web design programs

[BrokenBiker]

bought a domain and some hosting yesterday, came with a free web design program which is quite frankly crap.

my father used to use coffee cup with his site and it worked well, but for some reason the free trial wont work on my laptop. keeps telling me to run as administrator, which I am doing but still wont work

can anyone reccomend a decent drag and drop style web design program that is relatively simple to use? would prefer something with a free trial so I can have a play before dedicating some money towards it.

 

[Parm]

Need to consult a 10 year old as they seem to have all the skills with the inter web

 

[rtbcomp]

Have a look at Trellian - it's the least worst of a bad lot and recent upgrade has made it useable.

 

[Rocketman]

I used stormdance antenna, it's pretty idiot proof and the guy who designed it is pretty helpful. Theoretically you can do your webdesign in the 16 day trial and not have to purchase the software.

http://www.stormdance.net/software/antenna/software overview.htm

 

[ukracer]

I use these guys stuff. http://www.coffeecup.com/software/ If you use the trials and wait a bit they invariably have offers around major events like Easter, thanksgiving late summer bank holiday etc etc and almost anything else they can give you discount codes for

 

[BrokenBiker]

I use these guys stuff. http://www.coffeecup.com/software/ If you use the trials and wait a bit they invariably have offers around major events like Easter, thanksgiving late summer bank holiday etc etc and almost anything else they can give you discount codes for

mentioned them in OP, tried downloading free trial and all it says something along the lines of please run as administrator, which I am doing, but wont open the program and there is no sign of it in the programs list

 

[BrokenBiker]

just had a small play about with stormdance, I like it, seems realitvely simple and the ability to customize things is quite good. gotta get ready for work now so will have a proper play tomorrow.

 

[bump]

What is the intention behind the site? Depending up it's intention a CMS may be a better choice over placing static pages of poorly created HTML and CSS up there (these WISIWYG editors spit out some pretty grotty code).

There are many excellent open source free CMS platforms to choose from.

 

[ukracer]

mentioned them in OP, tried downloading free trial and all it says something along the lines of please run as administrator, which I am doing, but wont open the program and there is no sign of it in the programs list

Sorry mate missed that. You have a PM.

 

[mike os]

dunno... I use dreamweaver... as I needed photoshop & illustrator there was not that much difference in price...

 

[bump]

dunno... I use dreamweaver... as I needed photoshop & illustrator there was not that much difference in price...

Dreamweaver isn't too bad for static HTML. I think it was iWeb on OSX that output the worst quality code I'd ever seen.

 

[julianf]

If(when) i were to do another site, id use wordpress CMS.

You need to be very careful with it, as its so easy to just become another wordpress site, but, with some effort, you can make it look less wordpress like.

 

[bump]

If(when) i were to do another site, id use wordpress CMS.

You need to be very careful with it, as its so easy to just become another wordpress site, but, with some effort, you can make it look less wordpress like.

Wordpress is an excellent Blog platform. It's awful when twisted into a CMS. It doesn't have half of the useful features you actually need from a CMS. I don't know where this trend for twisting Wordpres into something it isn't came from. It's not like there aren't better options out there are the same price point, i.e. free. For good CMS have a look at Pimcore, MODx or SilverStripe. There is no need to de-standardise the look and feel of these platforms.

 

[julianf]

Im 100% certain you know more about it than me!

I was swayed by wordpress as it seemed my simplest pathway to a low-volume online shop. Beyond that aspect, it did not seem as harsh for a non-believer as other options. I did, however, still require help.

Woocommerce works, but there are irritations, most notably in the shipping classes. Sure i can pay $200 / yr for extras, but thats not the most attractive option.

But, again, for the casual user, to me at least, wordpress seemed to have more information / 3rd party support available.

My site is http://www.thebeast.co.uk

(i fear, from not seeing many other links here, than posting the above may be a rule violation - if it is [and i have tried to check] just say, and ill edit it out - not that there is any commercial conflict with anyone here!)

 

[Wedg1e]

Dreamweaver isn't too bad for static HTML. I think it was iWeb on OSX that output the worst quality code I'd ever seen.

I use Dreamweaver (8, I think) to maintain my webbie... the one thing that annoys the proverbial out of me is that regardless of what I do it will insist on changing the page text to some default despite me having changed every setting I can to make Trebuchet the default. It can even look correct on the editing screen but as soon as I upload to the server and check it online, it's gone back to bloody Arial or whatever.
I started the site on Frontpage but I think it got left behind by technology; also tried another...er, can't remember which... so stick with DW now.

 

[bump]

Im 100% certain you know more about it than me!

I was swayed by wordpress as it seemed my simplest pathway to a low-volume online shop. Beyond that aspect, it did not seem as harsh for a non-believer as other options. I did, however, still require help.

It's ecommerce plugins aren't too bad for a small scale shop. Magento however kicks it's backside out of the water.

Web is the world I work in these days. I mainly live on the infrastructure and architecture side now rather than straight up coding. I've built a wide range of sites and apps in the past though. It's all about finding the right tools for the purpose.