Web site software

[jharrison]

I'm seriously considering creating a website for my family. I'm looking for some web development software suggestions. I'm really out in the blue.

I'd like a fairly simple program; nothing too advanced. All ideas are welcome. Thanks.

JH

 

[GQgeek]

have you tried ms frontpage that comes with ms office? or maybe hotdog? hotdog was my favorite back when i was in to that sort of thing.. things have changed a lot since then, but if all you want is a simple html webpage without anythign fancy like javascript or xml, give hotdog a try. It's pretty easy to figure out.

 

[GQ Lawyer]

Check out www.websitemachine.com.

 

[mbc]

Preface: I've done a decent amount of freelance web development for small - medium size businesses and so on. Dreamweaver is more or less the top WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page editor out there. It's produced by a well known and respected software vendor, Macromedia. I would get that above anything else. It will give you a relatively high degree of creative control while not bogging you down in the technical details. It's not exactly cheap, but I'll leave the details of its acquisition up to your imagination. Of course, my real advice would be that you learn all the ins and outs of web programming (CSS, XHTML, etc), but that's probably FAR more time and effort than you want to put into this particular project.

 

[Nick M]

I learned the basics of HTML through the primers at HTML Goodies - to be honest, I find it very satisfying to crunch out a page in Notepad. It's nice to know the 'hows' and 'whys' of the language itself, even if you use a graphical editor to put most of your pages together. Otherwise, Dreamweaver. Someone you know will own it. While I certainly wouldn't advocate burning a copy, you could borrow some time on their PC, which would be much more morally satisfying than simply burning a copy... *HUGE WINK* *NUDGES WITH ELBOW*

 

[vero_group]

Now, Nick, while you Aussies might think stealing a copy, or downloading a free copy from a rogue website, buying a questionably copy on eBay, or asking a techie friend for a free copy from his many CDs of burned software is acceptable, we here in America -- whose economy is dependent on such export products -- would never do such a thing.

 

[jharrison]

Thank you all for the great advice. GQgeek - no I haven't tried frontpage b/c it didn't come with my office bundle (probably b/c it was a copy). Even if it did, I doubt I would use it--I loathe Microsoft. But that's another issue. About Dreamweaver... I had really wanted to try the program, but I wouldn't pay $400 for my basic needs. The idea of stealing a copy and using it illegally had never entered my mind. (really, it hadn't. I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner). I looked into hotdog and websitemachine and found they weren't really what I was looking for. I already have a registered domain with a placeholder page. And I have webmail capabilities, so neither of those seemed to fit. I'd heard of HTML Goodies before and I toyed around with HTML, but I never became familiar enough with the language. I love GUIs that let you see what you get. Well, I hope you can make sense of my incoherent reply. I'm very busy with a  project at work right now and I haven't had much time. Again, thank you all for your great advice.