The better, and up to date, website building software packages should have at the centre of their design an easy to use interface and designer controls that are easy for even the novice to use. And they shouldn't hide such features in deep menu options.

The workspace must be laid out in an intuitive, project-based design. It should be possible for you to easily load your project, or commence a brand new one, and find all of the features of your software at your fingertips. Searching for options and features is now, fortunately, a thing of the past. Being able to use a word processor is all that should be needed to easily use a good site building software package.

Designer Menu

One of the greatest advancements in ease-of-use technology is the right-click designer menu. This feature is the power-house of the better site builders, and allows you, with just a click or two to access most, if not all, of these great features:

- graphics design wizards

- buttons design wizards

- image librararies

- heading and sub-headings design wizard

- Google AdSense advertising

- PayPal features

- Link insertion tools

- Audio and video wizards

Here's an Example

Let's say that you have a very large website that contains a lot of content. In some cases, it doesn't matter how functional and elegant your menu system is, your visitors may have trouble accessing some content.

Well, when you're designing your website using the newer versions of software, you should be able to open up a designer menu and with a couple clicks open a site search form tool. Using a tools such as this will allow you to place a "Search Form" on your page so your visitors can enter exactly what they're looking for and find it immediately.

And here's the best part, by utilizing, if available, an extensive template functionality, you can enter this "Search Form" once, and then apply it to every single one of your web pages!

What You See Is What You Get

A crucial part of any website building software's design strategy to employ a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) functionality. After all, what's the use of having all these powerful new features at your fingertips if they you find out after you publish your site that they just don't fit with your design?

With the more versatile software, everything that you see in your project workspace is exactly what your visitors will see when they visit your site. This makes it easy for even the novice to experiment!

If it looks good in your project workspace, you know it will look good on the web, so you won't have to spend a lot of time tediously tweaking individual elements, re-uploading the site, then checking to see if it looks good.

Now, that's hours of troubleshooting time that has eliminated with one simple, elegant feature!