DON'T SETTLE FOR CREATING A DULL HOME PAGE; TOOLS CAN HELP.

Byline: Joe Kilsheimer Orlando Sentinel 

You might want to don a No Fear T-shirt before reading any further. Today, we're going to do some actual computer programming for creating your own home page.

Yikes!

But before you run the other way, you might want to check out the point-and-click programming help - available on the Internet - that makes writing a Web site easier.

If you have put off the idea of creating your own home page, one reason may be that you've heard you would have to learn Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, which is the coding behind every page on the World Wide Web.

Your anxiety is understandable. In its raw form, HTML certainly can look confusing. To get an idea of just how much, take a peek at it some time. Using the Netscape Navigator browser, click on the View menu, then on Document Source when looking at any Web page.

What you see is the site's text, surrounded by a bunch of bracketed commands.

Those coded commands - the HTML - are what tell a browser how to display text and graphics on your screen.

It is certainly possible to create a home page without learning HTML. America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe all have introduced Web page templates that their subscribers can use. The templates work fine - as long as you don't get too fancy. If you want anything sophisticated-looking, you need to know a little more about HTML.

And that's where HTML editors come in. An HTML editor is a software program that takes a lot of the pain out of learning all those codes. With an HTML editor, you can open a text file and insert the commands by pointing and clicking.

Say you want boldface type on your page. With an editor, you can highlight text, click on a button and the type turns bold. No muss, no fuss, no bracketed commands.

Even though an HTML editor makes creating Web sites easier, it won't turn you into an art director. If you have no sense of style or page design, your Web site still will look dweeby. It will just be easier to make it so.

Given that they are intended to help people create Web sites, HTML editors are widely available throughout the Internet for you to download and try out.

I found a list of more than 40 Windows-based editors at a site called The Web Designer. Address: http://www.kosone.com/people.nelson/nl.htm

Macintosh fanatics can find a list of HTML editors at this address: http://www.comvista.com/net/www/htmleditor.html

HTML editors come in two basic types: stand-alone programs or add-ons to existing programs. Some are trial versions; you can use them for 30 to 90 days before they expire and stop working. Others are shareware, meaning that if you keep it and use it, you should send the writers their requested fee.