I know this is not exactly a travel-related technical question of sorts. I am building my own professional web page for my new business and I was wondering which of the following was the most user friendly for non-technical people like me.... .
Adobe Photoshop 7+ Adobe Go Live Microsoft Frontpage or... Macromedia Dreamweaver.
I am pretty sure someone in this community will be able to steer me in the right direction!!
Also which program has the most bang for the buck? I don't want to spend a ton of $$$ Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this!! It's much appreciated!!
The programs you listed required time to learn then beside the cost of buying them. I own Photoshop and Dreamweaver and would only recommend them for experince people.
Do you already have a website host provider? They might already have the software to build your own simple website. Mine host providers is www.Ipowerweb.com and they have templates for to build my own simple website.
You can also look at the CMS (Content Management Systems( like Textpattern, www.textpattern.com Mambo, http://www.mamboserver.com/, and Dupral Dupral Website which give you the ability to fill it with your own content. I always amazed what people can do with this CMS software.
But again to use these you will have to learn how to use them and have a website.
I agree with Bill that Photoshop and Dreamweaver are probably way too much tool for what you have in mind.
It really depends on how complex your site will be. If it's just a few pages of static content, either the ISP's web builder templates or the CMS systems would work.
If it's more than that, you'll probably want to hire a pro--it will save you money in the long run not to be bogged down in esoteric web issues when you should be concentrating on your new business.
Thanks for the advice Bill and Chris. It is much appreciated. Frankly, I really don't have time to learn anything complicated right now. Too many other things to concentrate on.
I built my website with MS Publisher and am happy with it. For a simple information site it is sufficient. If you can make a word document then you can build a website with publisher.It is very easy.
If you have windows then you probably have publisher.
Leslie, I use Yahoos Site Builder. It is not that difficult to learn the basics and then there is a lot you can do with manipulating what they offer. The nice thing is that you don't need to know any codes or language to do this. It offers many options to those using it for business purposes--which is not me. You can establish e-mail accounts, etc. It might be what you are looking for. It's kind of a cheating way to build a site for those of us who aren't particularly savy.
I still run slowtrav.com on MS Frontpage - but am switching this year to Dreamweaver. You do not need to know any HTML to use FrontPage - but if you do know HTML it works well too (but Dreamweaver lets you do more and does not have FrontPage extensions which slow down the server). People are saying FrontPage is dead in the new MS release - but it is just renamed.
Thanks to Jane, Clive/Sue and Pauline! I just made my way back to this message thread now, a month later! Thanks for all of the great advice, I am almost ready to publish the website finally. My host has a great sitebuilder and that is what I am using for now. It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Just very time consuming but fun.
I have not yet used it, but have heard a great deal of good things about NVU (www.nvu.com) as a free alternative to Dreamweaver. If you have the patience to learn it, The Gimp can do pretty much most things that Photoshop can do, and is also open source.
As an "instant website - just add your own links pictures and text" I quite like Serif WebPlus - UK computer mags have been supplying an older version (6.0) lately, but it needs registration by phone.
I would agree with other posters - Webpages have moved on considerably from the old "do it yourself" approach. For the amount of money required to purchase the software you mentioned, you could probably get a professional to do the job. It is, afterall, the thing that will shape first impressions many of your potential customers.
Posts: 830 | Location: Hampshire, UK | Registered: 28 March 2005
Has anyone tried the Google page builder? I did sign up for it, just because I wanted to see what it was like, but haven't had time to play with it.
I do own Dreamweaver, and use that for my own web site, but was curious about Google. It's still in beta, but has gotten very good press for ease of use. I guess it's so popular that there's a waiting list. I had to wait a couple of days after sending in a request until they told me they had opened up to add more users.
I think you may have to have a Google email account to sign up.
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