Building a website can be surprisingly difficult. There are lots of software packages and online tools that can help you design a quick personal homepage, but if you want something that looks a bit nicer, you'll usually need professional expertise. NetObjects Fusion is an exception to this rule. It allows even a complete novice to build a website and is less than half the price of Macromedia's Dreamweaver.
Getting started couldn't be simpler. The site wizard uses three steps. First you pick a template design for your site and then you select the type of page you need, such as a list of contact details. After this, you simple enter the relevant details and Fusion will create a page for you, leaving you to customise the text and add your own pictures.
Fusion even makes it easy to add a simple online shopping page. To use it you'll need a Paypal.com account, or a subscription to 1and1.co.uk's online shopping service, but once you've set this up, you simply enter your products into a table and type in the prices. It's not really suitable for listing dozens of products, but if you just want to sell a few items using Paypal it's superb.
Unfortunately, all this simplicity comes at a cost. The templates are acceptable, but not great, and it's not a good choice if you want to design your own completely customised website. The sites it produces are built using a method that's slightly old-fashioned, and we found that they included several code errors.
Fusion 9 includes a tool to build banners that uses Macromedia's Flash technology. This works, but in most cases a simple picture would be preferable. Other new features, such as a dropper tool for selecting colours, are useful but not revolutionary. We were hoping that the page design system would have been significantly updated, but it's very similar to older versions.
System Specifications
REQUIRES Windows 98SE/2000/XP, 600MHz processor 256MB RAM.
Verdict
Still the easiest way to build a website for your business.
Although it offers a number of new features, it's not a great improvement on older versions.
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