What?! You don't have a Web page yet? Setting up even the most basic Web site for your company lets you reach millions of potential customers, get immediate feedback, and expand your business. And the newest Web publishing packages make it easier and cheaper than ever before. Even if you don't know a thing about HTML or graphic design, you can build a professional-looking site in a matter of hours.

To find out just how easy it is, PC Computing's Usability Labs tested three leading graphical Web publishers: Microsoft FrontPage 97 with Bonus Pack, Claris Home Page 2.0, and NetObjects Fusion 2.0 beta. (Netscape Communicator, the upgrade of Navigator Gold, was not available in time for our testing.) We asked our Web-savvy testers to create a site from scratch using each of the three packages, which take different approaches to Web page creation. Claris Home Page, for example, is aimed at novice users who want to make basic pages. It has almost no site-management features and treats each page as a separate project, rather than part of an overall site.

Microsoft FrontPage 97, on the other hand, is a suite of Web publishing tools for novice and intermediate users. FrontPage treats your site as one cohesive project called a Web, rather than separate, stand-alone pages.

Our third package, NetObjects Fusion, is a more sophisticated package for those who want to create moderate-size sites. But you pay for the advanced features: Fusion costs $495 compared with the $99 Home Page and $149 FrontPage. Like FrontPage, Fusion treats all your pages as part of a single site and includes tools for site management.

We asked our testers, who had no HTMLexperience, to determine which of the packages was easiest to use. First, our testers created a simple home page with some basic formatting and links. Next, they built a more complex page with multiple links (including one for e-mail) and advanced formatting like background images and borders. Finally, they tackled advanced site-management tasks. For each scenario they evaluated four factors: formatting, importing text and graphics, creating links, and updating links. For details on our usability testing, see "FrontPage Wins."

Claris Home Page 2.0 Proving it really is ideal for novices, Claris Home Page 2.0 earned the highest scores in productivity, satisfaction, and help in the first two scenarios, although its limited features put it behind Microsoft FrontPage in the second scenario. Our testers liked Home Page's straightforward interface and found linking pages more intuitive than with FrontPage or Fusion, although Home Page lacked some of the features that enhance dynamic pages. In the third scenario, however, Home Page simply couldn't compete. It doesn't have the site-management features you need for building a complex site that includes more than a couple of basic pages and links. Testers found the task of updating links in a complex site to be nearly impossible.

Overall, testers found Home Page easy to use, although they sorely missed some standard Windows features such as familiar online help files.

Microsoft FrontPage 97 While Home Page is a basic Web page publisher, Microsoft FrontPage 97 is a full suite of publishing tools. It includes FrontPage Editor for page creation, FrontPage Explorer for site management and planning, and Image Composer for creating custom artwork. Testers felt comfortable with FrontPage's familiar interface and formatting features, which are almost identical to Microsoft Word's. They also appreciated how easy it was to click and drag files into FrontPage Explorer to save them to their Web site. And it was remarkably easy to make links to e-mail addresses.

Still, FrontPage is not perfect. Though it excelled at importing text, testers had difficulty positioning imported graphics. They also struggled with adding links and were further frustrated when they couldn't find the answers they needed in online help. And some testers had trouble determining how and where files were saved in their sites. Still, despite these complaints, the majority of our testers chose FrontPage as the Web-publishing package they would buy for its ease of use and excellent features.

NetObjects Fusion 2.0 The third product our testers evaluated was a beta version of the powerful NetObjects Fusion 2.0. Not only was it the most expensive package at $495, it was also the hardest for testers to use. The biggest problem they had with Fusion was its unfamiliar interface, which resembles that of a desktop-publishing and page-layout program. Fusion treats all your Web page content as part of a single, large HTML-based table. Testers were able to easily drag and drop graphics onto a page because the table adjusts to hold the images automatically. But testers found working with text cumbersome because of Fusion's system of distinct text boxes. When they edited text, Fusion didn't automatically resize text boxes. And when they imported text, Fusion replaced the existing content. Testers also disliked Fusion's crowded interface because toolbars and drop-down menus got in the way of page design.

While Fusion takes some getting used to, it also has several features that help you quickly create a site. Its large library of customizable templates makes it easy to establish a look, and its automated scripting tools let you add sophisticated features like feedback forms.

Help Wanted Despite friendly interfaces meant to shield you from HTML, our usability testers still found themselves wrestling with the limitations of the HTML code buried beneath the surface. For instance, several testers had difficulty formatting text. The problems were related to HTML automatically inserting a line space after a paragraph break, not to a shortcoming of the software itself. Also, HTML reads all graphics as a single character within a line, which means precisely placing a graphic is more involved than simply dragging and dropping the graphic onto a page. All too often, the three packages failed to overcome or explain these HTML quirks in their help files, leaving testers frustrated.

Online help also failed to clearly explain the difference between creating individual HTML pages and an overall Web site. Both FrontPage and NetObjects Fusion treat individual pages as part of a complete project, which simplifies Web site management. But when testers wanted to add links to pages that had not yet been saved to the current project, they ran into problems that they were often unable to solve.

Even with these limitations, using a graphical Web publishing package is a smart choice. You can create a slick-looking site--and make changes to it--without having to learn HTML. Simply spend a few hours designing your site, then post it to your company's Web server or upload it to your Internet service provider.