Serif WebPlus X4 review

Web design is an increasingly accessible area for all these days, which is just as well when you consider how much more important it is becoming.

Serif WebPlus X4 is a complete all-in-one package that claims to let you build professional quality websites quickly and easily. Retailing at £80, it positions itself as a product that provides you with all the tools of a professional web-designer.

However, it also wants to be as accessible as possible without being too simplistic. In other words it is aimed at everyone from the local business looking to build their own small site to professional web-designers as an alternative to Adobe Dreamweaver.

These are ambitious aspirations that run the risk of trying to please everyone but pleasing no-body, so it is with genuine respect that I say well done to Serif for just about pulling it off.

As a novice web-designer myself I was impressed with WebPlus’s ease of use. From the quick and easy installation to the excellent range of tutorials and resources available from the minute you access the user interface.

Pretty much everything you need to get started is provided for the first time designer. There is an excellent set of PDF tutorials as well as access to video ones as well.

There is a great choice of templates which you can choose from and modify with your own text and images or you can build a site from scratch using the Quick Builder bar, which lets you drag and drop your chosen elements onto the page.

One of the things which impressed me was the fact that someone with little or no experience could quickly have a site with Flash navigation bars, while the scope for editing text, adding 3D banners and image editing all within the programme has to make this product superb value for money, so kudos to Serif.

Web design is however, an endlessly deep and complicated subject so make sure that you set aside time to invest in learning – obviously you’ll get back as much as you put in. Fortunately Serif has made this process easy.