Website Design Software ?

[CDragonworks]

I was curious to see if any of you have knowledge of an easy to use but not too set in its ways program for building a website? I have a website I made many years back but the program I used is gone now and so I am at an impasse! I know some but not much HTML...so I prefer to not use it. BUT I do not want a template that limits my ideas of where to put my photos and text. Any ideas... cost etc? Thanks Cat

[David Genadek]

I was curious to see if any of you have knowledge of an easy to use but not too set in its ways program for building a website? I have a website I made many years back but the program I used is gone now and so I am at an impasse! I know some but not much HTML...so I prefer to not use it. BUT I do not want a template that limits my ideas of where to put my photos and text. Any ideas... cost etc? Thanks Cat

I use Dreamweaver which allows me to get as involved as I am capable. I have a online subscription to Total Training so I can learn what I need to know quickly. If your not doing a lot with it I think your better off hiring it done. You pretty much need to understand Cascading Style sheets nowadays if your going to get anywhere. This stuff makes me feel real dumb at times. I am running CS3 right now but will soon upgrade to CS5 and I have been finding with each upgrade to Dreamweaver things become more user friendly however the possibilities seem to expand geometrically too so it all can be a bit overwhelming for an amateur. It always seems with all programs that if you want any real control you have to learn a lot. If your good in Photoshop there is a program called Site Grinder that lets you do your layout in Photoshop and then it converts it to a site for you. My host has built in software that I could use for free if I wanted but I have never tried it.

David Genadek

[funnygirl62221]

I use Dreamweaver which allows me to get as involved as I am capable. I have a online subscription to Total Training so I can learn what I need to know quickly. If your not doing a lot with it I think your better off hiring it done. You pretty much need to understand Cascading Style sheets nowadays if your going to get anywhere. This stuff makes me feel real dumb at times. I am running CS3 right now but will soon upgrade to CS5 and I have been finding with each upgrade to Dreamweaver things become more user friendly however the possibilities seem to expand geometrically too so it all can be a bit overwhelming for an amateur. It always seems with all programs that if you want any real control you have to learn a lot. If your good in Photoshop there is a program called Site Grinder that lets you do your layout in Photoshop and then it converts it to a site for you. My host has built in software that I could use for free if I wanted but I have never tried it.

David Genadek

webs.com is a free and really easy to set up.

[BAD HIDE]

I use Dreamweaver too, but I would never recommend it to a novice. I know about 2% of what it can do, and I somehow get OK results with that 2%. Website design has blossomed into a complex world. If you don't have the time to completely relearn software, there are sites out there that build sites for you, and there's nothin wrong with hiring a designer.

[wareagle]

try Kate ..... http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showuser=7

[JohnBarton]

FREE - KOMPOZER - it's open source, easy to use and rocks!  - 

Hosting - www.hostgator.com - really cheap, really really really super service 24hour ALWAYS AVAILABLE - no limit on websites, storage or bandwidth.  Easily the most amazing webhost I have ever used in the past 15 years of having websites.  You have instant control of all your email boxes, too much for me to list.  Rarely do I reccomend something like this with so much enthusiasm.  You can build your website easily using the tools that Hostgator provides.

Hostgator also gives you two directories of opensource free software that you can install in seconds on your site directly from your hostgator control panel, like image galleries, a mailing list, blogs, it's so amazing that I can't describe it.  I literally host something like ten sites for around $12 a month.

FTP - File transfer protocol - FileZilla, again free and open source. - works awesome and supports drag and drop.  That's right open a folder on your machine and drag it into the folder on the host machine and it flies right over.  

Image editing: IrfanView - this is a free image editor that is quick and easy and most importantly has BATCH processing.   Batch processing is where you do the same thing to a lot of images at once.  Say you took 30 great shots of your product and you would like to rename all the files AND resize them for your website.  With IrfanView you can do that and leave the originals intact.  It's such an amazing program that I use it constantly and hardly ever open PaintShopPro or Photoshop.

For me these four things are all you need to do a competent website that gets the information out there.

If you want to get a little fancier there are free or inexpensive tools out there which will make the dynamic drop down menus for you.  The menu you see on www.jbcases.com is such a menu - it's contained in one file and the code sits on every webpage on my site so if I change the core file the menu automatically updates on all pages on my site at once.  I didn't do this - I had a friend do it and gave him a case.  I could do it if I wanted to though.  Nothing against webmasters but in my experience for the small guy the do it yourself method is best because then you don't have to rely on someone else to get something changed.  I'd rather have my site looking a little rough around the edges but have up to date information on it instead of being pretty and out-of-date.

I use my website as a storage box for pictures and reference material.  I use it in conversation with my customers on a daily basis.  When taking an order I will be on the phone or on chat with my customer and telling them to go to this page or that page and look at this picture or that picture, you can link to your pictures in email, you can throw sketches up on the web for them to look at - which is sometimes faster than email and easier.  There have been times when I have shot ten pictures, batch edited them in Irfanview and uploaded them to the web in less than five minutes where my mail program was struggling to send one email with ten attachments.  Then on the sixth minute the customer has the link to the pictures that he can view in their browser and download at their leisure.

So there you go.

P.S.  With most opensource software like WordPress and Gallery you have a huge amount of "plugins" that are also free with which you can customize your website to an infinite degree.  And huge is way to small a word to describe the amount.  

PPS - go to Hostgator - chat with them - they rock!!!!   (not paid by HG but if they do an IPO I am buying stock for sure).

PPPS - shoot yourself in the head twice if you even think about going with GoDaddy - they are THE WORST.  And if anyone says different then it's only because they don't know any better and have not had the pleasure of dealing with Hostgator.

[Ann McGrath]

Where is the website you made? Is it still up as it was back then? I'd love to have a look and see what it looks like.

[joquarter]

I 'm totally stupid , with HTML , but love to work with photo's , I used Publisher from the officepackage 2007 to build a website for my hubbies bussiness.

It's not finished ( no time) but it works

When I have to rebuild it , go to use dreamwaver or Komposer.

Made all the frames , so can use them at a new website.