user friendly web site builder? Recommendation?

B

brianluce

Carbonite Member
I was using web page maker http://www.webpage-maker.com/ and loved it. Easy to use, made a site just as I wanted. Come to find it, it's limited by "Absolute Positioning" which means my site's appearance varies from computer to computer.

So now I'm looking for another software, doesn't have to be super powerful, my requirement are simple. Any recommendations?

I found Coffeecup difficult...
 
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- Mikko
 
I love dreamweaver, but Mikkos spot on with his suggestion. I couldnt use dreamweaver if I didnt know how to write the code, dreamweaver just makes it a bit faster for me. I think learning raw html in notepad (or any text editor) is the right way to start.
 
I've tried a lot of website builder software the past few days. Some were too hard, some were too weak, I finally found one that fits my needs. If you're a cement head like me and don't have the IQ points or patience to learn html, you might give this a look: http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/. The thing I really like is that you can set up flash videos.
 
Another great and free program is HTML Kit - http://www.htmlkit.com/

If you want a really powerful text editor, then use vim. It's a UNIX vi clone and I use it for everything. It's got a learning curve though and you have to get used to it, but once you do, you'll never want to use notepad for anything ever again.
 
I'm a huge fan of KompoZer -- it allows you to build HTML with a WYSIWYG interface, but you can also easily edit the source code itself for tweaks, or special changes. Much faster than doing everything in notepad or vim, though both are clearly more powerful if you want full control.

The best part: it's available on Windows, MacOS, and GNU/Linux!
 
If your on a Mac, but I think your not, there is iWeb, pretty limited but easy. A LOT better is Rapid Weaver http://realmacsoftware.com/
Very flexible but at the same time can be quite simple. Out of the box it handles most websites but with a few plugins you can get both very original pages and a lot of advanced features.
 
I started out trying to build my site with WYSIWYG editors. Trying to learn dreamweaver felt like learning photoshop for the first time. In the end, I decided that I might as well learn how to write the code myself. 3 years later :shocked:, I have a fairly complex site and have built a handful of other websites using HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL (example). I tend to get a little overkill though. If the site you are making is fairly straight forward and you have any inclination to hand code it with basic HTML and CSS (which is really all you need), then be sure and check out this book:

http://www.amazon.com/XHTML-Sixth-Visual-Quickstart-Guide/dp/0321430840

This is probably one of the most clear and straight forward books I have read on any topic. Even if you don't hand code it, you should get the book so you can understand some of the code that the editor is creating. PHP can be helpful in many ways as well, but it is not necessary. I mainly use it to simplify the coded part of my pages and keep things organized. For example, If every page has the same layout and only the content differs, you can use a PHP command to grab all of the common layout info from a single source (so you don't have to type or cut and paste it all for every page that you code).

One of the problems with WYSIWYG editors is that there is less control over how your site will look when viewed through the various web browsers.
If you already have web space with a hosting company, Cpanel (the control panel for your space at the hosting company) usually comes with several different web site templates and scripts that you can use to fairly easily create a website, discussion board, shopping cart, photo galleriy, blog, etc. DVX user is an example of one such script in use. Again this doesn't give as much control. Here is an example of a simple photo gallery that I made for a friend using a script included with my Cpanel (no coding required).

All that being said, using an editor would probably be the shortest route, but will probably give you a little less control of how your site will look.
 
I use Dreamweaver and Flash for my sites. It took me a while to learn all the ins and outs but I have made award winning web sites and I CAN"T WRITE HTML CODE. It is perfectly acceptable to use a WYSIWYG editor. If you were going to be a web designer than I would say learn the code. If you are just trying to get your website together than take the path of least resistance.

I have seen a lot of well put together sites from wordpress templates. You could try that.
 
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