# Website building software



## Big Mike (Oct 3, 2007)

Can anyone recommend some website building software?  

I'm just trying to build something rather simple and I though I could get away with something free/shareware...but I haven't had much luck.

I was thinking of FrontPage or Dreamweaver....but I'm not sure I want to spend that much on something I probably won't use very much.


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## Chris of Arabia (Oct 3, 2007)

Take a look at Crimson Editor and Aptana. 

The former is pretty much just a (very) sophisticated form of Notepad, but one that recognises and colour codes HTML, PHP, Java, BASIC, ASP syntax etc. I use this all the time for stuff and it's open on my desktop now.

Aptana does rather more and gets much nearer to what Dreamweaver does and will autocomplete HTML mark-up and JavaScript (which is it's real strength). If you check out the site, you'll find that future functionality will include the auto-complete & syntax checking for PHP and some other stuff too. It's an Open Source development, so it's free. I've not actually tried it yet, but it looks very promising and seems to have some very good write-ups.


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## Sideburns (Oct 3, 2007)

NVu is like Dreamweaver, but it's free.  (and portable)


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## Chris of Arabia (Oct 3, 2007)

Also try The Open Source Alternative for ideas. Type in the big name application you'd like to match and see what options it comes up with.


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## gomexz (Oct 3, 2007)

For the record I hate MS Front page.  I had to use it when I did my High School's site.  Currently for my site I am using Dream Weaver MX which would be my fav version.  A friend of mine likes to use Kompozor.  Which is an open source editor that is easy to use and free.  You can find it here
http://www.kompozer.net/


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## Chris of Arabia (Oct 4, 2007)

Did you find anything you liked the look of Mike?


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## Big Mike (Oct 4, 2007)

I checked out Nvu...but the download didn't work.  Kompozor is basically the same thing, so I tried that and it sucked.

The other day, I downloaded one that I liked, called BlueVoda.  I built a few pages, only then to find out that you can't publish anything without signing up for web hosting from them.

Last night, I downloaded a trial version of a WYSIWYG editor from www.coffeecup.com and it's pretty good.  I hear that their HTML editor is pretty good as well.  They have many many sub programs for doing all sorts of things...and the problem is that you have to buy each separate application for what you want to.  They do have a couple 'combo' deals where you can buy 8 or 9 of the programs in a bundle, for a decent price ($129).  Although, I could probably find a version of Frontpage for close to that.

I'm trying CoffeeCup for a while, and I'll decide if I want to purchase it.  It certainly seems to be much better than any of the free ones that I tried.


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## Keagle (Oct 4, 2007)

Please don't get Frontpage. As it's Microsoft, the Frontpage code will work perfectly in IE6/7, but not as well in Firefox/Opera.


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## Big Mike (Oct 4, 2007)

Advice noted, thanks.


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## gomexz (Oct 4, 2007)

If u like BlueVoda.  But if the program itself wont let u upload to your webserver.  trying FTP'ing the webpages your self fromt he command prompt.  It only takes a few simple commands.


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## Big Mike (Oct 4, 2007)

I tried pasting the code into another editor but it wasn't working for some reason...some of the things showed up but many didn't.


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## gomexz (Oct 4, 2007)

What i meant was when u save the pages you built you should be able to open it with I.E or Firefox.  It should be just a basic .html file.  U can upload the .html files from the command prompt your self with out even using the software.  Im assuming you use windows.  Lets say you saved your webpage files in "My Documents"  you would go to start then RUN  and in run you type cmd and press ok.   a black box will appear.  Then type cd "My Documents"  once you are there.  type ftp and then the IP address or hosting domain. and press enter  it would prompt you for your username type it and press enter then type the password and enter.  Then type put filename.html and enter.  It will then upload the file for you.  Which is what your software does for you.   I hope that helped.


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## doenoe (Oct 4, 2007)

cant you use flashfxp for that? You can find demo's of that on the web and it works for 30 days or something. After that you just uninstall and install again.
Think its a bit easier (though the cmd thing isnt really difficult to begin with  )


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## gomexz (Oct 4, 2007)

Oh yea good point you can also use filzilla its free forever
http://filezilla-project.org/
and very easy to use.


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## Big Mike (Oct 4, 2007)

> What i meant was when u save the pages you built you should be able to open it with I.E or Firefox. It should be just a basic .html file. U can upload the .html files from the command prompt your self with out even using the software. Im assuming you use windows. Lets say you saved your webpage files in "My Documents" you would go to start then RUN and in run you type cmd and press ok. a black box will appear. Then type cd "My Documents" once you are there. type ftp and then the IP address or hosting domain. and press enter it would prompt you for your username type it and press enter then type the password and enter. Then type put filename.html and enter. It will then upload the file for you. Which is what your software does for you. I hope that helped.


No, they are saved in some sort of proprietary BlueVoda file type .bvd....or something like that...not HTML.


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## gomexz (Oct 4, 2007)

Thats B.S.

hmmm 

would u mind sharing the source code of one of your pages u made with bluevoda i will see if i cant get it to work somewhere else


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## Big Mike (Oct 4, 2007)

I can check when I get home, if I still have it saved.  It might not be that hard...I'm just not HTML literate.

I'm sure that is part of their whole marketing plan...they give this software for free but you have to use their hosting.


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## gomexz (Oct 4, 2007)

yea i've been there.  I've been a bit of a webpage hobbist for about 10 years.  I did it once for money, and have decided to not go back down that road..... good lord.  Dont do websites for money.


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## Big Mike (Oct 4, 2007)

> Dont do websites for money.


  Some people say the same about photographing weddings or children's portraits.


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## Chris of Arabia (Oct 4, 2007)

gomexz said:


> yea i've been there. I've been a bit of a webpage hobbist for about 10 years. I did it once for money, and have decided to not go back down that road..... good lord. Dont do websites for money.


 
Sounds like there are some stories there somewhere...


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## gomexz (Oct 4, 2007)

Not to high jack the thread but i will share my story. 

I have done 1 website for money and only 1. it was a side gig for my moms work when I was in college. It was for an insurance company in a small town whos clients were mostly older people and business's in the area. But its no small operation its very sucessful. They knew I did websites all the time for me and friends. They asked me to do something basic not flashy and easy to navigate something very static without all the moving graphics and such. I tailor made it to owners specs. She litterly say next to me as I did the color scheme. Then two days later she didnt like the colors, so again we go through and change them all we did this little dance about 8 times before it was "perfect" thank god she liked the layout which I changed a bit to get the site to work right and have the right feel. Just before launch she wanted a bunch of stuff added and changed or removed. Which set me back about a week and a half. Finaly after all is said and done it was exactly as she had wanted i got my money and life was great,...right? nope. My mom tells me to come in b.c there were questions. I come in there were no questions more like hey can u change this and this and update this? Which took a couple of days. I gave them what i consider a bit of a high price by the hour to do it and she was more than happy to pay it. damn should of asked for more..... Either way I update and change it for a few months. Then they find some over price pro. Who charges them an arm and a leg for a website that she built. Which was created in flash and the exact opposite of what they wanted when I built it. I thought I was odd that they changed thier minds so quickly about the style considering that most of thier clients are on dial up who will have a hard time loading this site that is now harder to navigate and has a much higher load time. Mine loaded on dial up like most pages do on high speed.

It was fun being paid for doing a hobby of mine. But my client made it not so fun.

Now I keep it just a hobby.

Oh yea i forgot to mention the new site is ugly as heck now the content does not span the whole page and has lots of unused white space.


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## Jeff Colburn (Oct 5, 2007)

As for Frontpage, MS no longer offers it. It is/has been replaced with something else. Besides, Frontpage sucks.

Dreamweaver is now the industry standard, and here's how to get it cheap. Go to your local community college and sign up for a class, any class. When you get your student ID card go to http://www.Gradware.com (or to the schools bookstore) and buy the software. You will be buying the Academic version, which is just a hair off of the regular version, and you save a ton of money. The list price of Dreamweaver is $399, but from Gradware it's $188.75. 

Several years ago I purchase the $1,000 Adobe Web Suite for just over $300.

After you buy the software you don't need to attend any classes, just enjoy the money you saved.

Have Fun,
Jeff


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## smcaskil (Oct 6, 2007)

I don't know how complicate web site you are building or what the plans you have for it are, but you can check out http://www.wordpress.com.  It is a free site that lets you create a blog that is very easy to update and use.


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## chrisk121 (Oct 6, 2007)

I've got Dreamweaver CS3. I like it a lot, along with the rest of Adobe Web Premium.


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## muthu (Dec 4, 2008)

This is a great resource. I want to have the Juniors and Seniors at my school working on creating their "digital footprint," for their college application process. This would be a perfect tool for them to do that. Thanks for sharing it.
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Muthu


Link Building


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