What Software Does a Webmaster Need to Create a Website?

1. HTML Editor

2. Graphics Editor

3. Several Browsers

4. Tools for GIF and Animation

5. FTP Client

Let's start with an HTML editor: whether it's an online store or a business card, this is the core of the work. There is a wide variety; the choice depends on convenience. There are "non-professional" editors for beginners. Professionals work with 1st Page, Allaire Home Site and other complex ones; beginners will find Front Page or Macromedia Dreamweaver suitable. Dreamweaver is considered user-friendly and will allow building a website within a few days, and also as a transition stage before more complex tools. On the other hand, it's heavy and requires download time and disk space.

In graphics editors for website maintenance, the first place belongs to Photoshop thanks to all the tools for creating, editing and optimizing graphics, and it's also easy to learn. For Flash presentations, Macromedia Flash is preferable; Macromedia FireWorks and others are also common.

A developer should install all popular browsers: first of all Explorer, and also Opera, Firefox, Safari, etc. The more there are, the more reliable the tests – you can't know which browser the client uses. With all browsers, you can test and fix quickly.

To upload a ready website to the server, you need an FTP client. Popular ones: FTP2000, CuteFTP, FTP OutBox, Queue FTP.