Microsoft recently introduced a new, no-cost tool called WebMatrix which “includes everything you need for website development”. WebMatrix is intended to make the development of complete (and even complex) web sites simple for everyone, from the beginner to experienced developers.
In a nutshell, WebMatrix is a free application you download and install on your computer. From there, you can build a site from scratch or use templates from over 40 open-source applications, like WordPress, Joomla, etc. You can even create custom databases or build a shopping cart…with “helper” code for the most common tasks available with the click of a button.
Since you’re building your entire site on your local machine (with WebMatrix automatically downloading any extra software you need for this), you can see real-time previews of your site without any file uploading required.
Sounds great right? Now you can build an entire site without hiring coders, graphic designers or purchasing third-party scripts. Well, not so fast. At first glance, it does look like you need at least a basic understanding of HTML to get anything done. And if you want to do more advanced stuff, well, you’re going to need to know programming languages.
Still, it is an interesting product…and depending upon what you want to do…it might be worth taking a closer look at. You can learn more from Microsoft’s site here.