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DucatiOzz 
Newbie
Joined: 18 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 26
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 Topic: Web site design software?
Posted: 19 May 2008 at 7:54pm |
I run a little forum http://www.italiansportsbikeclub.com
I want to put together a website around the forum to try and take it to the next stage. Sadly I am too stupid to do it. I am fairly OK on software and PCs but some of the web stuff just seems to baffle me!
I was moving to vBulletin as there is a bolt on CMS package which allegedly enables half-wits like me to do it easily. However their import system seems to have a few issues and no one that I have asked seems to be able to help.
So back to plan b. Can anyone recommend some cheap (preferably free!) web design software that will help me take the forum and make it into a site like this:
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WebWiz-Bruce
Admin Group
Web Wiz Developer
Joined: 03 September 2001
Location: Bournemouth
Status: Offline
Points: 9844
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Posted: 20 May 2008 at 8:42am |
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The best software for developing web sites is Dreamweaver, but it is expansive.
Microsoft Expression Web is probally better for novice users and is almost on par with Dreamweaver, even my mum who is not good with computers uses it for her website. However, again it is not cheap but is cheaper than Dreamweaver and you can get 30 day demo versions from Micrososfts web site to try it out.
As far as other web site building sofwtare goes, most of it is awful. I've tested nearly all of them while looking for cheaper alternatives to Dreamweaver, but found many unstable and not very good.
Out of the free ones available I have heard good stuff about CoffeeCup Express, you may want to give that a go.
For building your first site a good short cut is have a look at some of the template web sites, many templates can be picked up for as little as $5 and are a good foundation to start building a web site from without having to try and workout a page design yourself. They are also good for looking at to see how the pages are built and how images are included, aligning content, etc.
You can also get portals and CMS which are like pre-built websites, but I would avoid these. Many novices start out with these but quickly find that they are to confined within the container of the software and move on to building their own web sites which allows much more freedom to do what you want. Also portals and CMS's have a bad habit of all looking very simular.
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DucatiOzz
Newbie
Joined: 18 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 26
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Posted: 20 May 2008 at 9:11am |
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Thanks Bruce. Will have a look around.
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__n3o__
Groupie
Joined: 08 November 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 135
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Posted: 25 May 2008 at 4:09pm |
If you are doing ASP / ASP.NET sites ... you can use the new FREE Visual Web Developer 2008 from Microsoft, they have intehrated the WYSIWYG editor from Expression Web into it and it has JavaScript intellisense.. I used to use it a lot before I moved to Visual Studio 2008, its a really fantastic peice of software and amazingly its free! http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/
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123Simples
Senior Member
Joined: 08 July 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 1192
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Posted: 25 May 2008 at 8:37pm |
Dreamweaver is the best, but agrees with Bruce on Coffee Cup as a cheaper alternative You can download a TRIAL 30 Day Version and purchase price is $49 dollars
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Reflections
Newbie
Joined: 16 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 7
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Posted: 29 May 2008 at 12:39pm |
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Dream weaver is the best and user friendly software.
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Carrin Smith
Newbie
Joined: 08 August 2008
Status: Offline
Points: 1
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Posted: 08 August 2008 at 4:26am |
You can try Easy Website Pro. No HTML knowledge is required! Provide kinds of editable templates, themes, buttons, logos, intros...
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Putz22
Moderator Group
Joined: 06 May 2008
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 182
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Posted: 08 August 2008 at 3:25pm |
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I tried to use this one also the Easy Website Pro.. its not that bad of a program.. I haven not heard anything about it up to this point
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Web site design software?