Jun 20, 2001 01:26 PM
3857 Views
I already own & have had great fun with the first version of WebStudio, so why buy version 2? Good question & hopefully I’ll be able to provide an even better answer! Anyway, here goes. WebStudio 2.0 comes in 2 versions, one at £19.99 & the other at £29.99. Both are simplicity itself to use & get used to. Both are really suitable for the novice web builder, those who are not comfortable enough to write their own HTML, those that want to build a quick web page, those that want good results without taking ages to get them, the man next door, their dog, their kids & virtually all other users of the Internet who want to build web pages. Even the die hard coder can have fun with this program!
Coders can get all the surface stuff done wit WebStudio & then delve into the depths & edit/tweak the HTML coding to get the site exactly as they would like it. What has WebStudio got on offer, how easy is it to use & how good is it? Hopefully, my next bit of ranting will answers those questions & give you an insight into the world of WebStudio. Here’s some of (nowhere near all of them as that would take all day!) WebStudio’s features & how easy it is to use them.
There’s loads of different graphics included which include, photos, animations, backgrounds, dividers, buttons, signs & clipart. These are all easy to incorporate into your site as you just drag them from the various folders & drop them onto the page in the exact position that you want them. Very simple to use & adds to the overall look & feel of your site.
Plenty of special effects & cool tools to play with. Again, these are all drag & drop, so positioning is easy & you get the exact results that you are after. There’s 36 special effects & 15 cool tools in total which range from text effects (scrolling text, ticker text, expanding text, shadow, rotation & many more besides!), graphical effects (shadow, emboss, lighten, rotation, posterize, invert & more). Cool tools include: calendars, clocks, slide show & more. In all there are quite a few good bits to play about with here. All are fun & easy to use, as well as being drag & drop.
WebStudio is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web creation package which requires no HTML experience at all. This allows to place stuff anywhere on the page that you like & know it will be there when you upload it. WebStudio is also drag & drop compliant, so you simply drag objects, effects & links & drop them wherever you like. You can select multiple objects & align them exactly as you like them. You can also select multiple objects & have them evenly spaced. Copying & pasting could not be simpler. This all goes to make WebStudio so simple to use, but also so effective as a web creation package.
The user interface is well laid out & all drag & drop. You simply select the component that you would like & drag it into position. Then drop it into place. Navigation of the various components is very easy as it is all laid out in a very nice toolbar down the side of the window. You can also change the size & position of the toolbar to suite yourself.
Inside the WebStudio box, you will find a manual that spans some 108 pages & is well written, easy to use, easy to understand & very detailed. The manual will teach you all you want to know about the program & will not try to confuse you! You will also find an online manual on the CD. There is also a very in-depth Help menu to help you out.
Uploading your site can be done with the built-in FTP client. You simply enter your ISP details & let it get on with the job of uploading your page/site. When you want to upload newer versions of your page/site, the FTP client makes the needed changes. You can also use any other FTP program that you like. WebStudio saves your files into several locations within the program folder.
Messing about with the HTML of the pages could not be easier! Every time that you preview your site, a copy of your page/site is placed into the ‘Preview’ folder within the program folder. You simply use the previews & edit the HTML. You can also open your page/site with the likes of Dreamweaver, Homepage & others using this method & use them to add to your site.
Adding your own stuff (like photos & graphics) is a simple case of adding it to the ‘My Stuff’ folder. You can add as many things as you like here. Then you can drag & drop them into your page/site. 9. Adding links to your site is easy too. You can add as many internal/external links as you like to the ‘Links’ folder. You will also find that the links from Internet Explorer/Navigator are already added to the links folder. There are also a bunch of links within the folder which you may or may not find useful. You just drag & drop the links wherever you need them or want them.
To sum up this new version of WebStudio, I would have to say: “It’s so easy to use, has loads of useful features, has a great user interface, is totally WYSIWYG & Drag & Drop compliant & is well worth the money!” The £19.99 version is what I would call, ‘The Lite Version’ which has a few features missing compared to the ‘Deluxe’ version (£29.99). There have been a lot of improvements since the release of the first version of WebStudio & all are for the better! Thanks for your time! … Tom
