Copyright 2007 Claire J Rottenberg
Revised October 2008

If you own iLife, you know that you can create websites with iWeb, but there are other free options for designing web pages and websites with Mac OS X (Leopard and Tiger). In this article, I explore some of those options.

Online Photo Albums

One of the easiest ways to create a web page of photos is to use a photo album creation program. You add images to the program, set a few preferences for how the web page displays the images and tell the program to create an album. Some of the programs available also let you upload the finished website directly to your web host. If you use MobileMe, simply drag the completed website folder to the Sites folder on your iDisk.

Web Design with KompoZer

KompoZer is a free web design program that is an updated version of the open-source program NVU. You can use KompoZer as a web page design program or as an advanced HTML editor. The Help file provides a tutorial with enough information for you to create a web page, complete with images, formatted text, tables, and even style sheets. However, the program's menus are so easy to understand that without any help files, within minutes, you can create a simple web page combining text and images. In addition to the ease with which you can create a web page, KompoZer provides warnings when you need to save your web page (for example, before viewing it in a browser) or need to add a page element (for example, an alt tag for an image). If you want to create a professional looking web page and have it up and running in half an hour or less, try KompoZer.

HTML Editors

If you know a little about HTML code, you can use one of the many HTML editors available for Mac OS X. Most of the editors include a preview mode so you can view your web page while adding code to it. The programs also usually have easy menu options for inserting code items, such as images, tables and lists. Some will even let you create style sheets to use with your web pages. One HTML editor I've used is Taco HTML Edit, but do a search on MacUpdate for HTML editors or web design and you'll find several other free programs.

Web Browsers for Web Design

Did you know that some web browsers are also web design programs? SeaMonkey is an updated version of Mozilla and is built from the same code as Firefox, but, interestingly, Firefox lacks the web design element. Creating a web page in SeaMonkey is almost identical to doing it with KompoZer. Select Composer from the Window menu in SeaMonkey and you'll be able to design your web page with formatted text, images, tables and more.

As you can see, you can create entire websites with Mac OS X. The options described in this article are free so, if you want to create your own web pages and websites, try photo album software, KompoZer, free HTML editors, or SeaMonkey.

Disclaimer: All trademarks and products mentioned in this article are assumed to be the property of their owners and no infringement of rights is intended through mention of the products in this article.

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