Website design programs

[Graeme the mad]

Yes my adoring fan - I've finally decided to create a web site (well I couldn't think of anythign else to do for this thing I've gotta do)

Now Igor is quite good with the more primitve electrically stuff - electrolosis set ups half the size of the castle and what not and a dab hand at genetic engineering however he isn't that good with the whole modern inter thingy stuff.

So having no one else to turned I decided to ask you - the good people of civfanatics land what website design programs you have used/like to use etc.

Incidentally I have heard of designing a website entirely by code - NO NO NO NO NO - too much work, its taking me long enough to find the info for this thing - I want a snazzy website fast.

I was looking at serif page plus 8.0 but I noticed that its largest standard page size (SVGA) didnt even fill the screen (whats with that?) -
Basically I am an idiot when it comes to website design though I have read lots of nice tutorials which tell me stuff like dont use lots of graphics and have a menu bar and use plain backgrounds yatter yatter yatter so I dont want to know about that - okay??

NOW TELL ME STUFF

 

[IceBlaZe]

Photoshop, Dreamweaver Ultradev 4.0, Frontpage 2k, Imageready and Notepad.

 

[Sodapop]

Dreamweaver is probably the best WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). It produces a quite clean code. You can find a dreamweaver trial version on marcromedia site.

http://www.macromedia.com/software/trial_download//

Photoshop is nice, but expensive, you don't really need it. I suggest you forget frontpage... Bad microsoft. Produces an unclean code and loads of crap. But remember that notepad and the pure code is still the thing that will give you the best results. If you need images to complete your site, you can still live with paint if you don't need top quality images, but if you need something that can really do something, you could still use paintshop pro, by jasc software (again, free trial version)

http://www.jasc.com/download_4.asp?

Hope that helps you

Btw, maybe this could be in computer talk

 

[IceBlaZe]

I suggest you forget frontpage... Bad microsoft

Photoshop + Frontpage + Ultradev + TidyGUI = Clean code!

 

[spycatcher34]

Tsk Tsk why don't you just get some one to do it for you? Or get like a lycos thing where you can set it up on-line.

 

[Sodapop]

Originally posted by IceBlaZe


Photoshop + Frontpage + Ultradev + TidyGUI = Clean code!

Well all I can say about frontpage is that I worked with it at school (I'd never buy that crap) and I'm very lazy when it comes to make webpages. But I still prefer to use notedpad to make them instead of using frontpage. But with all the program you listed, he just has to spend around $200 to build a webpage...

Notepad is free and gives you a clean code too

 

[Ohkrana]

Yes forget Front page completely..
It dumps alot of un-needed code into your page.

Having photoshop is great - paying for it isn't..lol

Paintshop Pro isn't half bad. It allows you, to do most of what you want; in terms of graphics. Plus with Alien Skins - Eye Candy filter it's pretty cool.

Dreamweaver is probably the best all round program. It's certainly the one I prefer.

But there are quite a few HTML editors out there.
Coffee Cup
XLA Web easy
Cold Fusion
are just a few...

Suggestions
---------------
Design your site for 800X600 res

It's helpful to know HTML code as well as some Java script.
(more than likley you'll need to edit or tweak manually)

Tidy GUI - is HTML validation program (akin to compiling your code; simply put)
There are other validation progs out there.

If your using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) beware they don't work to well with Netscape from what I've seen.

It's handy to test your page in Opera & Netscape as well as IE.

There are a multitude of Web Design resources on the WEB; use it!

Just some ....


web authouring and HTML

graphics tips

killer sites

some tips

HTML goodies

If your looking for more info - PM me!

 

[Hurricane]

And don´t use frames! Frames are bad, bad, bad!

 

[Pillager]

FrontPage is fine for doing a basic site, but if you want to start doing serious amounts of JavaScript, DHTML, etc, I suggest Dreamweaver. I started in FrontPage and then moved to Dreamweaver once I felt comfortable using a 'professional' programme, which FrontPage is not.

As for graphics, Paintshop Pro, I think, is perfectly satisfactory. Photoshop is defintitely better, but also about eight times the price, and the extra features you get are really not worth the money unless you are *really* into graphics. If, like me, you just need a capable all round art/design programme, which can handle animated GIFs, textures, and most things, in fact, Paintshop Pro (v7 now, I think) is definitely the best per pound.

 

[Juize]

And after all these tips, a friendly warning..:

www.madmoose.org/laamanen

 

[vonork]

Arrghh - I'm blind, blind I say!!! Take that away!!

About Frontpage(I'm using 2002) - it has a few drabacks - but I have tried dreamweaver and I did not like it. Regarding extra coding - frontpage has stoped doing that...

And the HTML view is as fin as notpad to work in, colercoded too - and that's helps alot.

And if you choose to code for only one browser that get's you a lot more fetures and so much less trubble. I would choose to code for IE becouse most use it. Frankly, netscape my have been the best browser in the past- but now IE is better to say anything else only feels like MS baching too me.

 

[IceBlaZe]

Yeah, tell a complete n00b to use purely notepad

Even pixelbrick don't use notepad anymore, sites today are getting much too complicated to write it all in notepad.

Frontpage is very good for creating a site skeleton, just the tables and their sizes.

Dreamweaver is good at continuing that skeleton and making CSS borders, styles, adding flash, etc.

Photoshop is good for making the graphics and even for making a complete site and using Imageready to slice and produce it.

TidyGUI is the last program you run on that webpage, and it cleans any crap the other programs inserted.

Notepad is nice to insert scripts etc.. but there are much better programs for that, programs with text highlightening, script marking, etc... and some of them come for free, just search.

Anyway, always know your enemy... www.w3schools.com is a great place to start with

Cheers

 

[Black Fluffy Lion]

Code it by hand

Try editPlus out - it has great syntax highlighting and it's free.

 

[duke o' york]

Get BFL to test the site for you!
He's the internet equivalent of a bull in a china shop judging by his efforts with the Gamecatcher site! If your site can survive a thorough "investigation" from BFL then you're away!

 

[IceBlaZe]

I say just hire PixelBrick to do your site.
They are professional and all good.

Their prices range from $5k to $40k....

www.pixelbrick.com

 

[Sodapop]

Originally posted by IceBlaZe
Yeah, tell a complete n00b to use purely notepad

Tell the n00b that it will cost 200 bucks to build a nice website At least he'd learn something if he'd use a text program. And even for site skeleton I wouldn't take frontpage. The skeleton is easy to code by hand anyway. And as bfl stated, highlighting is nice, though not completely necessary. It can be useful if you're beggining htlm though

 

[Black Fluffy Lion]

Originally posted by duke o' york
Get BFL to test the site for you!
He's the internet equivalent of a bull in a china shop judging by his efforts with the Gamecatcher site! If your site can survive a thorough "investigation" from BFL then you're away!

ah no site would survive some maintainence work done on it by me

 

[drake]

WYSIWYGs suck. They're for lazy people who don't want to take the time to understand how to code.

But thats what the man wants isn't it

As much as I detest WYSIWYGS, Dreamweaver is certainly the standard. Go to Macromedia.com and get the trial version for free. You get it for 30 days, which should be more than enough time to set up a simple site.

 

[Cilpot]

Adobe GoLive... It is very easy to use, and you can make really nice pages without even looking into the code.. The downside to this program is that if you for some reason want to edit the code it is kinda messy... A plus is that it interacts extremely well with Photoshop, and I cant imagine making good pages without PS.

Personally i like writing my own code, and therefore I actually recomend FrontPage.. If you use it as a pure code-editor, though, you will have no problems with dirty codes there.. And it comes with a very powerful JavaScript editor!

Another plus with FrontPage is that it is very easy to control your site navigation, and internal links...

But as i said, only use it as a code editor.. Otherwise use GoLive..

I havent tried DreamWeaver yet...

 

[Ren]

Personally I like the Yahoo-Geocities builder (not the wizard) http://www.geocities.com/