web creation software

[vinister]

I'm thinking of creating a website for the company where I work. I'm trying to choose what software to work with.

- Simple site with 5 or 6 pages.
- Simple flash on the front-page to make it look exciting
- easy to update and expand photo-gallery

I don't want a cheesy "you've never made a website before" program. I've made websites in the past, I used to make websites when the internet was brand new, used to be a BBS guy. I've since used some blog tools (customdoneright.blogspot.com), but that's not the direction I want to go with this site. It will be mostly static for advertising to new customers.

- I do know basic HTML and can make sense of most scripting, etc.
- I'm not so good with flash or web2.0 stuff
- I like to be able to see and edit the code, sometimes its the only way to get things how you want them.
- I don't like programs that are all wysiwyg that make a huge mess of the code. I like to be able to just click and type, drag and drop, but the code has to make sense and be clean afterwards.
- built in image editing, ftp, css, all that junk doesn't mean much to me, I can handle that stuff in other programs.

Basically I've been out of the loop for some time, looking for opinions from people that are doing this kind of thing. I used to use coffeecup html editor, wondering if thats still a reasonable option. I never really got the hang of dreamweaver, and I have trouble feelin' the adobe vibe.

Thanks

[Amon]

I've used Macromedia (ed.: now "Adobe"?) Dreamweaver 6.0/MX before and I highly recommend it for all levels of website creation. The principle is empowering website design with a highly flexible, easy-to-use graphical front end driven by automatically real-time assembled code back end. I'd reckon the graphical interface is comparable to, say, Adobe Premiere or, simply, a web browser with the capability of, for example, dragging table dimensions and adjusting the CSS profile in the browser window while the back end is rewritten in the code window beneath it to reflect those changes. It supports Javascript and embedding a variety of media, including Flash-- it will also create Flash-driven navigation buttons inside Dreamweaver and insert them directly into a table. In practice, anybody with working experience in HTML will enjoy using Dreamweaver.

The issue here is the price for the retail license and whether you should purchase the entire Macromedia dev suite. Depending on whether your employer is willing to swallow the bill (they may have sewed up their coffers to brace for the recession) and how long your website dev contract is signed for-- and, by extension, how often you will use the software-- free alternatives may be more suitable. Dreamweaver is the only software I've used before, but, it was astonishingly easy to use and you can produce many web pages or continuous design proposals to your employer very quickly when you know your way around it in less than a month. It is fully transparent, and can be integrated, with the Macromedia (Adobe) development suite such as Flash and ColdFusion.

[Thund3rball]

Sounds to me you've already made up your mind as you seem to be a proficient hand coder. Nothing wrong with CoffeeCup so why not stick with it. On the other side Dreamweaver has come a long way. It doesn't mess the code up anymore like it used to. I prefer to dig into the code myself as well but I like the ability to just drop in bits of built in scripts for rollovers and other javascript functions. But I think it would be a waste on you from the sounds of it. Homesite might be more up your alley and there's a free trial so maybe give it a try.

Macromedia - Products : HomeSite 5.5

[vinister]

Ahhh, right, homesite. Forgot about that one, I've actually used it extensively in the past. I didn't realize it was bought out by macromedia.

Thanks!

[Andy]

Homesite was great. I used it all the time back in the day, lol. I loved the interface, as at the time I was working on a site with hundreds of pages. However for what you are doing, I would use Dreamweaver. As mentioned, it has come a long way. It really is a pleasure to use.

[JD]

Dreamweaver CS3/CS4

Microsoft Expression Web 2 isn't too bad either and could possibly had for free if you have access to some sort of MSDN subscription.

[enaberif]

I can't personally stand any of those WYSIWYG editors.

I feel they butcher code up so well and that you really don't learn anything.

I'm old fashioned and believe in writing websites in raw html.

[cadaveca]

WordPress?

[misterlarry]

Just to add to the question. Are there any freeware programs that are worthwhile?

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by misterlarry

Just to add to the question. Are there any freeware programs that are worthwhile?

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