Starkdog opened this issue on Aug 19, 2006 · 24 posts
Starkdog posted Sat, 19 August 2006 at 11:23 PM Online Now!
Hi all,
My old website expired, so I renewed it for 2 years. The good thing, is that now I have a blank canvas to work with. When I made my site last year, I had used some buggy freeware program to make my site. I no longer have that program, and I am looking for something free or $, which is EASY to use to create a website, with a simple PSP-Photoshop like interface. I did do a Google search, but most of what I found are a "use any colors with a canned template" setup. Yuck!!! Hopefully somebody out there knows of a good program to invest in.
Thanks, -Starkdog
beos53 posted Sat, 19 August 2006 at 11:31 PM
Starkdog
Virtual.Mechanics has a WebDwarfv2 the is Free
Serif has a WebPlus V6 also Free
They are both WYSIWYG
The Serif WebPlus V6 is the one I use now it will let you do more things then WebDrarf
In fact it is a pretty good program
beos53
PoserPro 2014, Windows 7, AMD FX-6300 6 core, 8 GB ram, Nvidia
GeForce GTX 750 Ti
Starkdog posted Sat, 19 August 2006 at 11:57 PM Online Now!
Hi Beos53,
I looked at Serif, and their newest version of WebPlus is $80. I think that I'll give this one a shot, especially since it is set up like a desktop publishing application. Thanks again for the recommendation. -Starkdog
Acadia posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 12:17 AM
I use Microsoft Front Page 2000. It's not free, but it works quite well. Plus I have the book "Step by Step: Front Page 2000" which literally walks you through all of the features of the program in 5 short chapters.
"It is good to see ourselves as
others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we
are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not
angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to
say." - Ghandi
RAMWorks posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 12:28 AM
Hi Starkdog. I do beta testing for Serif and it's a solid piece of software. I didn't test that one but I'm testing another biggie for them right now. They just get better and better and they price they ask for most of their stuff is pretty much affordable. I have built my last two websites using their software and while it's not as clean a code if you were hand coding it's not bad either!! Richard ;-)~
---Wolff On The Prowl---
pakled posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 10:58 AM
Go by Sourceforge; they have open source programs for just about everything (found my way there from Wings 3d..;). There a gazillion (10 to the excessive) programs out there that will do web sites.
Sausage Software had some demos that did ok, back when I had a web page (there was something called CuteFTP that was simple enough for me to use it..;)
I also have Front page (a much older version, tho). It does the 'canned' bit, but what really annoyed me was its proclivity to 'rewrite' HTML with a lot more coding in it..(being the Luddite I am, I wrote my web pages in Wordpad..;)
If you have access to the current or nearly current versions of Office, there's a 'save as HTML' function, that will allow you to get things to look fairly like a Web page. Now how it handles pics and files, I don't know..but i've seen it before (mainly going in the reverse direction, saving online tutorials onto my hard drive...;)
I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit
anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)
geep posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 12:11 PM
Attached Link: http://trellian.vendercom.com/webpage/index.html
It's FREE! ... and it's good. ;=]cheers,
dr geep
;=]
Remember ... "With Poser, all things are possible, and poseable!"
cheers,
dr geep ... :o]
edited 10/5/2019
geoegress posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 1:28 PM
kobaltkween posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 1:37 PM
just a warning: front page tends to make somewhat messy, IE specific code. save as html in word creates horrendous files. several apps have functions dedicated to cleaning it up. having performed such clean-ups, it took me amazingly long, considering most of what i had to wait on was the computer removing lines of code in an .html file. but then removing 2800 instances isn't going to happen in a second, in general. office html files are not only IE specific, but huge because of massive code bloat.
the open source community is a good place to look, because standards compliance tends to be important to them, as well as clean and efficient code. if you're a designer or have any reason to have an understanding of html and what's going on, i'd suggest starting with a text editor like editpad lite and looking at the W3 Schools site under xhtml and css. really, for most simple sites, your html should be dead simple, proper html header defining doc properties and linking to your css file, a body with a section (div) for header, footer, navigation and main area, and a main area with a title (h1 or h2, depending on what's in your page header) and some content. the look and feel should be all css, which you_can_ do pretty simply.
ziggie posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 4:30 PM
Attached Link: NVU
Another nice freebie is NVU.... a nice WYSIWYG editor."You don't have to be mad to use Poser... but it helps"
pakled posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 4:40 PM
Crimson Editor is also recommended..;) sort of like Wordpad on steroids..;)
I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit
anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)
aeilkema posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 5:34 PM
I do use Serif also, but not Webplus, but PagePlus instead. PagePlus has about all of the web creation features of WebPlus, but adds desktop publishing features to it. Two for the price of one and it's an excellent application.
Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722
Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(
Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk
nruddock posted Sun, 20 August 2006 at 5:57 PM
Don't forget that SeaMonkey (the successor to Mozilla Suite) has Composer.
Jimdoria posted Mon, 21 August 2006 at 4:07 PM
Attached Link: Price-Media Cascade DTP V4
NVU is OK. Mroe like a word processor than a DTP program for web pages.Check out Cascade DTP. It is a free DTP program for web pages.
stewer posted Mon, 21 August 2006 at 7:55 PM
I second NVU, probably one of the best free ones I have seen so far. If you have cash to spend, the good one I found for people who know what they're doing is DreamWeaver, for those who don't even want to know what HTML it's iWeb.
Starkdog posted Tue, 22 August 2006 at 12:32 AM Online Now!
WOW!!! Thanks for all of the feedback. I do have NVU, but never really looked at it too much. To me, it struck me as a website content manager, rather than a website maker. I will look back into it, as I currently have it installed. Thanks again, -Starkdog
ByteDreams posted Thu, 07 September 2006 at 10:23 PM
Everyone I know tht used serif, came back to me asking how they can fix the code...
Frontpage is no longer being developed by MS, it's being replaced by a better product called Expression Web Designer. If you visit microsoft.com you may still be able to download the free beta. EWD will replace frontpage next year, and it is better, and they've cleaned up their code.
on the free side, if your host is using CPanel for site admin tools, you'll have Fantastico. with that, you only have to click and install. they include out of the box blogs, forums, galleries, shopping carts and stuff.
Of course, there's no replacement for learning a couple of scripting languages as you go -- remember knowledge is power!... and if you're gonna build it all by yourself, you may want to learn at least the minimum amount of scripting -- html and css as mentioned above.
Serif? Save your money. It will only get you so far, then you'll be right back to square one - learning the scripts..., and it has proprietary stuff in it just like frontpage. It also has a very inelegant way of writing code, which might give you problems later on as browsers upgrade.
Consider this also, IE7 is in it's third prerelease version, so it's coming soon enough. Guess what -- stuff that viewed okay in IE6 may not view so well in IE 7 -- that's because IE 7 will be a web-standards compatible browser, so no more designing pages that work in IE6, you have to design pages that work period... so Serif is out.. cheap is not always best when it comes to software, as you've probably experienced.
aeilkema posted Fri, 08 September 2006 at 1:59 AM
so no more designing pages that work in IE6, you have to design pages that work period... so Serif is out.. cheap is not always best when it comes to software, as you've probably experienced.
I completely disagree with you. Everyone I know using Serif is very happy and never had to fix code at all. I've never had any complaints about my websites, they work well in any browser and Serif will still work for me (and many others). Cheap may not always be the best, but Serif certainly doesn't fit that description.
I'm in charge of the webdesign for my work also and there Frontpage is used. so I know how to write websites from code and still prefer using Serif. Implementing my own scripts from with in Serif is also no problem at all. I'm not sure what version you've used, but starting from version 9, Serif has improved their software tremdously. It amazing how much they're offering for the price they're asking and you get worth. Especially compared to FrontPage. It produces a mess and still you pay a lot for it.
As if more expensive software guarentees a better product.
Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722
Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(
Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk
ByteDreams posted Fri, 08 September 2006 at 10:08 AM
We use Frontpage too -- but most of us prefer Dreamweaver, and notepad, and we design in-house for a University.
I can only relate to how many times members at my msn group, will ask for help on the board to unscramble a page created using Serif. For people that know some about scripting, the program doesn't present much of a problem. But for people new to creating web pages and new to writing html -- well that's the group who usually ask us for help.
Of course, each new version s'posed to get better -- so maybe the most recent version of Serif is as you said above, and every web designer has their preferences. People brought up using Frontpage from the beginning will have less problems with it than people starting out by handcoding, or using some other product like Dreamweaver.
3DVim posted Sat, 09 September 2006 at 2:12 PM
I recently bought a book on XOOPS 2.2 with its freeware. XOOPS 2.2 has blogs, forums, galleries, voting system, and shopping carts, etc. It also allows many plugins to add to its functions or modify its looks.
But haven't try it out yet, as I'm waiting to buy a new computer to install it into.
RAMWorks posted Sat, 09 September 2006 at 2:50 PM
Attached Link: Top Ten Reviews for Web Creation Software
> Quote - Everyone I know using Serif is very happy and never had to fix code at all. I've never had any complaints about my websites, they work well in any browser and Serif will still work for me (and many others). Cheap may not always be the best, but Serif certainly doesn't fit that description.I agree and keep in mind that Serif is CONSTANTLY developing (I should know ) so I would surmise that when IE7 is FINAL Serif will follow up with an update for both softwares to cover any glitchy behavior that would occur when viewing sites in that browser. The latest edition of WebPlus and PagePlus create code that is, from what I hear, not quite as messy as some of the other higher ended programs (I don't know as I only use WebPlus and PagePlus for this sort of work). My site works just fine in FF, Opera and IE 6 & 7 with no glitches. So not sure what these other end users are doing when they are in the creation process but it must be out of the ordinary or just inexperience, which is understandable but dishing a product on a few comments is simply not fair! I do have other web creation software like Namo and one other that escapes me at the moment... quite popular though.... sheesh, I love old age, mind is just not working very well today......
---Wolff On The Prowl---
RAMWorks posted Sat, 09 September 2006 at 2:58 PM
Hmmmm, I think I'll check out XOOPS 2.2. Looks very fun and the website is nicely laid out and informative!! Thanks!
---Wolff On The Prowl---
ByteDreams posted Sat, 09 September 2006 at 6:07 PM
You're absolutely right. Guess I was just feelin bitchy... I usually avoid these software and browser bashers.. In the same token, we can say there's more than a few people out there that don't know how to use Frontpage, and those are the ones that wind up with the proprietary code on their pages...
Xoops is a content management system, like php-nuke, post-nuke, and even such blog creation packages like Wordpress etc. (which works pretty well as a cms with the right set of plugins added). Mostly people run it through an administration page they log into from the web running Apache, some version of php from the server, and a database housed on the server too.
You can run it from your personal computer as a development tool provided you install server software. There are easy install programs out there (WAMP5 and Apache2Triad) that will install the needed Apache server, mySQL database and php 4 and/or 5 for you, taking some of the guesswork out of configuring, but if you go this route, make sure not to leave the doors to your computer open for attack by running the server software while you're casually surfing the 'net... or setting the software to autostart when you turn the computer on. This route should only be used for testing your site before going public or something
If your web host uses CPanel as a site administration tool, chances are they will have Fantastico loaded as one of those tools. Fantastico features easy click installations of content management systems, including Xoops, aloong with others, blogs (almost the same thing except "blog" sounds nicer that "comes" for cms), shopping carts, php galleries like Coppermine Gallery or Gallery2 etc. This way all the configuring, including setting up the database is done for you during the install, and all you need do is log into the admin window, which it tells you how to do after the install is complete.
I happen to be working on a new site right now using Drupal.
Darboshanski posted Sat, 09 September 2006 at 6:27 PM
Quote - It's FREE! ... and it's good. ;=]
cheers,
dr geep
;=]
I agree I use this one and really like it.