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Create my own webpage - which Software?

T

Tomaz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 24, 2004
311
0
Switzerland
Hey
I would like to create my own webpage. I don't know any html and I don't wanna use .mac. I just switched over from the PC world and there we had tools like Frontpage with which one could create very nice homepages without any html knowledge.
.mac is a nice start, but it's just too limiting. I would like to create my own layout (own background, own font, own layout of the pictures, other hyperlinks...)
Does anything like this exist in the Mac world ??
Thanks for your help!


I go my first Mac (PB 15") 2 weeks ago and I LOOOOOVE it !
 
good question; i've begun thinking of that myself lately, as i'd like to develop a web site this summer. Can anyone point me to a credible comparo of the Adobe vs. Macromedia packages (anything recent online)? I'm interested in ease of use, compatability with different browsers, integration among programs in a package (i.e. Golive's integration of illustrator and photoshop, Dreamweaver's integration of flash, etc., and the disadvantages, if any, of going with, say, dreamweaver, photoshop, flash and illustrator), etc.

And since the forum seems to brim with web developer/graphics types, any personal opinions/war stories about advantages/disadvantages of any given approach would be welcome.
 
Tomaz said:
Hey
I would like to create my own webpage. I don't know any html and I don't wanna use .mac. I just switched over from the PC world and there we had tools like Frontpage with which one could create very nice homepages without any html knowledge.
.mac is a nice start, but it's just too limiting. I would like to create my own layout (own background, own font, own layout of the pictures, other hyperlinks...)
Does anything like this exist in the Mac world ??
Thanks for your help!


I go my first Mac (PB 15") 2 weeks ago and I LOOOOOVE it !
Click to expand...
Actually, you can still use .Mac, but just upload your web pages designed in another program through your iDisk. That's what I do for my own webpage (it's offline as of when I posted this - I'll add content to it later).
 
Go with Dreamweaver.

Eventually you will want to know HTML, as you can solve problems much faster by knowing the coding. You can view a split screen of layout/code to see how they correlate. Frontpage is such crap, once you get going you'll be glad you left it.
 
Go to a popular page, like say CNN.com, view the source, copy and paste it into Text Edit, save it as test.html, then open it in Safari. Mess around with it, changing the text and such. Grab one of those simple HTML for Dummies books, keep viewing other pages source code, keep messing around, and eventually you'll pick it up :)

That's how I learned at least! I've used FrontPage once or twice, never touched Dreamweaver... it's all Notepad on Windows or Text Edit on the Mac
 
Yeah, be a man and use a text editor :cool: (SubEthaEdit is nice). Also, get your self a copy of Designing with Web Standards by Jeffery Zeldman and learn to code it properly, with CSS and XHTML.
 
Dreamwaever isn't cheap, but I think it would serve you well. You can figure out most of the WYSIWYG tools if you have experience with Frontpage and you don't need to know HTML to put together a simple web page. The real benefit to Dreamweaver is that it will encourage you become interested in more advanced web building techniques (including learning more about HTML), and all the advanced tools are right there at your fingertips when you need them.
 
kgarner said:
Yeah, be a man and use a text editor :cool: (SubEthaEdit is nice). Also, get your self a copy of Designing with Web Standards by Jeffery Zeldman and learn to code it properly, with CSS and XHTML.
Click to expand...

Definitely do this, Frontpage and Dreamweaver output the sloppiest code. If you do it by hand the end result will be well worth the time spent.
 
davecuse said:
Definitely do this, Frontpage and Dreamweaver output the sloppiest code. If you do it by hand the end result will be well worth the time spent.
Click to expand...
I agree! I don't use FrontPage or Dreamweaver - I write all my HTML, JavaScript, and CSS by hand in TextEdit. I get cleaner code that way, since I have an understanding of how HTML/JS/CSS are supposed to be written.
 
i ust took a whole semester learning html code in BBedit and some css. Then i learned dreamweaver and in a way learning the code is a waste if ur nasty in dreamweaver. Yes its good to know the language because in a way you do know more of whats going on but dreamweaver is a great program and it has step by step learning right in the software.
 
Espnetboy3 said:
i ust took a whole semester learning html code in BBedit and some css. Then i learned dreamweaver and in a way learning the code is a waste if ur nasty in dreamweaver. Yes its good to know the language because in a way you do know more of whats going on but dreamweaver is a great program and it has step by step learning right in the software.
Click to expand...

Depends on the site. I would agree with static, brochure style sites. But dynamic sites with databases and other stuff, benefit a lot from a designer that can write his own code. Maybe not at first so much, but when that redesign comes, and it will come, the hand coded site is going to be a lot easier to modify because you can understand what the original code is doing.
 
Dreamweaver

I'm a strong believer in the quality of Dreamweaver. It has a bit of trouble sometimes, but it gets the job done. What it screws up I open up in split code/design view and rewrite by hand, but generally it saves a lot of time. It is especially good for visual thinkers... Some people think in words and numbers. Others think in terms of graphs and pictures.

If you really want to save some money just download Mozilla and use the built-in Page Composer... From the File menu choose New and then click on Composer Page. It isn't fancy, but it is a quality setup for making a simple website.
 
NO WYSIWYG editor can create code that is as lean, fast loading, cross browser effective, and most importantly, validated on the W3 site as well as someone who knows how to hand code to the standards.

End of story, thanks for playing, all the best!

Now, having said that, for people who want to do amateur sites, hobby sites, etc WYSIWYG have their place. Of the 3 Frontpage is a steaming pile of dung, Go Live is really nice, but my money goes to Dreamweaver. If you just want to whip up a site, aren't worried about error free code or full standards support, then I would use this one for sure. It can even create validated, error free code, it just is bloated.

Why is this a big deal? Web standards and validation are designed to create lean, easily edited code that views well in both platforms, in many browsers. More importantly, properly coded HTML/XHTML/CSS is easy to read for disabled people who use screen-readers to "listen" to the web page. Crappy, table based layout, font tag strewn, blah blah blah code is next to impossible for people with screen readers to go through.

Browsers have different modes they go into. If they encounter validated, error free code they render the page properly. If they encounter errors in the code they go into what is called "Quirks" mode. In essence the browser realizes the person who created the web page made an error and does its best to compensate for this error by guessing what the author meant to code. What ends up happening sometimes is the browser simply screws up the page's appearance.

On top of that, many browsers have rendering bugs that need to be compensated for, which is where not only hand coding knowledge is important, but also to know which versions of which browsers have issues that need to be compensated for in the code.

So, in short, hand coding HTML/CSS is the best route (and I love BBEdit for that), and Dreamweaver is the best WYSIWYG editor if you don't want to learn to hand code.

Cheers!

James
 
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