Web design packages are relatively new, however vast improvements have seen them evolve into their third generation already. First generation tools were basically text editors. You had to know the HTML code, though buttons made adding common tags and images easier. This method usually required a separate browser to view the output. First-generation tools were not very efficient but were liked by professionals who fine tuned code by hand.

Second-generation tools had WYSIWYG or What You See Is What You Get interfaces. These graphical interfaces in theory would let you edit your site using a screen image and the program would generate the code exactly. In practice however, most of the time the HTML code did not display correctly in different browsers because of the different ways they interpret code. Third-generation tools build upon the WYSIWYG idea of second-generation tools and improved on it with support for sound and moving graphics. They organise animations and audio using new technologies such as Java and Dynamic HTML (DHTML) in a similar way to multimedia packages tools.

Three of the top web design packages include Macromedia Dreamweaver 2.0, NetObjects Fusion 4.0 and Microsoft FrontPage 98. Dreamweaver is considered the benchmark of web design packages by many professionals. It features Roundtrip HTML which lets you use both a graphical editor to quickly construct pages and a code-based tool to edit the underlying code. Dreamweaver supports DHTML and uses some features, such as timelined events, from Macromedia's Director package. Find out more about Dreamweaver at www.macromedia.com.

NetObjects Fusion uses a graphical editor rather than a text tool and is aimed at those that are not interested in learning HTML. It is a powerful tool that produces professional looking sites using a WYSIWYG environment that gives you complete control over page layout. It supports ActiveX, Java and animation editors. Find out more about NetObjects Fusion at www.netobjects.com.

FrontPage 98 is a combination of a web design and site management tool. This makes FrontPage an attractive package for the quick development and maintenance of large sites. The software is less flexible than the other two packages but offers a number of useful extensions. These include online discussion groups and visitor counters. However, they require FrontPage server extensions which most hosts just don't support. Also cross-browser support is not as good as it could be. However, FrontPage is still as powerful tool that is the best choice for site management. Find out more about FrontPage 98 at www.microsoft.com/frontpage/.