Those who want to design, manage, and publish one or more Web sites without learning to program (or hiring an HTML pro) should check out NetObjects Fusion MX. Installation is quick, and soon beautiful, seamless sites will flow from your desktop to the Web. All that’s needed is a little visual design experience or at least a good eye; the Site Wizard handles all the organizational and content details.

After selecting an architecture and preliminary page structure, the user imports or enters text, pictures, design elements, and Web objects like JavaScript or Flash animation. All selections can be checked for browser and platform compatibility, and adding features such as counters and guest books is painless. Users who want to modify their sites using other software might have problems with the idiosyncrasies of Fusion’s output code, though these problems are far from unsolvable. Monkeying around with the low-level site controls is also off-limits unless the code is ported into a more versatile Web design package (or a text editor, for that matter).

An easy-to-use, quick-to-learn application, Fusion produces sites and individual pages that work and look good, whether used for promotion, sales, or self-expression. It’s hard to ask for more than that. –Rob Lightner