Review of Yahoo!'s SiteBuilder 2.6

Yahoo! Web Hosting Software Assists in Offline Editing

May 17, 2009

SiteBuilder web authoring software used by Yahoo! Web Hosting subscribers provides an effective tool for website design despite the absence of some valuable features.

After Yahoo!’s April 23, 2009 announcement of its intent to close GeoCities, its free web hosting service, it offered its GeoCities subscribers the opportunity to continue their websites on Yahoo! Web Hosting. Users of this Yahoo! fee-based service have two choices for creating and editing their web content.

They can edit their websites online with Site Solution, Yahoo!’s web-based editing tool; or they can work offline, using either Yahoo!’s SiteBuilder web authoring software or an authoring program of their own. Yahoo! helps users make this decision by giving them easy access to the SiteBuilder program.

SiteBuilder’s Availability and Documentation

One need not have a Yahoo! Web Hosting account to download SiteBuilder. Yahoo! provides the downloadable file on its SiteBuilder download page. Yahoo! also includes a SiteBuilder help page, with a ink to a ten minute series of Flash tutorials that provide most users with enough data to immediately start using the software.

SiteBuilder’s Display

As the screenshot accompanying this article indicates, SiteBuilder loads in a three panel display. The left panel provides access to SiteBuilder’s extensive internal help data. SiteBuilder users are not redirected online to find assistance. Task related tips appear in this panel, too, as well as a listing of all sites created and all pages currently displayed.

The panel on the right reveals the directory structure of the current site and offers a preview of the page being edited, but only as a thumbnail image. Users can resize or close either the right or left panel as needed. To access a full size page preview, they must resize the the box containing its thumbnail version.

The center panel provides the workspace. It employs a tabbed display to allow users to access all pages being edited. SiteBuilder does not provide a full page editing view of HTML source code. Instead SiteBuilder displays only the coding applicable to the specific areas users select.

SiteBuilder’s Wizard

SiteBuilder’s wizard, which appears immediately on opening the program, offers a quick means of generating a website's structure. The wizard first helps users choose from numerous templates provided by the program. The wizard then assists users in selecting and creating the types of pages they want on their sites, At this point, having created the initial website, the wizard closes.

Editing Web Pages With SiteBuilder

SiteBuilder's menu bar and task icons are similar to ones found in other web authoring programs, promoting quick customization of template data and images. Text on SiteBuilder's pages exists within text boxes, allowing users to resize text displays in the same manner they resize images.

Publishing Web Pages With SiteBuilder

For those logged into their Yahoo! accounts, clicking SiteBuilder’s "Publish" icon produces an information box that already includes their Yahoo! Web Hosting addresses. SiteBuilder can publish an entire website with one user command, or it can upload only those web pages that users have changed.

Evaluation of SiteBuilder

Overall, SiteBuilder's advantages as a web authoring application outweigh its disadvantages. Yahoo! provides users of this software with extensive documentation, both on Yahoo!'s website and within the program itself.

SiteBuilder's extensive collection of website templates is also impressive. Its website creation wizard works quickly and efficiently. Its use of text boxes to contain text is a welcome feature, as is SiteBuilder's ability to publish an entire website with one click.

SiteBuilder's lack of a single page view of editable HTML coding compromises its usefulness for many website designers. Additionally. since it is designed to work exclusively with Yahoo! hosted sites, it has limited value for nonsubcribers. Despite these limits, SiteBuilder remains an effective instrument for creating Yahoo! Web Hosting sites, one that is definitely preferable to the online Site Solution tool.

The copyright of the article Review of Yahoo!'s SiteBuilder 2.6 in Website Design is owned by Carol Thomas. Permission to republish Review of Yahoo!'s SiteBuilder 2.6 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.