page. Lots of people have web pages and they're fun. You can put a picture of your car, boy friend, girl friend, or other favorite thing, tell your life story, these days web pages can do anything you want to do

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with words and pictures. If you just want to put up a web page learning HTML can be a big deal. HTML isn't brain surgery but its not something you'll be able to pick up in a day. For people like that you can get what's called a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. WYSIWYG editors are word processors that create documents as web pages. You don't have to know any HTML, you just type and go like any other word processor. If you just want to create a web page, and aren't really interested in learning HTML a WYSIWYG editor is great. They range in price from free to a few hundred dollars. The difference in price mainly has to do with the amount of graphics and templates that come with the program. The free programs usually have no graphics or templates, and the really expensive ones usually have tons.

The problem with WYSIWYG editors is that you can't learn HTML using them even if you wanted to. The designing team decided how the program will write the code and the user doesn't have very much control over it, but they do make nice web pages. Some people (people who are really into creating web pages) have a problem with WYSIWYG editors. They think the HTML they create is ugly and too big (if you don't know anything about HTML don't ask, take my word for it, if you know something about HTML you'll either agree or disagree).

People who are really into HTML or Web Design like to write their own HTML. Writing your own HTML give you a lot of control over how your pages look and act in a browser. Even if you like writing your own HTML it can be a big deal if you want to create several pages or a page with some complexity. For people like that they make what is called an HTML Editor. This type of program gives you all the control of writing your own HTML, but it automates some of the tasks involved in writing HTML. Most HTML Editors also allow the user to integrate other languages like Java and CSS into their web pages. HTML Editors also range in price from free to a few hundred dollars. I have no idea what a high end HTML Editor does, but I bet its worth the money.

So, like I was saying I downloaded Nvu. Nvu is based on Mozilla Composer, which is a WYSIWYG editor that comes bundled with the free Mozilla browser. Nvu is almost an HTML editor, except you don't have a lot of control over the how your HTML looks, but you still have all the control over how your page looks. At least that's how I think its supposed to work at this point. Like I said, I just downloaded it. You can use it like a WYSIWYG editor and just type in your content like a word processor. You can also use CSS inline styles, or it can create an external style sheet. In theory it looks like a great program which is why I downloaded it.

Nvu is a great program so far, and its free, and who doesn't like that?