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I am about to embark on building my own web-site, I would really appreciate your views on a good program to build a web-site with. Being a complete novice, to web-building, would you recommend "CuteSite Builder"? and would it work well with Xara Webstyle4?, or does anyone have a better recommendation? Any feedback would be much appreciated.joyceandstevieb@eircom.net
if you want it to work, dreamwever I think is the program that most users here play with. I have been playing with web pages for about 8 years. Basically before any of these fancy programs came out, so I know the code and sling it. My web design tools of choice are wordpad and xara. Everyone else thinks I am nuts to still be slinging the code tho.
Thanx for ur reply John. I can understand why u prefer wordpad, as u have total control, but I fear I may be too old, and not enough patience to learn all the HTML tags etc to write my own. I'll check out Dreamweaver.
I only asked about CuteSite Builder as it was a program suggested to me.
Sorry StevieB,
Can not help you there. I am not a good reviewer of that type of software. Will find the capabilities and limitations of any of them within 5 minutes.
StevieB
I think most of the budget-end tools will be much of a muchness - they will all have strengths and all have weaknesses. Webstyle is less of a building tool - it is good however for creating a design that you then finish off and build in, for example, Dreamweaver. I used Hotmetal for years (sadly defunct? Version 6.0 was the last.) AceHTML is one that inspires love and hate!
You would be best to use whatever you can get at a decent price, learn it, dip into the html as John says, learn to make the graphics in XaraX as you are doing. And then when you hit that "I wish it could do" moment, dig deep into your pocket and buy Dreamweaver. Avoid thinking that another budget product will solve your problem - instead it will introduce more!
Good luck
Hello Simon,
I might be thought nuts, but I have yet to run into a "I wish it could do moment" with wordpad.
Thanx a lot for ur input Simon, I think I will buy Dreamweaver straight-off, rather than get dis-illusioned with the budget packages. Thanx
Also, if you read this topic again John or Simon, maybe you could recommend any books on learning HTML, (for dummies probably). All info is much appreciated, as I think it's time for this old dog to learn some new tricks.
John
Even with a text editor!!! Perhaps the "I need to change 999 pages on the same site; if only it was template-driven." OK; you may be able to do a find/replace, perhaps even with a macro or two, but there are *some* tricks that Dreamweaver can pull.
I know I'll never convince you!
Hi Simon!
I totally rebuild 11 meg worth of web pages the first 15 minutes of every workday. (it is a wonder what you can do with a simple database and wordpad. (in this instance I used wordpad to create a perl script that builds all the pages in about 60 seconds. example) Try again my friend... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
Or maybe 2000 pages on 3 sites. BHD, BHP and SDP. Total build time for all web pages about 180 seconds. Let's see dreamweaver do that on a 500Mhz PIII. Takes longer to get the data out of access than it does to build the sites.
Olorin: Email me and I will email you the best books I have found on HTML, CSS, Javascript & PHP. You while have to scrounge up you own copy of a good PERL manual.
Stevie,
Just to give you another program to consider. I've heard good and bad about Net Objects Fusion. My experience making web pages is very basic so I use techniques similar to John, except WordPad has too many bells and whistles so I use the less powerful notepad http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
John, if you don't mind sharing that list of books, I could use some good references. My memory isn't as good as it used to be so I need all the help I can get.
Hi Bill,
The check's in the mail. Hope you are not on dialup... I just emailed you 90% of my reference library.
Thanks John. I don't know if my hotmail account will accept files larger then 2MB.
your Hotmail Barfed it back at me. So I sent you a little bite. Just the HTML reference.
John
I know you can do that - my own Bricks & Brass site uses php/mysql to build some pages dynamically - but I keep these to a minimum because I want good search engine performance.
But for a relative/absolute beginner, I think a combination of a wysiwyg-ish tool and a good editor (I use Textpad) plus the books etc you are recommending will get him/her off to a good start.
Simon,
The sites I quoted above are flat html. The scripting is run on my computer no the server, then uploaded. There is nothing dynamic about the site as far as search engines are concerned.
There are several benifits from this. Speed loading a page, Search engine placement, server loading. I would rather spend my server clock cycles feeding pages to visitors than building the pages.
Great HTML reference John. Thanx a lot.
I'm afraid out here in a cottage, in the middle of a field in Ireland, is not on the urgency list of the national DSL network provider, so it's just plain old ISDN at the moment. They have promised Broadband by Xmas, but I aint holdin my breath.
The HTML reference didnt take that long to download, Thanx again, very much appreciated
If interested, I have an equally great Javascipt reference, and a PHP reference. PERL, you will have to dig up the reference for that yourself.
extremely interested, and of course, extremely grateful
Thanks John!! I got the HTML reference. As Stevie said, it's great.
that reference is courtesy of the old netscape. I do not know where it is buried in the new netscape. Will email more when I get home.
StevieB and Bill,
the rest of them are in the mail. Hopefully, I haven't choked your mailboxes...
quick update. I choked Bills email. Will have to send smaller parts later...
Bill,
do you have a real email address? or just the hotmail 10k mailbox?
John, I finally got home and downloaded the css reference and deleted the email. I have a 2MB mailbox on Hotmail, so it chokes on very little data. I'll email you my work address. I really appreciate your time and trouble sending the files.
Hi Bill,
So far so good. Recieved delivery confirmation on three out of three. They are not that large but full of good info. If you run into anything that looks greek to ya, gimme a yell and I will try to help you over the hump. Been sllinging this stuff since about '95 or '96 and have run into a brick wall or two in my time. The last time took me 2 weeks of hair pulling and $50 to another code slinger to tell me I had the syntax wrong on one command.
To get back to the original question on this thread, go out and buy this months Computer Shopper (Oct.) where they have a full review of all the most common editors. In their recommendations they put Dreamweaver in the top position, followed by Namo and then Serif.
Before buying my software I tried and tested most of the ones found in the mags and went for GoLive as it suited my basic knowledge of HTML. The best thing about GL is that within a short period of time I could develope a proffesional looking site without using any wizards, just dragging and droping graphics onto the page which I think is what most design oriented people want but it has a whopping price when compared with Namo at £66.
I tried GL. It too sticks a lot of extraneous code in the page.
Namo is a pretty decent take off of FrontPage...
PI and FrontPage... what more does ya need? http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
ugggg, I can hear the groans now http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
"PI and FrontPage... what more does ya need?" - Gidgit
Ummmm... PU!!!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif