Product Reviews

Owning your own website can seem like a lot of work, what with having to register a domain, find a host, design your site and upload all your changes by FTP. Mr Site's Takeaway Website aims to take the pain out of creating and running your own website by providing everything you need, including your own domain name and web hosting.

You can either register a brand new domain name or use one you already own. Either way, the next step, and the least impressive one in Mr Site's repertoire, is to select a base style for your site from a particularly uninspiring set. You then build the site by adding

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pages and content though a clear, concise menu interface. Text can be entered directly and edited or copied from existing documents, while pictures can be uploaded directly to the page. In Simple mode the editor is little more than a basic text input box, but it becomes more powerful when you switch to Creative mode. This lets you add complex formatting and tables to better structure your pages and, once you are more confident, enter HTML code directly.

Mr Site might be easy to use, but it's not basic. There are templates for adding a blog, forum, guest book or feedback form, all of which are easily administered and amended, as well as galleries, an online jukebox and widgets such as clocks and counters. You can use the site as an online store, with a basic shopping basket template that makes updating easy and links directly to your PayPal account.

Mr Site is available as a boxed product or a download, although the latter is little more than a plain-speaking manual and a password. Considering you get hosting and a domain name for just £30, Takeaway Website is an inexpensive and straightforward way to create and maintain a respectable website, and is highly recommended.