Introduction

Website design software is useful for many people from massive websites like Google and eBay to the smaller one-man band sites. If you do happen to be a bored housewife breaking out into the wide world of the internet then you probably don’t have much programming knowledge. BHV’s Homepage Maker 6 Express states that you need no programming knowledge to be able to use this software. So let’s put this software to the test and see just how easy it is to use.

Features:

• Unaltered representation: What you see in the editor is what you get on the internet
• State-of-the-art technology: Easy implementing and customising Flash
• Smart management: Files no longer needed can be located and deleted
• Clear arrangement: Each page or sub-page is accessible at any time, simply change by mouse click
• Really easy: Page wizard with step-by-step instructions
• Wide choice: Professional website templates are included

System requirements:

• Pentium 266 MHz (Celeron or AMD Athlon accordingly)
• Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• 64 MB RAM
• Mouse
• Optional: Internet connection as well as internet browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Mozilla, Netscape, etc.).

The Package

The software comes in a large box for just a disc and an instruction manual. However the box is eye-catching in typical bhv white and red styling. The front shows a picture of a woman with a paint pallet and brushes looking cheekily at the camera – a nice touch. At the bottom of the front of the box are the 4 key things that this software offers: creates personalised websites, 50 professional templates, can be used without any programming skills and is easy to use. If you were to see this packet on the shelf in a computer shop it would make you look twice.

The back of the packet shows a central picture of a webpage created using the software with 5 pictures coming off it all with descriptions of various features within the software. This is a nice feature and gives an informative yet not boring idea of the programs capabilities. The information on the back combined with the results that can be seen in the pictures is enough to encourage a buy.

Inside the outer box is a simple brown cardboard box which opens up to show a 64 page instruction manual and a disc in a paper sleeve. The packaging is a bit excessive for a disc and an instruction manual – not very environmentally friendly at all… shame on you bhv. With the excessive amount of space inside the box, the disc can move around freely, so could easily fall out of its pouch and perhaps break. Fortunately though, there were no defects with my copy so I can only assume that the packaging is suitable.

Homepage Maker 6 Express

First things first, I am a reviewer; I have no practical knowledge of building websites and had no part in making this one. Having said that, let’s see if I can make a website using this software that looks half decent and functions well. Like I said, I have no coding knowledge and I mean that… none at all.

Installation

First of all you are asked to fill in a registration form giving a few details about yourself.

Make sure you un-tick the box at the bottom unless you want to be dogged by spam but apart from that it’s fairly straightforward

Installation was standard, click next until the installer does something and hope for the best. At the final screen you are given the option to run the software.

First impressions as I opened the software for the first time were good. The program opened up in internet explorer – not my default browser – however the manual assisted me that it wouldn’t be a problem. The first screen you come to when you install the software states that there are updates available for the software and gives you an option whether you’d like to download them or not. This is quite good and rules out any incompatibility errors that might occur later on if you’ve created a webpage in an older version of the software and then want to upgrade.

Once you’ve downloaded the updates you can choose to install them. A progress bar pops up to show the update progress.

On my fairly aged system, installation of the software and installation of updates took around two minutes.

Testing

To test this program I am going to try and make a lovely website for housewives to sell their homemade pies. This can give a view as to how versatile and simple this software is. The first screen of the software asks you to name a “Projekt”- an obviously German program- but from a bit of use you can understand what to enter into this field. I am going to name my project Patricia’s pies after my local farmers’ wife’s business.

The next screen asks about the type of project you want to create. As this site will be selling pies I am going to choose e-commerce

After clicking on the desired website type a long list of templates shows up in the right hand column.

At this screen you simply choose a suitable template you like the look of and then click next.

After this you are asked to choose what types of pages you want on your website from a list of 14. However, you can also specify to have no structure at all. These can be individually checked or there is a list of preset project templates from which to choose from.

I chose e-commerce 2 as my structure but as I am acting as a single person company I’ll tick about me instead of about us.

Finally you can click finish; a progress bar will then appear and after that has filled up you can start customizing the website to your own specification. All your projects will show up on the main page of the software and you can click open project to work on them.

Once opened you are asked to log into homepage maker, after this the project is shown up in another window of your browser and you can start editing.

Nothing up to now needed the manual as it was all fairly straight forward; however on seeing the first screen I was a bit bewildered by all the buttons and didn’t really know where to start. However the manual provides a very clear view of what to do using lots of pictures to help explain. After reading a bit of the manual I was fairly confident in editing text and found that it was fairly intuitive if you have a slight nudge to start you off. After editing all the text on the site to adhere to stereotypes I needed to change the layout of the pages a bit and jazz up the fairly dreary background with some pictures. Another quick look at the manual and the banners, pictures and decoration came rolling in. All in all the editing part of the software was easy to use and well lay out. The text editor was like a normal word processor and uploading images worked well, especially when used in conjunction with Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop.

One feature that really stood out was the media player and uploads. It allows you to upload your own movies and media files. For a simple program designed for inexperienced web designers this normally advanced ability was a great feature.

When using the software I found nothing wrong with it everything worked as it is supposed to and the finished website didn’t look too bad – even for my poor design skills. The ease of use was a definite bonus.

Conclusion

If you are a housewife looking to sell pies this is definitely a program for you. However you could be just short of a professional web designer and still find this software useful. The finished sites look good and feel like a normal website should. There is a sense of quality to the layout and styling of the program which is also reflected in the finished product.

Retailing at £19.99 in shops and online this is true value for money.

For what this product is it cannot be faulted therefore I am going to award it a 5/5