Would like Website creation software input please

[Nick Danger]

I need to redesign my website, but would like to do it myself. I previously used Microsoft FrontPage to create my current site, but heard that it has been discontinued.

I currently have the Adobe Creative Suite CS2 that has a program for this called GoLive. Does anyone have any experience with this? When I look on the Adobe website for CS2 updates to CS3, it appears that they have eliminated the GoLive program, and are now including Dreamweaver.

When I read the information about this, it seems like I might have to learn a whole lot of other stuff before working with either GoLive or Dreamweaver.

I am experienced in the Adobe InDesign and Photoshop products, but haven't been able to figure out how to get anything to work in GoLive. It is a lot different than FrontPage.

If anyone has any recommendations for someone that is computer literate but web-creating illiterate, I would certainly appreciate some guidance.

Nick

[sgrizzle]

I used notepad, if I want to get fancy I use Notepad++

I really like Adobe products but they do tend to buy technologies and products from other companies and rebrand them. They seem generally a bit slow to integrate so their apps are far from homogeneous.

Dreamweaver isn't bad, but I haven't done much with it.

Although I loathe frontpage and MS's bloated web authoring methods, you can try the frontpage replacement which is located here: http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/overview.aspx?key=web

[TURobY]

I actually prefer the use Visual Studio (for both ASP.NET and plain HTML) especially given that I can connect to other projects fairly quickly.

I've used both GoLive and Dreamweaver as well, and I think that most developers will be pleased with the transition given Dreamweaver's power. However, I found GoLive better for rapid application development than Dreamweaver, especially if the pages were fairly simple and didn't require much.

[inteller]

call Xeal.....they'll have you a precision web site in no time.

[MichaelBates]

quote:Originally posted by Nick Danger

I need to redesign my website, but would like to do it myself. I previously used Microsoft FrontPage to create my current site, but heard that it has been discontinued.

You should consider whether blogging software or some other sort of content management system (like Drupal or PHP-Nuke) can do what you need. Many are free of charge, but widely used and therefore well supported. They have built-in management of archived content and RSS feeds, and they make it easy to add content and work with multiple contributors. I know a number of people who have recently migrated traditionally-built websites to blogs for ease of maintenance.

[Nick Danger]

quote:Originally posted by MichaelBates
You should consider whether blogging software or some other sort of content management system (like Drupal or PHP-Nuke) can do what you need. Many are free of charge, but widely used and therefore well supported. They have built-in management of archived content and RSS feeds, and they make it easy to add content and work with multiple contributors. I know a number of people who have recently migrated traditionally-built websites to blogs for ease of maintenance.

Could this work for a commercial website? I don't sell any products directly from it, but do link to supplier catalogs for my customers to make selections from and then contact me to purchase. There is mostly general information that would not be subject to changes. The only changes I would make regularly are updating the links to these catalogs.

Nick

[Nick Danger]

quote:Originally posted by sgrizzle

I used notepad, if I want to get fancy I use Notepad++

I really like Adobe products but they do tend to buy technologies and products from other companies and rebrand them. They seem generally a bit slow to integrate so their apps are far from homogeneous.

Dreamweaver isn't bad, but I haven't done much with it.

Although I loathe frontpage and MS's bloated web authoring methods, you can try the frontpage replacement which is located here: http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/overview.aspx?key=web

Thanks, I will look into it. I really would like to use GoLive, since I already own the program, but need to figure out how to begin with it. It makes me feel ignorant, since I am competent with InDesign and Photoshop, but cannot seem to get started with this.

I liked the old way, when you got an actual book (instead of online help) with software. I could normally learn things fast like this. I know Adobe has books on their software, but the reviews indicate they are not the same type of manual that was distributed with the product in the past.

Nick

[peb]

Frontpage 2000 (actually I think it's now Frontpage 2006, although I think the download link says 2003) from Evrsoft.

Pretty much a drag and drop or double click and add WYSIWYG html generator.  Free demo (pretty robust, not much stuff blocked) and not that expensive to buy.

I would say that it would require at least a rudimentary knowledge of html, though.  Like Microsoft, it "guesses" at what you want and the guess is not always accurate.

peb

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by peb

Frontpage 2000 (actually I think it's now Frontpage 2006, although I think the download link says 2003) from Evrsoft.

Pretty much a drag and drop or double click and add WYSIWYG html generator.  Free demo (pretty robust, not much stuff blocked) and not that expensive to buy.

I would say that it would require at least a rudimentary knowledge of html, though.  Like Microsoft, it "guesses" at what you want and the guess is not always accurate.

peb

1st Page from Evrsoft, not FrontPage.  FrontPage is/was a product from Microsoft.

[Wilbur]

I've been playing around with Nvu, an open source program.  Pretty easy.

[Nick Danger]

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and help. Gives me a lot to study on.

I am especially interested in the info about Nvu. I am going to download it and play with it to see how it works.

I also broke down and ordered a couple of GoLive books from Amazon. Most of the GoLive/Dreamweaver forum conversation on Adobe.com centered around a dislike for Dreamweaver over GoLive from people who have used both, so I guess if I use one of these, it will be GoLive. I at least would like to know how to use it, since it is part of the software package I already own.

Nick