CHAPTER 40. CH37 A GENERAL OVERVIEW 308
lose control over how the page is presented. You only control the content,
and maybe not even that.
For-sale websites, like eBay and Craig’s List, let people create web pages
where the goal is to sell something. You are very limited in what you can
do, but those limits do not usually matter because that enable you to easily
do the main thing: advertise and sell something.
When any activity becomes common enough, someone will create a package
deal that hides all the common details and lets you focus on the parts you
want to control. Typically you just want to control the content.
40.2 Web Development Tools
What is a Web Development Tool? It is any solution where you do not have
to learn HTML or CSS but you still end up with webpages.
Two important categories are Content Management Systems, such as Word-
Press, and HTML editors (page creation applications), such as Dreamweaver.
Content Management Systems, called CMS for short, use a cookie-cutter
approach to web development. You pick your page layout from a list of
already-created styles. You add an article or a page to your website. The
CMS keeps track of everything.
Blogs are a good example of CMS.
In Appendix 32 (page 277) we look more at CMS.
40.3 HTML Editors
You should know that HTML editors exist and are used by many people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_editorshas more, and can point
you to lists of editors and comparisons between them.
Usually HTML editors will limit what you can do. They make many common
tasks easy, but take away your ability to do some less common things. An
HTML editor may be exactly right for you. Or not.
Word processors often have the capability to export documents in HTML
format. It is not always pretty, but it is usually an option. It gets the job
done quickly.