You don't have to be an artist or have a degree in design to produce an attractive web site. Most of the good HTML-generating programs today come with site templates and the like and have instructions on how you can modify them to your own needs.
   While this sort of thing goes a long way to making a site look good, there are millions of us who yearn for something a little, tiny bit more. I know when I see a site which uses a templace from NetObjects Fusion or Microsoft Front Page, I know where it came from and it just takes a little of the edge off a good design.
   Besides, these designs are general in nature. They are not you.
   What is really interesting is that my friends think I am a good graphic designer, but I can't draw a straight line. I'll spare you my attempt to be a cartoonist with a character named "Jon Q. Coolcat" in junior high school. Let's just say even talking heads need some sort of expression.
   That is one of the reasons why I often rely on Xara Webstyle (now in version 2) to make things look really good. No, I mean really, really good.
  Take a look at this heading, as an example. It is from an extensive set of themes which you can use for a very lively site. The nice thing is you can also change these themes, so things look different and less "canned." But the themes give you a great advantage: they integrate your site so it has similar look. Nice that it does not constrict you, but still gives you some very neat stuff.
   For this particular theme, which includes everything from buttoms to horizontal lines, the really neat thing I liked is the button bar. This is about as cute as anything I have seen. And, as I mentioned, the elements of the theme are easily customizable so that the theme, even using the presets, can become unique to you.
   Xara Webstyle 2 not only has themes, but a huge, really huge, collection of buttons, bars, lines and the like. All of them can be customized through the Xara Webstyle 2 interface. In other words, you don't have to be an artist to do it. If you can draw, and if you have Photoshop and CorelDraw! or Illustrator, you can customize anyone's elements. If you can't draw, you needs something like Xara Webstyle 2 – and it is the best of the bunch out there, both in terms of originality and flexibility.
   But Xara Webstyle 2 goes further with an advanced creation utility for that one other element people who do web sites need: a banner ad. Like the many other parts of Xara Webstyle 2, the banner ad production module features some excellent designs, outstanding customization functions and, get this, animations. And when I am talking about customizations, you can even change the text on that little "click here" button.
   Design a logo? Do it in Webstyle. Backgrounds? Yes, that, too. Use any font, any color. You name it.
   If you are getting the idea I like this program, you're 100 percent correct. And you will like it too. There is no question that Xara Webstyle 2 is excellent – and for the non-designer, or the designer who is in a hurry and on a deadline, it is simply awesome.

   Link to the Xara site.