There are many types of website designing software available on the market today. Some of this software is free while many versions offer a free trial period. Of course the market has its higher end products as well. This overview will focus on the two basic versions of web editing and design software: the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface version and the HTML (hyper text markup language) editor. Some software versions now incorporate both of these into separate interface elements to draw users from both inexperienced and experienced target markets.

One of the most popular website designing software is Microsoft Front Page. Microsoft Front Page is currently included with the standard version of Microsoft Office Suite and has been for many years. An early release of Microsoft Front Page (a limited edition) was included with Internet Explorer and Windows 98, but subsequently was released only as a full product with a paid version. The reason for Front Page's popularity is the ease of use that it represents to new users embarking upon web designing as a hobby or new career. Initially it is a bit quirky, but the familiarity of an interface that resembles Microsoft Word has its advantages. The main view tab for Front Page is in the WYSIWIG format, meaning that what you type on the screen is what you will see on the website when you are done. The software does all of the coding behind the scenes. Now, for those who are more intrepid, there is a tab that allows the Microsoft Front Page user to edit the HTML code directly if they want to. Unfortunately, the one major drawback to this particular website designing software is that if you cut and paste javascript or other special function code directly into the HTML tab, the program will more than likely reformat the code for you which will render its intended function as useless.

Another major offering in the website designing software industry is Dreamweaver. This program is at the higher end of the price range for this type of software, but has many bells and whistles to accompany the price tag. In fact, this is no software for the entry level amateur. The instruction book doesn't do it justice and most users would benefit from the purchase of one of many secondary manuals available on the market for this software. It has the standard WYSIWIG format as well as a way to edit the code. However, this software is not limited to simple HTML. There are many advantages to using Dreamweaver if producing websites with javascript, flash and other multimedia features.

There is one more piece of software that is worth mentioning in conjunction with website designing. In fact, it is free and comes with every version of the Microsoft Windows operating system since Windows 95! What is this mystery web editor? Microsoft Notepad or Microsoft Wordpad, either one will work as well. In fact, when trying to circumvent the aforementioned issue when cutting and pasting javascript and other special functionality into your web page, these two text editors are exactly what you need. They will save the file without "fixing" the script that you are pasting into the text. To make use of these excellent freebies, simply open the file (selecting 'all files' instead of just text files) and make the change. Then save as 'all files' and the same name with the appropriate file extension (htm or html).

In conclusion, you can see that there are many different types of website designing software available today. The prices range from free to high end, with functionality to match. The new and learning designers will benefit from a simple WYSIWIG interface like the one offered by Microsoft Front Page, while more experienced users will want to experiment with the advanced offerings of software like Dreamweaver. However, if you want to really grasp the basics of website design and ensure your background education in the process is complete, nothing will supplant the first-hand experience you will gain from learning how to code HTML from hand in a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad!