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Product reviews > Software > Web Design
 Price: £59.99 inc VAT
This review updated: 04/09/2006 Featured in magazine: Issue 142 Manufacturer Contacts: Supplier: Serif Web Address: www.serif.com Creating your own website for the first time shouldn't mean having to be satisfied with a no-frills affair. Serif is a well respected name when it comes to producing easy-to-use software designed with the beginner in mind, and the WebPlus program is no different to the company's other products in this respect. Features Interactivity is the order of the day with version 10 of WebPlus, and there are numerous elements that can be easily added to a site to increase functionality. Features such as photo galleries, blogs and RSS feeds, which would ordinarily take a good deal of time to configure, can be set up very quickly with WebPlus, while certain site elements such as blogs and forms, which require separate hosting, can be hosted free of charge on Serif servers, helping to reduce the cost of running a site. In addition to the templates, there is a range of pre-defined, yet customisable page elements, such as Flash banners that can be added to sites. Performance Although the program itself is sleek and responsive, the same cannot be said of the pages it outputs. Many pages are rather bloated with non-essential code, increasing download times for visitors, and if you have opted to create an HTML page from scratch, there is no way for you to view or tidy up the code from within WebPlus itself. Ease of use Unlike many other What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) HTML web-design packages, Serif's WebPlus does not provide easy access to HTML editing. The more advanced user may find this restrictive, but this is not really a program for them. The sheer number of templates and wizards on hand mean that anyone will be able to put together a great-looking site in next to no time. Value for money As is usually the case with Serif software, the latest version of WebPlus represents fantastic value for money. While there are certainly cheaper HTML editors on the market, few can boast the set of features found here. The integrated image gallery creator and FTP tool increase the value of the package as a whole, too, and help to justify what could otherwise be seen as a high price tag for a beginners' tool.
Verdict
More Web Design reviews:
Despite the abundance of features, there is no getting away from the fact that WebPlus is a tool for beginners. The program lets you produce some fantastic feature-rich sites, but you do not really learn how various objects are created and how they can be manually controlled. This means that although it is possible for a beginner to create advanced page elements, the wizard-driven interface hinders the learning of new skills. However, for the average user who wants nothing more than to put together a good-looking, functional site, WebPlus is excellent. Want to discuss this review? Voice your opinions about this and other products on our Readers Recommend forum |
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