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Best website design application

MacDonaldsd

MacDonaldsd

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 8, 2005
1,005
0
London , UK
Im wondering what application to use to create my website. Im studying computer science so website designing will benefit me latter on in my course with all the human interface stuff I have to do, and also learning flash.
I wanted the website to have some simple stuff like blog and also download sections to download apps I create.

Does everyone recommend dreamweaver ?
And if so where do I start there are so many options
 
Website "Design" application is a bit of a misnomer, Website "assembly" is more like it. The design part has to come from you. You can make a website in TextEdit if you want (and understand your HTML vocabulary well), but the WYSIWYG(SNA) programs do make things easier

Dreamweaver is the overwhelming standard, so getting experience in it would be beneficial. There is a student version you can get inexpensively. However, be aware that you are forbidden by Macromedia to use the student version for any paid work.
 
I use Dreamweaver. Others use GoLive. They are probably the two best programs on the market.

While I'll never discourage anyone from learning something new, I don't see how website design will help in a computer science program. I've never had to take a straight website design course. I've made java applets and .NET sites, and other stuff, but it is all very different than straight website design. Maybe others have had different comp sci programs but speaking from my experience, there are many other technologies that could help you more.
 
grapes911 said:
I use Dreamweaver. Others use GoLive. They are probably the two best programs on the market.

While I'll never discourage anyone from learning something new, I don't see how website design will help in a computer science program. I've never had to take a straight website design course. I've made java applets and .NET sites, and other stuff, but it is all very different than straight website design. Maybe others have had different comp sci programs but speaking from my experience, there are many other technologies that could help you more.
Click to expand...

I admit the website creation is for my personal benefit more than for my course. But I do some internet based things such as flash and stuff like that so It wont do me any harm. And will mean I can try things out, which is half the fun.
 
i prefer dreamweaver but i have not experimented much with go live to much i just have become so attached to my dreamweaver...:cool:
 
I hear RapidWeaver is good, but I use DreamWeaver generally. GoLive is good too if you already have CS2. It's easier, but I don't think you can do as much with it as with DW. Good integration with PS though. iWeb is fine for simple stuff. Especially with .Mac. But you have to save as .html and upload via FTP with other hosting. Depends on what you need to do and how much you want to spend.
 
Best web-design software

Up to a few years ago I used Pagespinner; an excellent little program and easy-to-use, but hardly paste-and-drop. I now use Freeway pro which I find easy to use (very intuitive) and also almost WYSIWYG. It has a few bugs in it if you are trying to upload legacy web pages into it (this won't be a problem in your case however). I hear the much cheaper Freeway express is excellent value and does 95% of what most people like. I've also 'seen' and messed with Dreamweaver and Go-Live. The former is impressive and seems the de facto standard, but the learning curve is steep. Go-live is easier to use and, in my experience, easier to upload webpages made in other apps,

Cheers

Richard S
 
Does Freeway allow you too work with raw html( if you wanted). Even though im doing computer science when I played with dreamweaver I didnt no where to start so many options.
 
You should learn to hand-code. Once you learn to do that, dreamweaver has pretty much no learning curve. It's just a matter of getting used to the layout and learning where everything is. Then again, I don't see the point of using something so slow and ridiculously expensive if you can code by hand. :)
 
radiantm3 said:
You should learn to hand-code. Once you learn to do that, dreamweaver has pretty much no learning curve. It's just a matter of getting used to the layout and learning where everything is. Then again, I don't see the point of using something so slow and ridiculously expensive if you can code by hand. :)
Click to expand...

Because coding is only one part of the equation. Dreamweaver is also a management tool among many other things.
 
Freeway HTML?

MacDonaldsd said:
Does Freeway allow you too work with raw html( if you wanted). Even though im doing computer science when I played with dreamweaver I didnt no where to start so many options.
Click to expand...

Yes you can input your own html although there are no tools to help you as such.

BW RTJ
 
decksnap said:
Because coding is only one part of the equation. Dreamweaver is also a management tool among many other things.
Click to expand...
As do most web-centric text editors.

The only reason I see dreamweaver being a benefit is for those who don't know how to code very well and those who are still building websites with tables. Otherwise you can get pretty much the same functionality in many other editors at a fraction of the cost and many times the speed. Most web-centric editors on the mac have a live (as you type) safari preview which is much more accurate than what dreamweaver provides. The CSS dreamweaver outputs is pretty bad as well.

Consider the following code:
Code: 
border: 1px solid #CCC;
border-bottom: 2px solid #CC0000;
padding: 5px;

When you create that in dreamweaver (by not handcoding), you get this:
Code: 
padding: 5px;
border-top-width: 1px;
border-right-width: 1px;
border-bottom-width: 2px;
border-left-width: 1px;
border-top-style: solid;
border-right-style: solid;
border-bottom-style: solid;
border-left-style: solid;
border-top-color: #999999;
border-right-color: #999999;
border-bottom-color: #CC0000;
border-left-color: #999999;

It doesn't stop there. The javascript it generates is very bloated as well. I've been using dreamweaver since macromedia first acquired it. It was a necessity in the dark ages of table-based layouts. CSS-based design freed me from it. :cool:
 
I think we've had this discussion before. Dreamweaver can manage, organize, FTP sites, store/manage code, check in/out collaboratively, integrate with Fireworks/Flash, run browser checks, etc. etc. etc. It's not really comparable to text editors.
 
decksnap said:
I think we've had this discussion before. Dreamweaver can manage, organize, FTP sites, store/manage code, check in/out collaboratively, integrate with Fireworks/Flash, run browser checks, etc. etc. etc. It's not really comparable to text editors.
Click to expand...

I guess you haven't used text editors like textmate or skedit? They do most of them. The fireworks/flash integration is moot, and dreamweaver's ftp support isn't that great anyways (I'd rather be using transmit even if I did code with dreamweaver).
 
Well there you go. I'd prefer to have it all in one place. That's what Dreamweaver is all about.
 
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