# Good Freeware Webpage Maker for ABSOLUTE Beginner



## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

By beginner I mean i can spell "HTML" but that's about all 
Would like a freeware prog that would allow me to, among other things, upload pictures and put descriptive text with them, and if possible 2 pictures side by side with text so I could get 4 to a page.
Earthlink (who I would be using) has a "Make your own webpage"--type program, but doesn't look like it would serve my purposes, far as I could tell I'd be limited to one large page, instead of a page each for say, favorite links, Geneology and pictures with text, and various pictures with text.

Note: I do NOT have "Frontpage Express" or whatever the Windows program is called.

Using Windows 98SE (Vers.: 4.10.2222A); 256 Mb RAM, DirectX 6.1a & 56K Modem.

ALSO -- what's a good FTP prog for absolute beginner?


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I don't know Gary but there is Frontpage Express and also Frontpage.

The Frontpage Express is free.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Frontpage+Express&btnG=Google+Search

See this site.
http://www.accessfp.net/fpexpress.htm


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## RandyG (Jun 26, 2000)

Take a look at WebDwarf.


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## joneq (Jun 19, 2003)

Try out this one 
http://www.nvu.com/ then use this tutorial to get you started.
http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/mozillacomposer1.shtml' I'm in the same boat


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

Argh!! I was very interested in "Web Dwarf", but gathered from a Feb. 2004 Users' review at Download.com that its a trial version of another Webpage editor the company makes, and is limited to ONE page. 

Soooo .... Guess I'll look at the others mentioned again.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Just bought the full version of WebEasy Pro after trying the free, not time-limited, WebEasy Express (limited to 3 pages but you can add 3 more by starting another project):

http://www.v-com.com/product/Web_Easy_Pro_Free_Trial.html

The full version has a full CD of templates and graphics, and an FTP client (any FTP client will work, FTP Wanderer is free and as good as any pay program: http://www.pablovandermeer.nl/ftp_wanderer.html ).

There are a lot of free web page templates available on the net. Just search.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Look here

http://www.all4you.dk/FreewareWorld/links.php?cat=002


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

Looked at the "Freeware World" site, and unless I missed something along the way, they appeared mainly to have website & pagemaking-type utilities for websites, but not many programs -- and not much on if they were for Pro's or beginners (like me, who can spell 'HTML' but that's about all.)
Argh, turning out to be bigger headache than I thought it would be in finding _something_, but have 10 Mb's of Earthlink space sitting there unused which should be enough for a small site I guess....

Anyone using the "Make your own webpage" setup on Earthlink, & if so what can u do with it regarding pictures, & number of pages  
Think they have a FTP program of some sort, how easy is that to use? Don't intend to use the "Make Your own" unless I have to, though.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Frontpage Express was really a very nice WYSIWYG design program. I think Microsoft stopped including it with IE because it was so good that no one wnated to buy the full Frontpage.

You can still get it here as a program separated from IE5.5 (I think it was 5.5) here:

http://www.icts.uct.ac.za/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=433

http://www.bv229.k12.ks.us/bvideas/staffdev/Expressworkshop/FPexpress.htm

There is also a Frontpage Express web ring.


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## RandyG (Jun 26, 2000)

Sorry Gary . . . I had downloaded WebDwarf a few months ago to see how it looked and worked, but never actually did naything with it, so did not know about the limited use of it.

i thought, erroneously, that it was a fully functional download.


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## iltos (Jun 13, 2004)

the earthlink software is actually quite sophisticated (well, for someone of my caliber, anyway)....if it is an option for you, check it out a little more thouroughly......as far as webpage building goes, i'm limited to spelling html, as well, but managed to put together this website, in spite of myself, with the trellix software earthlink provides.....

http://home.earthlink.net/~la_odyssey


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

Gary, I know this sounds odd but you could TEACH yourself html! And the lessons are free and out there. There is even a place you can take classes for free, all you have to do is sign up.

Okay, the list of places on the web where you can learn and some are easier to understand than others.

http://www.w3schools.com/

http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/

http://www.geocities.com/davelanthorn/davepage.html

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/

http://www.lettice.net/tutorial/

http://www.webdevelopersnotes.com/tutorials/html/index.php3

http://developers.evrsoft.com/tools.shtml

http://manda.com/frames/ (this is a frames tutorial)

This is a very good site for almost anything about web and web devlopement, including the free classes:

http://webdesign.about.com/library/beginning/bl_begin.htm

As far as an FTP uploader is concerned, try this one: http://www.download.com/GuildFTPd/3000-2165-10238946.html?tag=lst-0-3

Or go to the home page of the company: http://www.guildftpd.com/index.php

The nice thing about learning html is that it's FREE> And regardless of where you stick your site, the site doesn't try to do funky things with the code like it might with a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver or FrontPage. Just ask someone who has loaded a page only to find out that what they saw isn't what they wrote. And yes, that can happen when you write your own code but at least it's YOUR mistake! Liz


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

I think I had Frontpage Express option when I installed IE 5.5 on my other PC but I had downloaded the full IE. But I never installed it. Had I think in add/remove, windows setup a place you could check if you wanted it or not. So look there because you may have it in a cab file.


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

Ok everyone, thanks for all the info, got a lot to look thru before making final decision on a program. 

I was looking around and came across a program by eversoft called "1st. Page 2000 (Ver. 2.0)" Anyone using it, and if so what's general opinion of program?


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

Gary, I tried it and it was okay but I prefered Notepad (as it the notepad option on your computer). Liz


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

*Elvandil:*

Does that Frontpage Express Download include ALL HELP FILES that came with the program along with all other needed files?

------
*ltramsey1954*

I'd heard that a webpage could be made with "Notepad" but gathered it was very basic -- text only, no colors, pictures, etc., and wouldn't handle some of the newer formats for HTML & other stuff?

==========

Kind of looking at "FrontPage Express" as something to get started with, & get something better later on -- but then, there's the problem (at least I presume there's one) of after changing to a different HTML program of maybe having to redo a site so it'd work with a different program....


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

I also suggest just learning html. Its free entirely, all thats needed is the knowledge and notepad. And like ^ said, if you have a mistake its alot easier to fix if you know your way around the code.


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

Was lookig at a few "Easy webpage building with Note Pad"---type sites, and think I'm more confused than I was before about what to do 
Presume there's no book on using Note Pad as a webpage editor, be easier I guess than paging between a Instructional site, Notepad, & whatever written notes that were made 
Wonder if there are any websites that list what HTML commands are useable with "Note Pad"?
Note Pad allows you to set up multiple pages where you can, for example, click on text reading Page 2 and go to that page, & have a 'Home' setting that'll take you back to the title page -- or does it??


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

Gary, Notepad is a method, not a book...I take down my notes on notepad of all the tricks I learn on what works as far as what *I* need to do for MY web pages. The code that works for mine. I look at the tutorial sites I gave you and then plug in the what works with my site.

For example, the link to go to a web site is formatted this way: Visit W3Schools! and it will look like this: Visit W3Schools! (I'm putting some extra spacing in so that it won't actually format. The space I put in is between the .and the w or what it should look like is this: www.w3schools

I take that example and put it on Notepad with what I need and then leave it for future reference. So what I end up with is this: Gathering Nuts and this is what I got: Gathering Nuts I put an extra space in between the / and the f to avoid formatting again.

Well, I put all these tips down on notepad along with things like the colors I've used and my links from page to page so I don't forget what I have used. And so I can keep track of them. Actually I'll attach an example of one of my notepads as an example of what I have put together. Liz


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

*ltramsey1954:*

I may be reading it the wrong way, but are you saying that you only use NotePad to get an _idea_ of how a page layout will look, then transfer it to whatever program you're using for final setup?? I think I got lost again 
As to book, I was just curious as to IF one had ever been done regarding doing websites with NotePad.....

I'm using 800x600 16-bit High Color graphic setting for monitor.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Notepad is not special in any way when it comes to writing HTML. It is simply a text editor and any text editor would do the same job as Notepad.

If you click the View menu button in Internet Explorer right now and select Source, you will see an example of what a web page looks like when written in Notepad. It is hardly something for beginners. It is just a simple way for people with good knowledge of PHP, HTML, javascript, or any other web language to write things down and save as html.


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

*Elvandil: *


> If you click the View menu button in Internet Explorer right now and select Source, you will see an example of what a web page looks like when written in Notepad. It is hardly something for beginners.


Uhhhh, wait a moment..... TSG was written with NotePad?? And are you saying I shouldn't use NotePad or the other 2 since I'm a beginner 

Was going to say I had a Word Processor in Works For Windows, then found out the "Task Launcher" just takes you to "Word". Have Word2000 Version 9.0.3821 (SR-1); WordPad & NotePad Version's just say they're for Windows 98. I'm using W98SE & Internet Explorer 5.50.
Word2000, NotePad, & WordPad are original versions installed when I bought computer in July 2001.


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## RandyG (Jun 26, 2000)

Hi Gary,

HTML is just a scripting language, but I think what you are looking for is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get)HTML editor, as opposed to using notepad, which is just a text editor.

A WYSIWYG will show you what the coding looks like, but notepad will only show you the coding, not what it will look like when the page is turned into an html file, as opposed to a txt file.

as something kind of fun, right-click on this page, and select View Source. this will open a Notepad txt file with nothing but words, which will incldue the words you see on this page, as well as the scripting language.

Next, save that page as TSG.html on your desktop. then close the notepad document and go to your desktop and open the TSG.html document and it will open in your browser, and look a little similar to the page you are currently viewing.

Notepad is a basic tool to writing webpages, just as FrontPage is a more advanced tool, because it makes it easier to see what your end result will be without having to save the txt doc in notepad to html and opening it in your browser.

Does that clear up the confusion a little??


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

Gary, there is a reason I prefer using straight html...and if you go back and read this thread http://forums.techguy.org/t246482.html from this guy who was using a WYSIWYG editor, you will see why I have better luck with it.

I code all my pages by hand on Notepad and then do a preview of what the page looks like on the site. I am working on two different sites right now and both offer a preview option while coding. One offers two different methods of coding. I could have gone the WYSIWYG method right there with them (Angelfire/Tripod) and Geocities/Yahoo does the same. Both offer free, with ads, web site service. I prefer the Angelfire due to the number and layers of pages I have on my site. Geocites doesn't allow me to link them that way.

If you would like to check out my sites, they're at: 
http://www.angelfire.com/stars5/ltramsey1954/index.html 
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ramseytaylor/

But what my actual web page looked like prior to what Angelfire got hold of it was this:


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

*RandyG*

So, it might be better for me to find a WYSIWYG-type editor of some sort that completes tags, links & stuff rather than trying to use a text editor since I'm a beginner 
I'd be using EartLink's free 10Mb Webspace thing.

Have looked at "FrontPage Express" but don't know if the downloads on Net provide ALL library & other files needed, "1st. Page 2000 (Version 2.0)", and a couple others.


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

Gary, I was a beginner and went to straight html. Liz


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

"TSW WebCoder is a feature packed HTML editor with integrated project management and built-in FTP client. In addition, it offers libraries with HTML, CSS, JS, VBS and PHP tags, a file explorer, customizable syntax coloring, integrated browser preview and more. WebCoder even features built-in scripting, that allows you to write functions for the program your self, or download others, and extend the way of using it. The editor provides support for PHP and style sheets, as well as spell checking and code validation. Additional features include HTML Tidy, image viewer, customizable toolbar button, meta tags editor, extended search and replace, server mappings and many other useful features. A great editor for novice and professionals alike....."

http://www.snapfiles.com/lg/?i=107012&d=7120000


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

No, TSG was not written using notepad. Very few forums if any are actually hand coded to my knowledge.

If you use notepad, you have to learn any languages you want to use(CSS and HTML are the two that are very recomended, then the side languages like JS and PHP). When using it your going to type things like

Hello World!
Hi.com

Etc.

And your writing the entire page when using notepad. Whenever you want to look at what you have sofar, you save the htm/html file and open it in your browser.

And about the thing with links to pages on a site, if the file is in the same directory, you could just type Home rather than Home.


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

*Elvandil*

Thanks for the URL to "TSW Webcoder" I'll take a closer look thru the homepage tomorrow, just took brief look, but people seem happy with it, and it appears to have a lot of useful things -- including FTP :up: where if I do get "Webcoder" I wouldn't have to find one.

Will look at requirements, suppose it'd work with system below, tho' DirectX version (6.1a) would, I guess, be biggest worry....

And, if it proved too complex or something, I could just delete the program later....


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

*ACK!!!*

Just looked at TSW Homepage, and to get the items below, you would have to upgrade (ie: PAY) to the "Professional Version"!!

e-mail support for one year 
patches for one year with free notification service 
discount when buying the next major version of WebCoder 
a complete HTML help file on WebCoder including W3C CSS and HTML reference 
access to our user forum **
access to our restricted user area, where you can download spell check libraries a PDF reference manual on WebCoder and more

$39.99(US)/Year for Registration. 

---------------
** Update -- Looked at support page which indicates freeware users do have some access to a help forum.


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## RandyG (Jun 26, 2000)

http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/htmleditors.shtml has a list of free WYSIWYG editors

http://www.ewisoft.com/free-website-maker.htm has one

Google search on free wysiwyg


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Do you really need all that stuff that TSW wants you to pay for? The program itself is robust enough, html help can be found in this forum. It still looks pretty good to me.


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

That's why, IF you are going to use a html program, go with 1st page 2000. it may not have the FTP uploader but it DOES have the rest, including access to help forums! FOR FREE!!! And there are FTP uploaders available for free.

http://www.coffeecup.com/

http://software.visicommedia.com/en/products/aceftpfreeware/

http://www.internet-soft.com/ftpcomm.htm

http://www.simdata.com.au/

http://www.coreftp.com/

I would check out all the FTP uploaders, but my personal suggestion is the CoffeeCup uploader, I've tried it and it works. If I need one, that is the one I use. Liz


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

At this point it appears that I'll be using "1st Page 2000" by evrsoft, looks like it has about all I'd need for a website. Be using it on a free Earthlink site (10Mb).

Also, I'll take a look at that CoffeeCup ftp uploader.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

There are lots of ftp programs available on the net, and some of the free ones are as good or better than the ones you need to pay for. They all function in pretty much the same way---there are limited ftp commands and the way it looks and is set up is all you can really choose when considering them.

FTP Wanderer is as good as any and free.

http://www.pablovandermeer.nl/ftp_wanderer.html


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Just be careful of them having adware bundled in. Had that happen a few times.


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

Big-K


> Just be careful of them having adware bundled in...."


Any particular ones (ftp programs) I should be aware of that might have ad or spyware (or both?) in them?


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

Gary, I downloaded the free Coffeecup FTP this morning just to check it out and be sure and other than asking if you want to register for updates for future programs, etc from them, there IS NO adware attached to that program and you do not have to give them your email. I did just because I might want something from them later. Liz


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Why? Might as well use coffeecup, im about to.


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

My apologies, I didn't mean to sound as if i was referring specifically to CoffeeCup regarding Spy/AdWare, I was just curious as to if there were brands which did (or were thought to) have it.


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

Gary, I don't know about the others. What you can do is read thru the reviews at www.cnet.com and see if others have complained of spyware/adware attached. That's how I find out. Liz


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## RandyG (Jun 26, 2000)

I use http://www.spywareguide.com/


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

I was looking at Earthlink's FAQ on webpage's and came across the following:



> For our advanced users, EarthLink offers the ability to log into the EarthLink FTP server and upload your web pages and files directly.


Are they saying a FTP program isn't needed


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## RandyG (Jun 26, 2000)

you can transfer files directlky through IE by connecting to an ftp site where you have the access.

You would log into the ftp site, then open a Windows Explorer window, browse to the location of your files, select them all and copy them, then go to the FTP window and right-click the pane and choose Paste.

An ftp program simplifies this by giving you the ability to browse both your system and the ftp server in the same program.


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## Gary R (Aug 9, 2001)

Ahhhh, I see...I think. I could use their ftp setup for a bit, and if i wasn't happy with it, just go to CoffeeCup (Free Version) or similar--'course, best thing to do would, I guess, be using a ftp prog. right from the start to make it a bit easier (hopefully) for a Website newbie


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