Web Design Software???

[elwesso]

So my family's marina is in the process of probably building a new website. Before, we simply used frontpage to edit things, is really was cumbersome and difficult to use. The guy in charge of the website (not me) is not very computer savvy, but was able to work with front page pretty easy.

Basically, what we want is a thing to log in and be able to quickly change certain things like our used and new boat listings. Really basic stuff, we dont need any fancy back-end stuff.. main thing would be some templates or things that are easy to design..

Any suggestions?

[wingFeather]

Wordpress. I recommend it to all my clients who are too cheap to pay for a real site. You can do some amazing things with no knowledge of the web. You don't even need to know graphic design - there are tons of free or low cost professional templates to apply.

[elwesso]

I thought wordpress was just for blogs? You can actually build websites with their software?

Looks like that you can use the wordpress software and just install it on your server?

[Kompresshun]

I highly recommend Wordpress as well, we use it for a lot of our clients at work. We VERY rarely do an html site anymore. Wordpress is easy to manage though and to add content to, all that has to be done is to install it on your server and set everything up. Once everything is setup, it's a breeze to manage. I do 10 or so new Wordpress sites a month in addition to the ones I already manage so they're definitely a very user friendly product.

I'd be happy to help you out if you have any questions, i'd also be willing to design a template for you if you're interested that will work with the business. I like helping out people on the side when I can anyways so drop me a PM if you need any help with it and i'll see what I can do.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

Do they still make Microsoft Frontpage? If so I'd say give it a try, it's very basic and super easy to use, you basically just type your text like you would in MS Word, and add picture like in Powerpoint and it writes the HTML or XTML code for you, then you just get a website to host it and import it. Easy as pie, though it's a little barbaric and outdated, it does make building a website easy for for beginners, plus you have the option of editing the code once you learn HTML/XTML. Look into it, you might have it on your computer already if you have any of the upper level MS Office suites.

[wingFeather]

A33, hello neighbor! A web guy in the next town over on Nico - what are the odds?

[Kompresshun]

A33, hello neighbor! A web guy in the next town over on Nico - what are the odds?

How's it goin? Wow I don't think that could happen again a million years! Where are you at? Louisville?

Do they still make Microsoft Frontpage? If so I'd say give it a try, it's very basic and super easy to use, you basically just type your text like you would in MS Word, and add picture like in Powerpoint and it writes the HTML or XTML code for you, then you just get a website to host it and import it. Easy as pie, though it's a little barbaric and outdated, it does make building a website easy for for beginners, plus you have the option of editing the code once you learn HTML/XTML. Look into it, you might have it on your computer already if you have any of the upper level MS Office suites.

They don't have Frontpage anymore, it's Expression Web now. It's a lot more complex now though, it is a lot like Dreamweaver. Frontpage was quite easy but Content Management Systems(Wordpress and Joomla mainly) are much simpler IMHO. The setup time minimal, there's hardly any learning curve, and everything is managed from an Administrator area that you log into on the website. Adding new pages is as easy as making a post here on Nico and adding pictures to the pages are just as simple.

In fact most of Nico is done in Wordpress, i'm not sure to what extent but I recall Greg mentioning before that a large portion of the site is now done in Wordpress, aside from the forums of course.

[themadscientist]

I build my whole site in notepad.

[Jesda]

I also favor TMS's approach. Nothing like raw, manly code.

But sometimes I like to fairy it up with Apple's iWeb. Its so darn easy.

[wingFeather]

iWeb basically produces one giant jpeg of your site. It's the worst program out there, but yes it's easy to use. My sister has a Mac so I make her do her own site on iWeb.

[Jesda]

iWeb basically produces one giant jpeg of your site. It's the worst program out there, but yes it's easy to use. My sister has a Mac so I make her do her own site on iWeb.

Well, it uses style sheets and other components, not just a single image.

Example: http://www.gulatibooks.com/

I would hate to go in there and edit that heap of code by hand, but it looks nice and works well. The other great thing is that you can open the program, go straight to your site, and add pages and sections or change the entire theme without starting over. It functions like a multilayered document that you're editing and publishing on the fly.

For blogs and small business sites, its perfect. For anything more than that, you need something more advanced.