Namo or Dreamweaver?

[garyallred]

I am a graphic designer by trade for years but new to web design. I have used FrontPage to show my clients work in process for input or approval. It is also my "portfolio" for new clients to see. I continue to have requests to design web sites and I know that FrontPage is not the way to go. I have Dreamweaver/Fireworks and also Namo because of the positive comments I have seen on the site. At this point I have not spent enough time in either to draw my own conclusion but I am about to move in that direction. Can anyone give me there opinion as to which program to go with and why. Any and all comments are appreciated.

Gary Allred
www.theoriginalorg.com
gary@theoriginalorg.com

[gidgit]

haha,this could prove to be a explosive topic here GA...

something like asking which image editor to use... give the wrong answer here and...look out hehe

I will answer this from my viewpoint to get the ball rolling here...

IMHO, Namo and FP compliment each other very nicely... and if you are already used to FP then Namo is the way to go...

I used to be concerned about just which editor was the proper choice mainly because of all the negative hype surrounding FP's code, but I still found it easier to use than DW...so I stuck with it...then found Namo and have never looked back...but..but...what about the extra lines of code older versions of FP may generate bla bla...?

Here's my take...

I have seen really tight coded pages that were not very appealing to look at, and I have seen pages with slightly bloated code look very nice...of course I have also seen the opposite as well [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

I believe that as long as the page looks and works well cross browser, cross platform, then great... and... all things considered, a larger than necessary image file size will add more to the loading time than will a few extra lines of code...if in fact this ends up the case resulting from the editing approach you take...

HTH

Gidgit's Blog

[garyallred]

http://www.namo.com/

[garyallred]

I also see many sites that are over designed and many under designed - that is still the reason I am wanting to learn web design. I do see many over designed probably because the artist/coder gets software that will do so much they want to add a little bit of everything - make it flash, move and make noise. But every once in a while I see a well designed and under stated web site that you just want to stop and look at. The bells and whistles are good but only when used in the right place for the right reason. I am nowhere near this finish line but this is my goal, whether using WYSIWYG or hand coding.

[jon spain]

Of Namo and DWMX, I'd say go for DW now because their current pricing is ridiculous for such enormous power. In the past, I thought of switching to Namo but I found them very difficult to deal with, recently offering an upgrade price higher than the new owner's price!

However, there's a new verion of NOF almost any day now, which looks good. For dynamic sites, I suspect that DW will be much, much easier but I'm really not in that field. At least, not yet. For purchases before 15 June, the NOF pricing looks good (and I have no shares or anything else)!

May I suggest you go look at

http://www.gotfusion.com/default.html

and have a look at the new features and the pricing. Maybe tell us what you think.

Just my 2p (and no surrender)

Jon

[gidgit]

I would love to agree with you here Andrew, but...

fact is, I have seen many sites done with FP, DW, Namo...that are evry bit as nice as those which were hand coded... speaking of handcoded sites, many of those are really done via cut and paste from a glorified text editor and not really done via the ole keyboard...

next we will be suggesting that it is only a "ful" that uses Flash or Swish to design swf, the "real pro's" hand code...

The "Handcode vs WYSIWYG" debate is every bit rediculous as is the "PS vs all other image editors" debate...the faithful on each side have thier views, to which they should be respected...

What ever worx for ya...

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[pduggan]

IMHO good coding is a prerequisite of good design. If a site's not well coded, it's not well designed for the web. Personally I find many sites overdesigned and prefer not to have to download the acres of sliced graphics that some designer thought looked professional. To which I could add that too many sites seem to be designed like fixed layout printed brochures, with no more flexibility than lumps of concrete!

Peter

Peat Stack or Pete's Tack?

[dk_art]

I'm not even gonna enter this debate. I had quite a maddening experience many months ago here dealing with some rather childish hand coders who were incredibly insulting to me personally ( so brave from behind the monitor 1000's of km away aren't they). Also, recently I had placed a link to my site on google groups where someone in my area was looking for an affordable site and a hand coder came in and pointed out a bunch of "errors" including the fact that it failed the wc3 validator. Yet he didn't point out the errors on the other peoples' sites which they showed. I found this incredibly rude and told him so.

I've seen a ton of sites which I could pick apart on usability issues or just plain design ( and yes if I'm gonna stare at a website for a while reading stuff I want it to look nice) including the guy who picked at my site in the above situation ( his site by the way was a solid color screen with lists of texts links running down the page and a Canadian flag gif in the upper left corner .... yet I didn't tear his site apart publicly even though it warranted it (IMHO) ... especially considering he butted his nose into somewhere he should have stayed the hell out). These offending sites include some from large businesses and WYSIWYG editor users and hand coders.

Maybe we should all go flash ( or swish ... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] ) and wouldn't have to deal with this issue again. Then it would be just whether the site was good or not.

Dang looks like I entered the debate ...

PS ... not all hand coders are like this but these few were just arrogant little jerks who ended up throwing around insults that 10 year old school kids might use in the playground!

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com http://www.dkingdesign.com/stuff/signature.jpg

[kennybeat]

Im a Cartoonist and Web Designer and Ive used Dreamweaver and frontpage and I do html to but when it come raw power of performance and ease of use check out Photo Webber you can do all the stuff that they mentioned Flash Javascript Xml Dhtml rollover popups E commerece and works with photo shop dreamweaver Xara PaintShop.I understand were your Coming from when you said so much to learn so little time.But you allready got the clients and if you want to keep'em make sites with good taste not that taste good!In other words if an't broke don't fix it.Thats progress [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] photowebber home page

kenneth bernardo

[garyallred]

As an artist I am more concerned about a quality layout and good looking functional site. I have customers who have had their web sites designed by people that certainlt know web design but they are not satisfied because they are still left with a "ho-humm" looking site. I realize that WYSIWYG has its draw backs but I have friends that are great at "hand coding" and know little about putting together a good looking as well as function site. At this point in my career I have a 3D program, Xara (I now use Corel) and PhotoImpact to learn, so I am spread rather thin. At some point I hope to also get a handle on hand coding, but not right now.

Thanks for the continued input.

Gary Allred