Video:How to Choose Web Design Software by Occupation

Transcript:How to Choose Web Design Software by Occupation

Hi, this is Dimitri LaBarge for About.com, and today we're going to talk about how to choose web design software by occupation.

Get the Right Web Design Software for Your Needs

Web design software isn't made to fit everyone's needs. Some software is designed to appeal to the graphic artist, who values beautiful design from the ground up. Other software appeals to the to-the-metal coder, who want sophisticated control over their code and programming languages. Let's look at some options.

Software for the Graphic Designer

Maybe you're a graphic designer putting together a product page, or extensive animation and multimedia use. Maybe you should consider a pricey but comprehensive suite of applications, like one of Adobe's design suites. They have several different suites available, but you should start with their very powerful editor, Adobe Dreamweaver.

You could then add on options like Flash for animation, or Premiere for editing video content, and even After Effects for sophisticated video effects. Photoshop is standard with most of the Adobe suites, which gives you the best image editing available. These applications are all designed to work with each other, so you would have a total solution for any illustrative need.

Software for the Web Developer

On the other hand, maybe you're a web developer working with high-end languages like PHP, Java, Perl, C++, or Ruby on Rails. Then perhaps you're looking for something in the caliber of NetBeans, Komodo, or Aptana Studio. These are Integrated Development Environments focused almost exclusively on building specific web applications. Many support deep database support, plug-in communities, sophisticated debugging and other tools for the dedicated coder.

Software for Those in the Middle

Maybe you're somewhere in the middle - you're not a real coder or a designer. You just want a nice site for your business. Then perhaps you might want to try NetObjects Fusion XII. You get fairly powerful web editing tools. But Fusion adds easy-to-implement options such as search engine optimization, royalty free images, and easy e-commerce options.

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