Hybrid_From_Hell Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Don't mod me fellow mods I am thinking of a website project (Land Rover based ) I have strong knowledge on Word, Powerpoint, and Excel (I even used to teach it in my former job) but web design is a whole new learning curve for moi, I have been given a copy of 'Dreamweaver', but FFS its Waaaaaaaay to advanced aa a 1st web design software, I'm guessing the 'rolls royce' end of website design ? Based on good working knowledge of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, what would the members here suggest is a simple and easy to use and learn / simple to get a result web site up and running design program ? Oh, ......and if it's free that moves it up the list of attractiveness ??? Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godlykepower Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Nige, I have a free program that I use that I got from my web space provider for my website. I have not had time to really do that much with it yet, but my first attempts at getting the title page up and running seemed easy enough. I really need to make an effort to do more with my website. The whole interface of the program is designed to be similiar to MS Office programs. If you need web space, and the domain name registering, I can highly recommend the company I use, as they provide a complete package. I think I paid around £70 for the registration of my .com, and more webspace than I will ever need, and it includs the hosting fees for 14 months. The free design program is available for anyones use though. If you do decide to go with the company I use, let me know, as I will give you a code to use that will get both of us free goodies! SERVAGE.net HTH Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommi Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 If your already familiar with Microsoft products, your best bet is to use Microsoft Expression Web - formally known as Microsoft Front Page. It's relatively simple to use (compared to dreamweaver) and you can end up with a fairly good looking website. If you get into web design you will quickly realise the limitations of it, and then dreamweaver is the only way to go. You get more features, and once you get to know your way around the program, its much quicker than Expression Web. KompoZer is usually regarded as the best free web design software, but it takes a bit of getting used to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbarton Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 I use Trellian Webpage. I've tried about half a dozen (including Kompozer) and it's the least worse of the Freebies. They do update it though and there is an active forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cipx2 Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 This is one basic freeware toolkit recommended for beginners or occasional users: http://www.webdesignmo.com/blog/2009/01/12/6-open-source-programs-for-web-designers/ NVu does a pretty good job. I used it a lot in the past. Plain and simple. Plenty of video tutorials on youtube to see how it works. Or you can go the geek way and use Notepad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elbekko Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 A few hours of time, a text editor (notepad works, but get one with a few extra features like notepad++ and everything will be faster), and W3Schools. It's easy enough to learn, and way less fiddly than one of those silly "what you see is what you get" editors like Dreamweaver or Expression Web. Not to mention your site won't look like a 5 year old designed it for Netscape (unless you want it to that is ). As for somewhere to host it. I suppose you won't be running a high traffic website, so shared hosting should do you just fine (Dreamhost or whatnot, there are plenty of options). You could also just get someone to do it for you. I'm available, but not for free of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Nige - lost my number have you? I shan't bother typing a long reply, except to say anyone suggesting using anything even remotely related to MS FrontPage should probably shush Oh and another vote for Servage - anyone thinking of signing up should ask Godlykepower or myself for a reference number which means both parties get some extra free bandwidth / free hosting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisM_110 Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Dreamweaver is pretty much WYSIWYG when used in design view, and the tutorials are excellent, you should try them. My Dad used them to teach himself, and he thinks technology peaked with the Norton Black Shadow and Humber Sceptre. It doesn't produce super clean code, but it's more than enough for almost everything. Combined with a half-decent (or even free like Paint.Net or Picassa) image editor you won't need anything else. If you can use powerpoint and word I'm surprised you don't 'get' Dreamweaver as it's very similar in principal. My recommendation for hosting and domains is 123-reg, excellent prices, reliable hosting and free inline page templates. I use them for my shop, and have had less than five minutes of downtime in five years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retroanaconda Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Dreamweaver works as both a WYSIWYG and a code editor. I use a bit of both, doing both the PHP and actual design work with it. Works very well. It's not free, but can be if you know what I mean Whatever you do go for, best of luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Fasthosts aint bad - I've just registered a domain and hosted a site with them using thier site builder software, had the site up and running within an hour (first one I've done). Costs less than a fiver a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lansalot Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 First of all - what are you planning on doing ? If you just require to publish content then you might consider using something like a dotnetnuke provider - why learn how to design a website if you can just pour it into a template ? Answer the "what's the plan" first - you might not need to do any designing or coding. All the below are examples, with you not really need to get your hands dirty at all... http://salaro.com/SHOWCASE/2009customskinportfolio/Aprilshowcases/tabid/329/Default.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry Webster Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Or even just use a free web blog from the likes of WordPress or Blogger. My site is a free WordPress site, gives me more than enough for what I want to do, but is ultimately fairly limited if you have big ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wee_arthur Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I find WebPlus from serif to be very simple to use and although it is not free i would definately reccomend it. I think having some experience of dreamweaver aswell WenPlus does everything that i need to do with it and i would think for your purposes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boothy Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 I find nightschool ideal for understanding new things, hell they even do discount rates for people of your age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickeyw Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 If you don't want to learn to code, and don't want an uber complex site then Coffee Cup Visual Site Designer is a very cheap and easy to use WYSIWYG tool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid_From_Hell Posted October 10, 2009 Author Share Posted October 10, 2009 I find nightschool ideal for understanding new things, hell they even do discount rates for people of your age. Thanks for that Nice of you to spare the time, esp as I seem to recall you said Saturday Nights are Lick your ferret clean nights aren't they ? ? Nige Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangeyRover Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Don't mod me fellow mods I am thinking of a website project (Land Rover based ) I have strong knowledge on Word, Powerpoint, and Excel (I even used to teach it in my former job) but web design is a whole new learning curve for moi, I have been given a copy of 'Dreamweaver', but FFS its Waaaaaaaay to advanced aa a 1st web design software, I'm guessing the 'rolls royce' end of website design ? Based on good working knowledge of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, what would the members here suggest is a simple and easy to use and learn / simple to get a result web site up and running design program ? Oh, ......and if it's free that moves it up the list of attractiveness ??? Nige Right Nige, I owe you a favour , cos I really like my ignition map, and you were kind enough to take the time on the phone to talk engines with me, what goes around comes around. Now you are in my area of expertise. The first thing I am going to recommend is a content management system, specifically Wordpress because this website thing is not about writing a lot of pretty documents like you would for a collection of articles in a magazine. They need to link together in a meaningful way and, assuming you want people to find it, internally well linked and advertised to all the search engines. If you want all that aggro, then knock yourself out and use a program like front page or dream weaver which are good at what they do, but not in my opinion suited to a cohesive website... If you like the idea of a free well linked website keep reading. next go to template monster or similar and pick a website design that you like the look of. (too many people obsess about the look of the website without realising that content is king.) couple of car based ones that look nice here Start writing content in the back end of the website. as the site is database driven then all of your articles will be retained and saved online, and the look of the website can be changed by anyone who knows what they are doing. I consider that at the moment, maybe you dont know where you are at with websites, but are familiar with word and I know that you can certainly write funny articles. The writing of the articles in a wordpress site will be in a word style interface online, rather like writing a post on this forum but with more of a feature rich editor. If you are serious then I will setup a wordpress site on my server for you to play with. Please have a look at the club website in my signature, which is driven by wordpress and is obviously 4x4 related. I will pm you with some more sites I have done, but they are work related so PM only. Regards Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madcowz Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Without trying to make this sound like a blatant advert.... I run a web design and hosting company called Digital Essence so if you are looking for domain name/hosting/advice etc, please PM me and I am sure I can help out. I highly recommend Wordpress for an easy to use way of running and editing a web site, it is what I use on my Land Rover One Ten site. regards, Hedley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monty Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 another option... is to use Joomla...which is similar to WordPress in that its a Content Management system...you choose a template, create articles and publish...and thats you. I don't think there is much point using HTML editors anymore, but its horses for courses. I use Heart Internet to host our 4x4 clubs website...and they aren't expensive to use. In work we used to recommend FastHosts and 1&1 in the past, but we don't use them anymore. just my 2p worth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moose Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Nige, word press or Drupal (which i like to use) is the way to go... get a tame code monkey to knock you up a nice looking skin then you just add/managed the content, plus almost every feature could want can be added as an already written plugin. simples Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FridgeFreezer Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Me mate Dave has just pointed out this marvellous guide to "how not to do it" - learn from the horrors within and don't commit them yourself, or the web design pineapple of justice will have to make an outing: Webpagesthatsuck.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godlykepower Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 John, I thought that link was going to be a joke, but it turns out that it is actually really useful. There are some examples in there, of fantastically bad web design. When I do get around to developing my own website further, I will be re-visiting that link for some inspiration (or should that be anti-inspiration?) The few times I have messed around with my site, I had to make a concious effort not to get carried away. Geez, THIS made my eyes hurt just looking at it! There is just so much to focus on. For the most OTT use of Flash intro, you gotta see THIS Cheers for that. Martin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landroversforever Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 Fridge, that website is hilarious! Martin, That is one hell of a flash overdose!!!!! and the other made my eyes hurt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tafftoo Posted October 19, 2009 Share Posted October 19, 2009 I've been doing web design professionally for about 10 years now, building web pages for one-man bands and media giants alike. The golden rule is keep it simple, and that goes for your tools as well. If you're just starting out with web development the temptation is to get some fancy tool that does it all for you, but what you'll undoubtedly end up with is a mess and you won't be able to understand the code that's been generated well enough to understand why it's a mess. I use Notepad++, a simple graphics program, and 10 years experience, but in the absence of experience, a good HTML reference will suffice along with the link posted above to webpagesthatsuck. Learn HTML and use it to structure your page. Then learn CSS and use it to make your page look good. If you keep things simple, you should be able to view your page on any web browser since NCSA Mosaic (the first graphical web browser, and the reason why online porn exists), through to the iPhone. If you need any pointers, feel free to PM me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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