Off Topic website building software/tools

[luv]

Hey all.

This is way off topic, but I trust there are some qualified people here.

Does anybody have a reccomendation for website building software. I don't want to spend a grip, but I'm willing to pay for some software if it offers me a significant improvement over what is out there for free. I would also use a free service if it is good.

I currently have something put together with an older version of Microsoft Publisher (just because I had it), but I'm not real happy with the options - it just looks dated and over simplistic. I'd like something that offered more contemporary graphics and options (for ex. windows that increase in size when you drag over them). I don't have alot of experience with any of the available software out there, so I'm asking for some input.

Thanks in advance!

Jeremy

 

[mikeller]

Jeremy - I would recommend WebPlus by Serif.

Plenty of serious tools and it will not break the bank.

 

[luv]

mike -

that definately looks similar to what I had in mind....thank you for the heads up. do you have any experience with this software? Is it relatively easy to use, or am I going to have to buy the instructional "extra"? Just curious...thanks again.

jeremy

 

[mikeller]

I have a fair amount of experience with it, and much more experience with several of their other softwares.

WebPlus is very simple, but very powerful. It does come with some very good tutorials and templates, and you will not need to purchase instructional aids to get you up and running.

Additionally, if you visit the user forums, you will find a bunch of very knowledgeable users that can help you through about anything.

Finally, all Serif products come with a 30-day money back policy.

Mike

 

[fbecir]

Hello Jeremy

It depends really on what type of site you want to design.
If you want something with a little content but with nice graphics, you don't need a web editor but a powerful imaging software (Gimp for instance and it's a freeware).
If you want to have a lot of content, you need a content management system like SPIP (a freeware also).
There are a lot of free tool. Perhaps you should take time to investigate before spending money (money is best use for buying EBMM guitars )

 

[MrMusashi]

if you want to get up and running quickly i suggest looking at a publishing system like joomla. it looks nice, isnt too hard to understand and it makes it easy to make changes to your site
there are a lot of templates you can buy for it to make it look stunning and there are books to make it easier to understand..

hth!

MrM

 

[phatduckk]

There's a learning curve but learning HTML & CSS is a good thing and I highly recommend it.

Learning it while using a WYSIWYG is a good way to go. You can usually do something in the WYSIWYG and see what HTML/CSS it generated... 1/2 the battle is learning how to think in terms of markup.... the actual markup (html/css) part's easy

 

[MusicManJP6]

There's a learning curve but learning HTML & CSS is a good thing and I highly recommend it.

Learning it while using a WYSIWYG is a good way to go. You can usually do something in the WYSIWYG and see what HTML/CSS it generated... 1/2 the battle is learning how to think in terms of markup.... the actual markup (html/css) part's easy

+1

Adobe Dreamweaver is the industry standard - it's what I use. It has many tools to assist in your coding. Try the trial version out and see how you like it.

 

[Chewie]

I agree with MrMusashi and phatduckk.

I'm not into re-inventing the wheel these days or making sites from scratch. I always recommend free open sourced content management systems, like Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, or even Word Press with addons to make it a full CMS. Those are the more popular Apache/PHP/MySQL based CMS's.

Then bust out your ninja HTML/CSS skills and skinning any of those CMS's becomes a fairly simple and painless task.

Even if you lack HTML/CSS skills there are other advantages to using one of the popular open source CMS's

Each of the ones I mentioned has a huge community of users. So if you're used to asking instrument questions in this forum then you won't find it to different getting help in the forum for whatever CMS you choose.

Another nice thing with the open source CMS scene is there are tons of companies out there specializing in making custom skins/templates for these CMS's. I would say a good custom template would probably only set you back =~ $200. A lot of companies also have what they call a template club. You pay a flat fee or sometimes a monthly fee and it'll give you access to tons of templates. Though without editing the CSS of these club templates you do start noticing you're site looks just like another site, but with a different logo.

Myself, I'm most familiar with Joomla, and I generally start by finding a template that most fits the layout I'm going for, then I use Firefox with the Firebug extension installed and use it to rip apart the CSS stylesheet and start editing it to fit my needs.

 

[luv]

Thanks for the advice guys. I've opted to go with the Serif program for now...cheap and super easy. It looks like I'll have my site completely revamped in a day or two....once I receive the software. This is for small business use, so the cost is a write off.

I'll run with that for a bit until I can develop my html/css skills....because I currently have zero. Once I get more familiar with coding, then I'll start exploring the other avenues. Perhaps I'll discover a new talent in myself.....

 

[luv]

Mike-

Just wanted to say thanks. The Serif program is working great so far. I'm still tweaking everything, but in two days I had my site completely redesigned and up and running. It's in a basic platform now, but I'll be building on what's there to expand it. If anybody wants to check it out (jeremyputman.com) there is the link below. As always, any input is appreciated.

I'm aware that some of the images are slightly low in resolution....fixing that soon.

Jeremy

Home

 

[mikeller]

Jeremy - glad it is working out. As I mentioned, if you ever have questions please visit the forums, plenty of knowledgeable users hang out there.

The site looks good, nice job!!!!