HTML makes me something something

[Hey Joe]

I was wondering if anybody knew of any good What You See Is What You Get website builders.

I'm starting to develop a website and my search for a developer has so far been fruitless (read: too expensive) so I'm thinking of just learning to do the thing by myself. Alas, my skill with HTML and Java....or any type of coding is negligible at best.

Can anybody recommend a simple to use WYSIWYG web page creator?

 

[Starnerf]

I've used Microsoft Frontpage before. It seemed alright. I prefer to write my own code when making a website so I'm not too familiar with other tools. What kind of site are you trying to make? If it's just a personal site Geocities has a decent editor.

 

[bluerahjah]

Go Crazy? Don't Mind If I do.

I use a mixture of Dreamweaver, and Visual Studio .Net. You can find the Express Edition of VS on Microsoft's website, I'd recommend at least taking a look at it.

 

[Virgil]

Without knowing the exact purpose/intent of the website, I would suggest installing Wordpress [http://wordpress.org/] and using that to run your site. You can pick something from their themes gallery [http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/] to customize the look and feel, and if you want a custom look you'll be able to find someone to make you a Wordpress theme for a hell of a lot cheaper than building you an entire site.

On the other hand, if you've never done a site before and definitely don't want to use some sort of standard web app to run the site, you'll probably get sub-par results from a WYSWYG editor (especially a simple/cheap one). If you really want to do it yourself, I'd suggest getting a book [http://www.amazon.com/XHTML-Sixth-Visual-Quickstart-Guide/dp/0321430840/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224855930&sr=8-1] on HTML first and just learning how to do it right.

My personal environment is Zend Studio [http://www.zend.com/en/products/studio/] and TextPad [http://www.textpad.com/], with the CorelDRAW Suite X4 [http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1150981051301#tabview=tab0] for my relatively limited graphic editing needs (we have real artists ).

 

[Sayvara]

Geez, it depends so much on what you want to do.

For simple HTML-based sites and a bit of JavaScript (not Java!!! *smacks over head*), you can try Nvu and KompoZer.

http://portableapps.com/apps/development/nvu_portable

In order to test-run it on your local computer, I can heartilly recommnd XAMPP:

http://portableapps.com/apps/development/xampp

/S

 

[jasoncyrus]

Personally I'd stick with Dreamweaver. Its got both wysiwyg options and raw coding options. Helps a lot when you are configuring and modifying the details of something you steal, sorry, borrow from another site or code library.

If its just an information site you want DW is the way to go. Avoid frontpage at all costs if possible because it likes to ignore things better softwares put in...like layouts.

 

[Anarchemitis]

I used to use Dreamweaver. Then I forgot how to use it, and left that school.

 

[Isaac Dodgson]

Wow, ok this is going to be worlds more complicated then you probably realize.

The content of your website, and it's purpose needs to be recognized first, and then the copy, or content can be created. From there a basic layout can be established, IE: The home page links you to these places which have this copy From here we can decide how we're going to build it, or rather what language will we use. Is it going to be basic and raw html? elements of javascript (java and javascript are two very different things my friend), .aspx? flash? Each of these are approached differently in themselves (.aspx is a nightmare if you don't know a lick about programing in general by the way). From here the skeleton can be created, and the content added, and THEN and ONLY THEN you can spruce it up with color and graphics and make it all kickass as much as you want it to be...

...So as a simple WYSIWYG creator go, they eliminate alot of those steps, but at the same time greatly limit what you can do...

 

[cleverlymadeup]

well as any real web developer will say you have 2 choices for development they are

dreamweaver
notepad

since you want WYSIWYG i will go with dreamweaver, frontpage fills your page up with a TON of crap and looks bad on any browser but ie, dreamweaver looks good on all browsers

and i'm guessing the Escapist uses dreamweaver, if not it's notepad or possibly vi

 

[Hellion25]

Yeah I second (or third or fourth or whatever) the Dreamweaver motion. Thats as good as I've used that wasn't just straight coding the page itself. Plus you can get nice little templates too.