best web design software?

[edit: if this is in the wrong spot, please move it, as i feel it may be]

ok, well.
i want to make a website, so im gonna need some design software. currently, i can get the beta version of Visual studios 2010 through Dreamspark, and i can get adobe Dreamweaver CS4 for 127.99 through a licensing agreement that LSU has with Adobe. no, im not familiar with coding, and would like to not have to deal with it unless one day i wanted to.
if you know of something else, please, fill me in!

(disclaimer: This is for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. I know that i cant legally use it to say, set up a business website or something like that.)

I honeslty didnt know visual studios was really designed for web sites but I suppose it was possible. I havent done website stuff in a long time but when I last did it I used dreamweaver and loved it so Ill give that one a

pik4chu said:

I honeslty didnt know visual studios was really designed for web sites but I suppose it was possible. I havent done website stuff in a long time but when I last did it I used dreamweaver and loved it so Ill give that one a

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I think it is, but im not sure. what is dream weaver like? is it like making some thing in MS publisher, where you just start puttin stuff in places?

ya pretty much, last time i used dreamweaver it was very WYSIWYG with some alternate tabs that let you get down and dirty in the code if you wanted to.

Notepad and saveas .html.......

Just kidding....

madhatter256 said:

Notepad and saveas .html.......

Just kidding....

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Actually if your going that basic i would suggest UltraEdit 32
Text highlighting ftw!

web creator 5 is a good one
easy way to make good looking web site only 89,99 $ ithink

pik4chu said:

Actually if your going that basic i would suggest UltraEdit 32
Text highlighting ftw!

Click to expand...

Non-free and closed source UltraEdit FTL. Free and open source Notepad++ FTW. Anything UltraEdit can do, Notepad++ can do better.

petteyg359 said:

UltraEdit FTL. Free and open source Notepad++ FTW.

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it aint that bad, its only like 20 bucks I think. I use it for all my scripting needs

Most awesome free option you'll find (pretty sure):

Formerly known as nvu, a mozilla-team WYSIWYG editor:

http://kompozer.net/

pik4chu said:

it aint that bad, its only like 20 bucks I think. I use it for all my scripting needs

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We use UltraEdit at work and I use Notepad ++ at home.

I find sometimes that UltraEdit has a dizzying array of choices. I mean just look at the right click menu whilst highlighting text

UE can do almost everything, and the VB scripting is nice for some things .

We used to use Crimson Editor (which is free kinda like UE but less). That was pretty good and could do almost everything that UE could do.

Back to the topic, When I did a brief flurry of Webpages, I always liked raw coding in Notepad/Notepad++. Before that I did use DreamWeaver quite a bit and did like it, but hated the rubbish bloated code that it created.

+1 ms frontpage...to get used to it all
then dreamweaver - its abit more advanced

OpenOffice.org has the ability to save any of it's output as a webpage. Not as full featured as some other dedicated web authoring software, but it works for basic stuff.

For starters what site code structure do you plan on using? PHP? A content management system (Drupal, wordpress, joomla), HTML? ASPX? I think using a CMS is best, I use WordPress and then build my own themes. I think notepad works best for that.

All you need is php5.0 enabled on a server, create a database and the you're good to go. Great thing about PHP is that you can change the look without having to do anything with the text or formatting, since that is controlled with the CSS and the Database.

Now, I think the best way to design a site template for HTML is going to have to be DreamWeaver, since it's all easy-mode and can be done on or off the server actively, with little to no coding knowledge, that being said Microsoft Front Page isn't tooo bad for simple sites.

FYI, Front Page is dead (since 2006). The current product is called Expression Web 2. If you've got an ACM MSDNAA account, you can get it (and Blend, Design, and Studio) free from there.

unless you know code inside and out, forget notepad or writing your own code.

this day in age there is no reason to really write your pages in notepad since so much code is repeated and re-used it is alot of needless typing, i know dreamweaver has gotten alot better in not using alot of excessive garbage code like it used to, or Frontpage used to as well.

Dreamweaver is the "industry standard" so to speak, it can be easy to use, or hard to use, it all depends on you.

you can do pages in code base or a GUI style

get dreamweaver.

Mr.Guvernment said:

this day in age there is no reason to really write your pages in notepad

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Nobody would use crappy Windows notepad, anyway, when Notepad++ is available

ive tallied the votes and dreamweaver wins!!!

im trying to make my own website, and im gonna be hosting it at home. im using fedora command line on it. i really have no idea how to use it, and theidras has been helping. will it be easy to get it from dreamweaver to fedora?

I've been using M$ Expression and cant complain.. much better than frontpage was, but I also used dreamweaver alot and cant comment on its current state, but it didnt have a high learning curve at all back when i used it (2ish yrs ago)

It will be easy to get it from Dreamweaver to fedora because Fedora is just going to be a hosting space, you will use an FTP client for this most of the time.

The domain name you pick will cover the IP address of the server, and finding it in the browser will convert everything in the "public_html" file to a webpage. You could type in the IP address to any domain name (this can be found in command prompt by typing "ping google.ca" or whatever domain name it happens to be, if you type in the IP address that shows up, it goes to that website. Domain Names are found through a DNS server.

If you could see this website, it's a series of folders. Public_html is the main folder, there is other folders around it to define specific actions, however public_html is all you will need to worry about for the most part.

If you look at the top bar in the browser while reading this for example, the first part "http://www.overclockers.com" is the domain name, hiding an IP address. After that, the /forums/ is a separate folder titled "forums" that contains the information for the forums, and then "showthread.php" is a PHP file that defines how the thread is displayed, mostly containing the layout and what actions each button performs. The "?t=" basically means that it asked the server what thread you were trying to view, and then the number is the threads ID in the database.