If you want to venture into the world of designing your own website please heed this warning, unless you use some decent software and follow some simple design guidelines, you might just end up with something that looks like this: www.fredfrap.com. First off the guy who made it is called Fred Frap, that about sums it up because Frap rhymes with?

Do not be like Fred. Get some decent software. Serif has released an Internet Design Suite that not only gives you the tools to create a website, but also to edit images and graphics. The suite guides you, through the use of some decent templates, along a path unlike the one Mr Frap took. In the suite you get WebPlus 9, PhotoPlus 9 ImpactPlus 5 and PanoramaPlus 2.

At the core of the suite is WebPlus 9, a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor that allows you to drag and drop elements onto the page. This means that even a barely ­computer-literate person can use it as there is no coding required at all.

PhotoPlus 9 is a good piece of ­software you can use to edit images for your site as well as create elements you want to include. If you are really keen on 3D images (but beware not to bombard the viewer with them) then ImpactPlus 5 will do a good job rendering simple 3D graphics and text.

What we liked was the inclusion of PanoramaPlus 2, which allows you to stitch together images to create panoramic views or even 360° virtual reality panoramas that can be navigated and zoomed around.

Internet Design Suite 2008 is available for R770 (incl VAT) from Holton & ­Associates on 011-789-6181 or purchase ­online from www.holton.co.za.