Create attractive and feature-packed Flash websites in minutes
MAGIX Website Maker 5 is an easy-to-use tool for creating stylish Flash-based websites, even if you've no previous web design experience.
While you must download and install a local component to use Website Maker, it actually runs in your web browser (as long as it's IE, Firefox or Opera, anyway). The site creation process works much like any other tool, though. So you browse a lengthy list of attractive site templates, each of which comes with multiple pages and built-in navigation, and choose one you like. Then you replace the default text, images, music or videos with your own content. And finally you publish the site and share it with the world.
This generally works quite well, as there are lots of customisations available. Would you like to create a thumbnail photo gallery, for instance? Website Maker comes with ten different gallery styles - but that's just the start. You can also present your images in animated filmstrips, or choose from one of 18 "photo tables", where your thumbnails are scattered attractively across a variety of backgrounds. Just find an option you like and it's ready to use in a couple of clicks.
There's even more configurability elsewhere. If you'd like a Flash media player on your site, for instance, there are more than 80 options available. And your site can easily be customised with many other components: music players, contact forms, guestbooks, visitor counters, embedded Google maps, YouTube videos and more.
And once you've finished, the program will publish your pages with the minimum of hassle. A notable issue here is that you can only use Website Maker to create and manage four separate sites, three of which must all be based around the same MAGIX URL (http://your-name.magix.net).
The package does allow you to register and use another domain at no extra charge, though (www.your-name.com, for example), and comes with 5GB of online hosting space, so if you're really only interested in creating a single main site then it may be enough. And if it's not, upgrading to Website Maker Deluxe will allow you to create as many sites as you like: click More > Upgrade within Website Maker for the details.
Note that there is no trial version of MAGIX Website Maker 5. You will receive both the Windows and Mac builds after purchase.
Review by Mike Williams.
