Best web-authoring software?

[AlphaTech]

Originally posted by filipp
All this dreamweaver, goLive and so on, you dont make the HTML the way YOU want it, but rather the way macromedia or adobe things you should.

Not even close bubba... I've been using GoLive to work on my site since I redesigned it. I originally used Quark 5 just to get something up, since I knoew 0 html code, and didn't even know where to start. A friend of mine helped me to learn the very basics of html code and I jumped in with GoLive.

MOST of the time, I use the "Source" view, which allows you to do anything you want since it acts [essentially] as you much louded text editor. GoLive does NOTHING to the code of my pages, unless I tell it to. Since I work on the source 99.5% of the time, I can see everything that is being put there. The remaining .5% of the time has to do with special projects that I took on for where I used to work. I used the layout view to make the table for a web page to send out pages to pagers. It was a hell of a lot easier to do it via the layout view then to try and do it via html code. Especially since I had never created tables before. It was also a snap to change the tables that way. I attempted to alter the source to change the tables, but even bbedit screwed the pooch there.

Also, unless you have actually used the applications, you have no grounds for your comments about them. I HAVE used Dreamweaver, GoLive as well as bbedit. The one application that I stick with is GoLive. It's just better then the others, at least for me, for creating pages, uploading them, and previewing them. Bbedit's system for previewing pages forces you to save them first, not so with GoLive. I can make any changes I like, preview it, make more changes, preview again, and then save before uploading the page.

If you don't feel like learning tons of html code immediately, and before, you create your pages, use something like GoLive. If you want to spend the next X days reading up on html, and trying to figure it out and then trouble shoot the pages when they don't display/load properly, then go with the text editor. Personally, I'd rather learn things on my own schedule.

Oh, and BTW, if you have every used an Adobe product, then GoLive is a snap to learn. Especially since it comes with manuals. It also comes with LiveMotion2, at least the copy I picked up did. Dreamweaver is a bit more difficult to learn, but not impossible (as some would have you believe).

 

[anneleonard]

But i'm using dreamweaver in just code-view- does that make me any less of a web-coder? I haven't tried BBEdit yet even though I have got a demo version, but dreamweaver seems a bit more user-friendly with quick inserts and pop-up helps for inputting variable names, etc.
As an aside to this, somewhat, has anyone else noticed safari using stylesheets completely differently from camino, IE, mozilla etc? its not exactly a mainstream browser, but its weird in a stylesheet that it won't read

a.stylename:hover {}

when every other browser will! Its been quite infuriating, but I've come out of the other side reasonably unscathed

 

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by anneleonard
But i'm using dreamweaver in just code-view- does that make me any less of a web-coder? I haven't tried BBEdit yet even though I have got a demo version, but dreamweaver seems a bit more user-friendly with quick inserts and pop-up helps for inputting variable names, etc.
As an aside to this, somewhat, has anyone else noticed safari using stylesheets completely differently from camino, IE, mozilla etc? its not exactly a mainstream browser, but its weird in a stylesheet that it won't read

a.stylename:hover {}

when every other browser will! Its been quite infuriating, but I've come out of the other side reasonably unscathed

The KHTML engine Safari uses is a little quirky, but I think it will improve quickly.

Have you tried this?

.stylename a:hover {}

 

[JupiterZen]

Originally posted by anneleonard
But i'm using dreamweaver in just code-view- does that make me any less of a web-coder?

That's not what I meant to suggest. It's just that most pro web coder I know don't even code HTML anymore. It's all JSP and some ASP these days which generates the HTML for the pages.

No use for Dreamweaver there.

 

[AlphaTech]

Safari has yet to make it's handling of CSS2 up to the same level as all other browsers. I ues a css file for my pages, since that's less code that needs to be in the page.

One of my goals when creating my site/pages was to have it load fast for everyone. Using a css file helped with that, as well as using a tiled header image, since it only has to load a small file that gets repeated.

I had a friend test it on his dial up connection, and even a page with a largish image in it loaded fast.

 

[bousozoku]

I chose GoLive a while back after learning how to code HTML with a text editor.

It allows me precise placement of items using the grid control and is easy enough for creative types to pick up quickly with a how-to book. Everything falls to-hand as it does in Photoshop or Illustrator.

I use Dreamweaver at school and it's nice enough. However, it seems less than intuitive. I've searched for weeks for the control to turn on the toolbar with the components and never found it. I would expect something under the Window or View menu with something like Toolbars or Palettes.

Whatever you do, buy a Visual Quickstart guide to go along with it.

 

[gopher]

I go BBEdit all the way too.

 

[filipp]

Originally posted by JupiterZen
That's not what I meant to suggest. It's just that most pro web coder I know don't even code HTML anymore. It's all JSP and some ASP these days which generates the HTML for the pages.

No use for Dreamweaver there.

Exactly, if all you do is HTML coding, you may be just fine with a dreamweaver or a goLive. But as soon you need some dynamics on your page, a simple editor is the only way to do real coding (PHP, ASP, Java and so on).

BBEdit is great in the way it colors the code

 

[iTarzan]

BBEdit is great in the way it colors the code

Thats nothing special really, Emacs, Vim and other text editors do the same thing.

Emacs not only colors the code but it actually expediates things depending on what mode your in whether its c, java, or html-helper-mode. Every language known to man gets colored with Emacs. Emacs is a Lisp interpreter so writing a few chunks of Lisp can extend the editor. It garbage collects and byte compiles also so its portable too. Its a remarkable program, I highly recommend trying it out.(it comes with OSX, open up the terminal and type "emacs *html then press alt-option+x then type global-font-lock-mode and hit enter and it will color the code, if you have your termcap setup(its hosed by default))

I ues a css file for my pages, since that's less code that needs to be in the page.

Yeah browsers cache the css page so if you use one for multiple pages you have less to download with each new page as alot of stuff is moved into the css.

Anyone who wants to learn about CSS I recommend Eric Meyers book "on CSS, Mastering the Language of Web Design" its on New Riders(they release the best books imho)

 

[yzedf]

ssh to the server and vi baby!

of course... my website sucks! but that's beside the point, right

 

[groov']

Realityweaver I would say

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Dreamweaver. Period.

Amen

 

[losfp]

I had a fiddle with GoLive last night, and while it certainly looked pretty good, I couldn't quite get to grips with it. Maybe I'm just more used to the Dreamweaver interface as I'd been using Macromedia products all the way from Dreamweaver 3, Homesite 4 & 5

Looks like either one will suffice as long as you learn its idiosyncrasies (BBEdit is not too bad too! but isn't as feature-laden as the aforementioned 2)