# Best Website Creation software



## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

Whats the *Best Website Creation software*


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

depends on how much you want to spend

microsoft frontpage
note pad - free
1st Page 2000 - free
dreamweaver

and loads more

these are all editors - is that what you are after


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

I use Crimson Editor, and sometimes I'll use Notepad.


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## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

Yeah, I was just having a look as I have recently purchased frontpage becasue I was tired of notepad. But In a template how do i add a page?


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## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

well i found out for myself.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

*Dreamweaver is by far the best. *


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

NOTEPAD!!!!!!!!!
http://www.notepad.org

Just kidding, Notepad is horrible. I love Dreamweaver and First Page isn't bad for a free HTML editor.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

ferrija1 said:


> NOTEPAD!!!!!!!!!
> http://www.notepad.org
> 
> Just kidding, Notepad is horrible. I love Dreamweaver and First Page isn't bad for a free HTML editor.


I find it funny how that site praises Notepad then at the bottom it has this


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)




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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

If you're gonna code by hand, then just do yourself a favor and don't use notepad! 
Personally I would go with NoteTab Light.
http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Eriksrocks said:


> If you're gonna code by hand, then just do yourself a favor and don't use notepad!
> Personally I would go with NoteTab Light.
> http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php


The only difference I see between Notepad and NoteTab is that you get a tabbed interface


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

Well actually it highlights syntax for you, and has preset text blocks that you can drag and drop to make it easier (e.g. 
) :up: I think it might even have line #s.

EDIT: Oh well maybe only the Pro version has HTML highlighting, but still...


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Eriksrocks said:


> EDIT: Oh well maybe only the Pro version has HTML highlighting, but still...


Exactly  No highlight for you! 










I used NTL years ago and didn't like it. I'll stick with trusty ol' Crimson Editor


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

namenotfound said:



> I'll stick with trusty ol' Crimson Editor


I hate that!  I think it's interface looks old.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

Well I guess my point is to say that if you're going to write HTML by hand, you might as well get a decent HTML editor that shows you line #s, has highlighting, etc. Actually Dreamweaver does a decent job IMO.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Yeah, Dreamweaver does a great job with it's HTML editor. And sometimes, when I feel lazy, bored, or just want to play with html, I use the WYSIWYG feature which works great.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

I always prefer WYSIWYG over code. Although really I use them about 50-50. I'll write my content using WYSIWYG, get layouts sorted out, insert images, etc. but I end up doing a lot of tweaking and small edits in code mode, and of course writing all the CSS.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

ferrija1 said:


> I hate that!  I think it's interface looks old.


Well it hasn't had an update to the software in years 

I only use it for the numbered lines and syntax highlighting.

I don't use any of the other "features" it has


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## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

I am using Frontpage but is Dreamweaver must better?

I prefer WYSIWYG because there is no coding.


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## StickMaker (Mar 29, 2005)

Hey, folks, is it really that *bad* to use a WYSIWYG HTML editor like the FREE Nvu? You can still tweak the HTML all you want. Unfortunately, development of Nvu seems to have all but stopped, but I still like it very much. And it is FREE. http://www.nvu.com/index.php


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

I think WYSIWYG editors are annoying. They restrict what you can do, you end up having to edit the raw HTML anyway, which is just double the work. That's why I don't use them


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## matt-h (Apr 30, 2006)

They are useful to get going though, sorting out layouts and tables etc. But I agree, the code it creates is a mess and takes ages to sort out. I have done 2 sites, one I used Dreamweaver and started from scratch which was great as I had no prior knowledge of html. I edit it with notepad. My second site I tried to start with notepad from scratch but I dont know enough. So I got a template and used notepad. I quick and simple and I dont care if there are no line numbers.


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## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

StickMaker said:


> Hey, folks, is it really that *bad* to use a WYSIWYG HTML editor like the FREE Nvu? You can still tweak the HTML all you want. Unfortunately, development of Nvu seems to have all but stopped, but I still like it very much. And it is FREE. http://www.nvu.com/index.php


i used that once but it was very restricted


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

I like to do code the basic layout then use the WYSIWYG feature to type the main content (the text).


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## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

I use the WYSIWYG editor becasue it allows sme to craete tables and sections which I dont know how to do in HTML


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

giovannicosta said:


> I use the WYSIWYG editor becasue it allows sme to craete tables and sections which I dont know how to do in HTML



Content


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

You should use CSS instead of tables, it's much more flexible. You should also know HTML.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

> I use the WYSIWYG editor becasue it allows sme to craete tables and sections which I dont know how to do in HTML





> Content




But really I use the WYSIWYG for typing and layout as I said earlier. It's faster then having to type by hand:

```
This is some [URL=http://www.google.com/]sample[/URL] text.
```


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

> It's faster then having to type by hand


It took me all of 2 seconds to write that table example 
With WYSIWYG it would have taken longer, because I would have had to click a button which would bring up a menu, select how many rows and columns I wanted... all that being about 10 seconds.

2 seconds vs. 10 seconds


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

I'm just saying, writing all of my content with styles, links, etc. takes longer then writing it by hand. I don't even use tables anyway.


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## ACD (Nov 12, 2004)

I was using firstpage for a while, but found it didnt do PHP. FOund me a copy of Dreamweaver 8 floating around the office and gave it a try, now I will never go back to anything else. I really like its features and ease of use, especially when it comes to editing the web page live so I can see if my scripts work and whatever changes I make so I can fix them. You can add plugins for doing diffs and other things too. Dreamweaver is a big :up: for me since I am NOT good at building a web site, but Dreamweaver is helping me along to build a really good site for my management software.


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## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

Eriksrocks said:


> I'm just saying, writing all of my content with styles, links, etc. takes longer then writing it by hand. I don't even use tables anyway.


I use CSS becasue it is generated automatically by frontpage and templates are easy to edit instead of typing up code I just edit in the WYSIWYG interface


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Why did you change your site, giovannicosta?


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

Just FYI you shouldn't use FrontPage to generate buttons because as you can see they can get ugly. You can't even read half of your buttons. I would recommend re-editing them with The GIMP.


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## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

Those were from my old site my new site is located at: www.giovanni.xenweb.net - www.gldc.co.nr is the old one


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## StickMaker (Mar 29, 2005)

Very nice, giovannicosta!

If you are in the habit of answering questions for dummies such as I am, maybe you have a quickie answer to this one (?)

My C: drive is named "Old (C" and I want to rename it to "New (C" but I can't rename it. Any idea how to do that?


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

You might want to update your signature.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

StickMaker said:


> My C: drive is named "Old (C" and I want to rename it to "New (C" but I can't rename it. Any idea how to do that?


Right-click > Rename OR
Right-click > Properties. Enter a name in the field at the top.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Eriksrocks said:


> You might want to update your signature.


That's what I was going to say......


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## StickMaker (Mar 29, 2005)

Yes, I tried right-click and rename, then tried Properties and change it there; neither works.

Is my signature OK now?


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

You might want to start a new thread. Do you have admin rights? What version of Windows?


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

StickMaker said:


> Is my signature OK now?


LOL, that was directed at giovannicosta.


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

I have been doing all my coding with the cPanel editor


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

Can these notepad editors edit an online file?


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Well you can edit the file offline, then upload it (writting over the already online file)


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

Thats what I thought.

Can't Frontapage edit directly with the addons? How about dreamweaver?


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

I'm pretty sure it's the same thing. Edit offline then upload (both Frontpage and Dreamweaver have FTP built in for easy uploading)


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

So what does the extensions do?


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

You mean Frontpage extensions? They are a resource hog and I know of at least 3 hosts that refuse to put frontpage extensions on their servers for that reason


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

But what I want to know is what they do.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Let's say you want some music, and you click the music button, it will add something like <music> or whatever it adds. The extensions turn "<music>" into an actual HTML code, such as music.mp3 or w/e


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

Ok, thanks.


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## StickMaker (Mar 29, 2005)

Right, Erik, I'll start a new thread/question on that business of not being able to rename my C: drive. Thanks. Guess I can leave my signature as is, then ;-)


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## giovannicosta (Aug 24, 2006)

thanks, I forgot about ym signature.


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## WyldStallyyn (Nov 30, 2006)

I use Dreamweaver to "design" the page, then I switch to a text editor to work with the code. If you're going to work with web sites, you really need to understand what the code is and how to work with it.

It looks like most of our members like Notepad, but I prefer TextPad. I think it has better features, especially for html editing.  

FrontPage is ok, but limited, and I understand it's being replaced.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

I would just use Dreamweaver to edit the code too, WyldStallyyn's.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

Yeah, so would I. It's much better than Notepad with syntax highlighting, line numbering, etc.


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## Jones (Jul 28, 2005)

WyldStallyyn said:


> If you're going to work with web sites, you really need to understand what the code is and how to work with it.


That's a bold statement.

For years I've designed numerous websites from scratch using GoLive, and can't write code to save my life.

There really are two ways to approach web design. One is from a design perspective, the other is from a mechanical perspective. HTML code lovers are all about the 'mechanics' of the site, and not the big picture. Coming at the site from a design standpoint, the current WYSIWYG web design programs can do everything an HTML code master can do, and more.

For those who view learning HTML as unnecessary, a WYSIWYG editor is easy to learn, and as simple to layout as any other type of electronic document.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Jones said:


> That's a bold statement.
> 
> For years I've designed numerous websites from scratch using GoLive, and can't write code to save my life.
> 
> ...


You're wrong there, WYSIWYG can't do "more", in face it does less. Coding by hand let's you do more!
There are a multitude of things that WYSIWYG can't do, even the best of them like GoLive or DreamWeaver.

WYSIWYG can only do what it is programmed to do, and no WYSIWYG is programmed to do "everything". There is always going to be something it can't do, and that's when coding the raw HTML will come in handy.


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## Jones (Jul 28, 2005)

namenotfound said:


> There are a multitude of things that WYSIWYG can't do, even the best of them like GoLive or DreamWeaver


Like what?


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Here's a quick list of all the various HTML tags available for use. WYSIWYG can only do about half of them

http://w3schools.com/tags/default.asp

Plus if you want to use any SSI, PHP, ASP, CMF, or other language incorporated into the HTML, well you're gonna be out of luck because WYSIWYG can only do HTML and CSS


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## Jones (Jul 28, 2005)

I hate to break this to you, but any of the functions described in those tags are extremely basic functions of a MODERN editor like GoLive CS2. You've not shown anything that can't be done using it.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

I thought you could do CSS in WYSIWYG.......what are some programs? (though I would still probaby hand-code the CSS)


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## Jones (Jul 28, 2005)

ferrija1 said:


> I thought you could do CSS in WYSIWYG.......what are some programs? (though I would still probaby hand-code the CSS)


CSS is built-in to GoLive, and actually uses a visual-CSS method to create and place elements on the page. I'm pretty sure Dreamweaver has built-in CSS as well.


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## Jones (Jul 28, 2005)

Plus, I think the added benefit of being able to flip through the different views (HTML, CSS, WYSIWYG, Preview) with a simple mouse click is a real bonus. How exactly could you accomplish this using Notepad?


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Jones said:


> I hate to break this to you, but any of the functions described in those tags are extremely basic functions of a MODERN editor like GoLive CS2. You've not shown anything that can't be done using it.


Did you overlook the part when I said ASP, PHP, CMF, etc.?

You can't do any of those in WYSIWYG

And I have not seen a single WYSIWYG that can do "all" of HTML. Show me one that can do for example.

The point I was making was that you said "and more" when in fact it's "less".

I'm not saying don't use WYSIWYG, I'm just saying there is no way it can do "and more"


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Jones said:


> Plus, I think the added benefit of being able to flip through the different views (HTML, CSS, WYSIWYG, Preview) with a simple mouse click is a real bonus. How exactly could you accomplish this using Notepad?


When talking about WYSIWYG you should really only talk about the actual WYSIWYG portion of the editor. Not the 'HTML' or other portions that let you view and edit the raw code. If that's the case, then this whole conversation was a waste of time


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## Jones (Jul 28, 2005)

namenotfound said:


> Did you overlook the part when I said ASP, PHP, CMF, etc.?


Well, with the possible exception of CMF (which is only used by Zope??) , those are all supported by GoLive. Sorry man, but it's true.

I can find almost no info on the whole CMF programming language. Is it something proprietary to that Zope corp?


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## Jones (Jul 28, 2005)

namenotfound said:


> When talking about WYSIWYG you should really only talk about the actual WYSIWYG portion of the editor. Not the 'HTML' or other portions that let you view and edit the raw code. If that's the case, then this whole conversation was a waste of time


Okay, good point. There are some gray areas here. GoLive is not a sole WYSIWYG program, because it does have all those functions built in. The argument was that, as you stated, if you're going to work on websites, you need to know HTML code. I say that is false. If you want to do 'certain' things, then yes, a knowledge of html might be helpful, but it is in no way a necessity.

Life goes on.:up:


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

I think that absolutely there is a huge design aspect to building a website, but there is also a functionality aspect, and if you're going to get that down well, it's best to learn HTML and work with the actual code. 

I also think that working with a program such as Dreamweaver is very good, but you need to utilize all aspects of the program to create a great site, which means using the code and source tabs along with the design view.

My 2¢.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

My mistake, I meant CFM. That's what happens when you type fast 

CFM (or CFML) are file extensions for ColdFusion.


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## WyldStallyyn (Nov 30, 2006)

Ok, I've kept silent for a while and watched the debate fly over this. I grew up in the days when there were no WYSIWYG editors, and while there are some nice ones out there now and you can do a lot with them, and I DO use them to layout my pages, I still maintain that there are some things you can do easier and better working with the raw html. It's much easier to configure a cgi script, for example, if you know how to work with html; same for configuring a java applet or a flash object. Try to do that without going into the code!


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## MMJ (Oct 15, 2006)

Making your website xhtml or html valid might be hard using a WYSIWYG
a WYSIWYG adds a lot of unnecessary code
There will always be some little thing that can't be done in a WYSIWYG.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

MMJ said:


> Making your website xhtml or html valid might be hard using a WYSIWYG
> a WYSIWYG adds a lot of unnecessary code


No, not really, unless you're using FrontPage.


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## WyldStallyyn (Nov 30, 2006)

Dreamweaver also creates "bulky" code. Every WYSIWYG editor does. It's the nature of the beast. That's not to say that they don't have their uses. But there have been a number of occasions when I ran into something I could not do (or could not do very easily) in design mode and switched to the code (or to a text editor) to do it.


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## oneblack (Jun 12, 2004)

1. Homesite
2. Dreamweaver


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## idowindows (Oct 11, 2006)

And for those that love or hate FrontPage, behold the replacement to it from who else?.....Microsoft themselves!

It's quite nice and if you have the time, see if you can watch the training and tutorial videos.

*http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/Expression-Web/default.mspx*

The software is about to be released and there is already plenty of talk about this software.

They are offering a trial download of the software (Beta was free not very long ago)...

Post your opinions here aswell on that...


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## designerstoast (Nov 25, 2006)

Dreamweaver Or Php Designer 2005 For Coding!


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