Hi Everyone,
I have ben using FPage up till now, from the comments I am getting in my site review it sounds obvious I need to change.
I am going to buy new software, for page design.

I am a real newbie, and have very little experience.
I have heard good things about Photo shop.

Is PS user friendly?

I don't want to buy something so complicated it takes months to learn.
I need something I can get going with quickly.

Please let me know which software you recommend and what version.
(Do all PS versions support web design ?)

Thanks
Scott

I would recommend Namo Webeditor...

Cheap and Easy to use!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...tware&n=507846

Theres also Dreamweaver..

Never used it myself but from what ive heard seems good

http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...tware&n=229534

--James

Remember to try out any free trials that you can find, they should give you an idea of what you will have to deal with, especily Dreamweaver with it's price tag.

Originally Posted by smokey99

Hi Everyone,
I have ben using FPage up till now, from the comments I am getting in my site review it sounds obvious I need to change.
I am going to buy new software, for page design.

I am a real newbie, and have very little experience.
I have heard good things about Photo shop.

Is PS user friendly?

I don't want to buy something so complicated it takes months to learn.
I need something I can get going with quickly.

Please let me know which software you recommend and what version.
(Do all PS versions support web design ?)

Thanks
Scott

Hi Scott,
Someone in a game chat
said that GoLive was superb...
I have no idea if that is true.
They said it was by Adobe....
which reminded me that when I had PageMaker years ago,
I was very pleased with it.

I have pretty little money...
so I was wondering about Kazaa...
only I'm not a Kazaa fan...
with the result that I downloaded it yesterday,
removed it today,
then realized I forgot to check on GoLive....

I am using FP too. Guess that's the only tool i know now.. what's could be wrong with that? Anybody care to share?

Originally Posted by jjj

I am using FP too. Guess that's the only tool i know now.. what's could be wrong with that? Anybody care to share?

I think the question should be 'whats right with it?'

Personally I cant stand it!

--James

Frontpage is for people who want a "Microsoft Standard" application for designing web design. FP has very little HTML, Client & Server-side color coding. So if you are looking into ASP, PHP, JavaScript and the likes then I don't recommend frontpage. Dreamweaver (my personal favorite) has VERY good code view (syntax highlighting, intellesense, and CSS design). It isn't as strong when it comes to laying out a page, although it is very good at using layers and images while Frontpage is very table oriented. As far as the "small" products listed above, I don't have much experience with them so I won't comment. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Web Studio 4.0 is a great WYSIWYG for beginners.

i prefer hand-coding most of all - but dexieded to learn Dreamweaver - good thing, many interesting things can be done easy

I started in this game about three years ago with no HTML experinience.

I downloaded every free trial that I could find and 'messed with each for a couple of days (actually some of them only lasted for a hour before being deleted because they were unworkable).

Eventually I purchased Dreamweaver MX and have since updated to Dreamweaver MX 2004 - - Excellent product - - easy to use and understand right out of the box. After using Dreamweaver for a year (and thinking I was pretty good at it) I decided to take a Dreamweaver class at our tech school - - amazing experience - - this product is absolutely FULL of little tips, tricks and shortcuts that I would never have found on my own - I estimate my productivity is up 50% because of the class.

My two cents.... Buy Dreamweaver and take a class.....

I've always used Macromedia products. Dreamweaver / Fireworks (the graphic editing program to accompany dw) I've found the learning curve is quick. I want to use a class (as above) but found it cheaper to learn from tutorials on the internet.

Just to stick up for frontpage, I use it because it is simple and you can easily edit the html, with the capability to preview.

However if you are looking to use it for flashy things without really knowing how they work then i wouldnt recommend it as often with frontpage you have to remodify the code.

But frontpage has done the job for me mainly as textpad with a browser.

Before you decide on anything, at least give Dreamweaver a try. Macromedia has a free trial. If you can use DW it is very well worth it. And whatever you do, don't use a Photo/Imaging program to do your entire website.

Before DW I used to use HTML Kit, maybe you'll like it(free): http://www.chami.com/html-kit/download/

FP is great for messing around and getting to learn HTML (Thats where I started) Then when I went to college we used Dreamweaver 4 there. Bought the latest version (MX at the time) and have nver looked back since. Exellent code view, also most basic code has been given "an interface" For example if you want to include a file, you dont need to hand code, just click the "include" button! I love it. However it does come with a price-tag and can be a bit dis-orientating at first. Get over tow www.macromedia.com and get a trial of the latest MX2004 version. I tried it and am now saving to get the upgrade. It really is awesome, but only if your seriously into the web-design scene and have the money.

With regards to what you said about KaZaA - isn't that illeagal

Dreamweaver is a stellar WYSIWYG program. I highly recommend it.
..........Uh, check your PM's

Yea, I'd agree, Im a bit of a newbie to web design myself, but I use Dream Weaver and Id recomend it to anyone as I think its great and really easy to use.

Nate

Well thank you all for your opinions.
I have tried dreamweaver mx and I guess I am daffed, but found it comlicated (compared to FP).
I guess I should have started with DW.
I have gone back to FP for now, I found it took me hours to get anything going in DW.
I don't currently do anything fancy anyways.
I think a class it DW may be what I need.

I guess, my current view is; if you make your living designing sites, DW may be the way to go, but if you want something simple, easy and functional (with some bugs), that will build a decent page, I would stick with FP.

I make my living selling products, the webdesgn is only a tool to do that with (at this point)

Thanks again
Smokey

I want to point out what no one else has pointed out thus far and then get into my speel. Photoshop is not for creating websites, in that regard it has very limited capability. It is for designing graphics to be used in a website.

Dreamweaver does have somewhat of a learning curve, as with anything. You just have to be determined, think of how determined you were to learn web design techniques in the first place. I would reccomend not worrying yourself with learning the fancy tips and tricks of DW, in the beginning just learn how to use it as an editor.

If you keep running back to what your familiar with you will never learn anything new. Frontpage, believe it or not, is un-productive. It was MS's attempt to make MS word users web designers and in doing so, effectively I might ad, they took away some of the basic techniques that any web designer needs to know and replaced them with click here and have an area all over your website with navigation, etc, etc. It may seem like a good idea at first but it only keeps you in a pit where you can't get any better.

I don't make my living designing websites, I do it mainly as a hobby, however taking the time to learn DW was, IMHO, an excellent choice.

I would have to stay Dreamweaver as many others have said.
FrontPage is also a pretty nice one too.

frontpage is easy - an easy way to get into bad habits. dreamweaver is better