What Is The Best Web Site Designer Software ? What Is The Best Web Site Designer

[iGuest 3]

I see 3 big company making web site developement programs. Macromeida has Dreamweaver MX, Adobe offers GoLive CS, and Microsoft provides Frontpage. I'm just a newbie and have no idea which one I should learn. Any suggestion? Many thanks.

I havent used them, but from what I hear (apart from here ), Dreamweaver MX is the way to go. i don't know if the other IDE's handle PHP, so you may want to consider that in your decision. If you dont code PHP now, it is a definite possibility that you will consider it in the future.
I may be stating the obvious here, but don't overlook the free trials. GoLive and Dreamweaver are $400.00, while the price of Frontpage 2003 (the latest version that I can see) is just under $200.00. That's a lot of money for a hunch. So, do up the free trials first, making sure you have a list of all the features you need now (and possibly in the future) first, so you can try them out.

Another thing to watch for is how these programs handle code when in wysiwyg mode. For example, Visual Interdev completely mucks up code when you dragNdrop...

Personally, I use Notepad++, which is essentially notepad with syntax highlighting for a bunch of languages. Little overhead
Checking out W3E2000 now.

Hope it helps a little.

I would prefer Microsoft Publisher rather than Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, and Microsoft Frontpage, and alll of those dinky little other programs like notepad, CoffeeCup, W3E 2000, 1stPage 2000, Crimson Editor, TSW Webcoder, and the rest of those ones. None the less Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver are just as good, if they are not even better than Microsoft Publisher 2003, but the main downside about those two(2) programs is not how good you have to be to use them, instead it is the cost--two-hundred(200)-four-hundred(400) bucks just to get them, but Microsoft Publisher 2003 only costs $172.38-182.52 in the United States depending on where you live or where you buy it! It has all of the same features and functions as Frontpage. But you can also make cards of any sort,, certificates, banners, catalogs, signs, resumes, website e-mails(like the you would see from Yahoo! or Coke Music), and muchmuch more! I have already created a really cool website on it that is at least ten(10) pages long and it looks really neat. All I need to do now is put it up on the web!!

Note: Quotes are from Xisto
Edited August 8, 2005 by microscopic^earthling (see edit history)

[sickgrrl723 0]

yeah, but isn't publisher kind of a cut and paste kind of program. I remember using that program a long time ago, but as far as code and such is concerned, is it possible to use it? if not, i think that it's a waste to limit yourself. if you try harder, you can only get better....

[wykked_dreamz 0]

Honestly, I'm the type of website designer who likes to create their layouts from scratch. I like plain coding. I don't enjoy programs that give me a template and let me put together the webpage as it's a word document like frontpage. I do however enjoy the program Hotdog, It lets me see my website as I'm typing in the code. So if I forget something stupid like a letter here and there, I can tell real fast. But with Hotdog I work with the code and the code only, so I really enjoy. And it has a script library incase I forgot something. I usually use notepad 2 for my programming though, cause I recently switched to php. I'm the same way when I make graphics. I like to cut them up in paint, blow them up and edit them in psp7, put them all back together in paint, and then convert the bmp file to a gif file using another graphics file that makes it real easy to do. I go through several steps and several programs. I use gifworks to add transparency, and I use gif animator 1.0 for animations. I know, I can all these things in one graphics program, perferably PSP7, but I tend to have less problems when I use all these different programs. What!?! I'm special. *smiles* Plus I haven't worked with PSP7 much so I don't know how to do ANYTHING! LoL! Maybe that's the same reason I don't use web designers, I'm not really sure how to do them, and it's easier just to type in the code. Wow, what an excuse.

[abhiram 0]

I'm the type of website designer who likes to create their layouts from scratch.

Same here. I also prefer to code everything from the ground up. Atleast, I make it a point to use my own code. Of course, I'm still learning, but I always try to learn how to do things rather than use a publisher or a ready-made template from the web. I use Crimson Editor for coding HTML and Top Style for coding CSS.

[jcguy 0]

As for me, I'm not a serious web designer, so Microsoft Frontpage is good enough for me. I've never taken HTML coding and web designing lessons before, so it will be hard for me to code a page from the basics.

[abhiram 0]

I've never taken HTML coding and web designing lessons before, so it will be hard for me to code a page from the basics

Neither have I . There are plenty of resources on the net. That's where I learnt everything from. I did try to use Dreamweaver for the designing, but i found it was easier to just type in everything in an editor.

[enve19 0]

I would say use frontpage if you are a beginner, just download a template and alter it to your liking using the normal tab. Then you can look at the html coding tab and see how it all works.For slighty more advanced users, i would suggest to use Dreamweaver. it is an awesome program and definately worth spending out on it.

[solankyno1 0]

I don't think any thing can beat Macromedia Dreamweaver in designing websites. It is useful for creating personal as well as Professional websites. Although many people feel that it is very hard to use at first but once you go through it for couple of days it is very easy to use. I have tried almost every web design software but every time I come back to Dreamweaver. Now when Adobe has purchased Macromedia I think Dreamweaver will be better and its interface will be easier to use for newbies.Dreamweaver Rules.

[hatim 0]

well just to put my 2 cents. Macromedia and Adobe are one company now.

[hazeshow 0]

I would prefer Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Publisher is definetly NOT a website editor! Sure, you CAN create websites with it, but this is not what it's made for. The source code it produces is totally blown up!
The best HTML editor was, is and always will be ... Microsoft Notepad!

GreetingZ

[koolio 0]

Sometimes ago I used dreamweaver. But then I shifted back to handcoding. I use css for styling pages. So coding the page by hand will give a better control when writing the stylesheet. I tried to view my hand coded pages in dreamweaver and it made a total mess of the structure by adding yellow buttons for each comment I make. The coding view was better. But now I'm used to handcoding that I'll never look at WYSIWYG editors.

A good texteditor with syntax coloring, a helper for css, and a color sampler and maybe some code references are all what I want. I use emeditor as my text editor. You should really check out stylemaster. It's a powerful css editor with previews. That really made my work easy.

https://www.emeditor.com/

http://www.westciv.com/style_master/

Well for graphics I use Fireworks and Photoshop.