titchuk

I've been wanting to make a website for a while now, and I've spent a few months looking around and picking up bits of html etc, or trying to look at software that I could use, but I'm wanting to actually get round to making one now.

The problem is I don't really know what the best way to go about it is. I'm only wanting a small website at the moment, so I don't need anything really complex, but ideally I'd like to be able to make more complex ones in the future. I can do basic html, and I know a little about CSS, php etc.

I've looked at Dreamweaver, and don't really want to splash out that amount of money unless I can be really persuaded that its worth it. I've also looked at nvu, the freeware version, after I saw about it on here, but couldn't get to grips with it. I don't want to be using a builder over the internet; I'd much prefer to have software on my pc that I can use myself and have control over.

So, can anyone recommend any (preferably free) software, bearing in mind I'm not very good, or am I better off using notepad and html and learning as I go along, which is what I have been doing?

Will Smith

dreamweaver does a free trial. I use Dreamweaver 8 for our business and have found it excellent in it's ease of use. You get what you pay for

Matt Cavanagh

with a couple of sticks and some dried grass.

moonie

let someone else do it. works for me.

birdy123

Dreamweaver is the best.

Willigogs

I found Dreamweaver very useful when starting out with web design - as it allowed you to use the WYSIWYG (Design View) interface, and then view the code to see how it was created :thup:

However, it's important not to rely on the WYSIWYG doing the code for you for too long, and once past that phase Dreamweaver really isn't required anymore and you can happily use notepad, EMEditor, or any number of text editors to do it all

Tafkans

Yeah, that. CSS is worth implementing from the start, just to make it easier to maintain in the future. You won't need much more than that, unless you're trying to do something dynamic (e.g. loading information from databases, creating lots of interactive content like login/registration)

If you don't want to get involved in design/layout too much, a Google search for "free web templates" will reveal thousands of (mostly crap, some good) site templates that you can download, then just drop your content in.

What are you planning on making?

irish

Dreamweaver for me too. Wouldn't use anything else now.

titchuk

To start with, hopefully a clan website, but I'd like to do a few other things in time. I think its a useful skill.

I've been messing around with notepad and html/css when I've been doing it and reading internet tutorials. I don't mind it tbh, just it seems a bit trial and error at times, and a tad frustating when I can't work out how to do some things. Which is why I was wondering if using software would be better.

Thanks for replies btw.

Tafkans

Personally, the "trial and error" thing is the big attraction to me

In terms of freeware/cheap WYSIWYG, CuteHTML was pretty good but that's recently been discontinued. Frontpage is rubbish, and also discontinued. (Spot a pattern here?)

Wiki will give you a good start at finding a decent one.