What program should I use for website design?
 

I was just wondering what programs are best to design websites.:confused:

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

if you know the code (html) and you dont mind not having color coding or auto complete.....notepad. thats how i started web coding. now im using dream weaver because it has allot of time saving things like auto complete and code snippets.

/forest

btw theres also things like syn text editor and the like.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Well, there is no "best program" to design websites. Windoze' simple notepad is more than capable to design high quality websites, just ask Matt Keller of 108. However, you get no features. Notepad 2 is another good program to use, it is the simplicity of Notepad and the features of Dreamweaver. The, I guess, industry standard, is Macromedia (Adobe) Dreamweaver. It is above all, a very good program. It can easily code XHTML, PHP, CSS, JS, everything (not saying that Notepad(2) can't, just Dreamweaver has templates and extension auto-formating). The bad thing is that it costs money- more than pocket change. You can get a 30-day trial from the website, just make your website early. My team uses it because our school spends money without knowing what it is spending it on, so we have labs filled with Studio, Photoshop, et cetera (and yet no money for robotics...).

There is good news though. There is a program called HTML Kit, and it's completely FREE. It is very similar to Dreamweaver and has some features that Dreamweaver doesn't.I think that it is very cool. It is also good for people new HTML and web design, so if you don't know the coding, it will assist you. I would give that a try before downloading the Dreamweaver trial from Adobe.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Like the post above me said there are many great programs for designing a website. Many of those programs in the list are great.

NVU is another free alternative to Dreamweaver, but I don't like how it formats some of its HTML code. Besides that it's an incredibly powerful WYSIWYG editor that is on par to Dreamweaver.
Notepad++ is my favorite text editor, it can color code HTML, CSS, PHP and many other non-web programming languages. I'd only recommend using a text editor if you know HTML already.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

If you are looking for a way to do a basic webpage without to many fancy things, i would suggest MS Frontpage. I found that to be the easiest to work with if you dont know much about it and there are lots of tutorials for it online.

If you are going for professional and detailed i would go with everyone else and go Dreamweaver.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

As I'm using a pre-made template for my website work (as is the policy of the University of South Carolina), I use TextWrangler on OS X. Find and replace across multiple files, nice interface to work with, and just generally a good call for such tasks.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

If you have not done this before, you may want to look at a CMS (Content Management System) like Wordpress or Durpal.

It will get you up and running faster. The look can be modified quite a bit so it may be a good choice.

If you look at the awards section of the rules, you will see that the website award is all about content. Get your content up and running.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Where are the vi vs. emacs people?

gvim
emacs

Syntax coloring, recognition of HTML tags/attributes, etc.

--Eric

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

You generally get the most efficient coding with notepad or notepad++. Dreamweaver can be helpful if you're only doing HTML with CSS. If you do php, you can forget about Frontpage and Dreamweaver (also, I don't like how they render pages).

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

My two cents says, for HTML editing use NOTEPAD. but for webdesign I like Golive from adobe and dreamweaver. I have used both and are both industry standards. you can use places like tutorialized to read about how to use them. They are very much like drag and drop applications with some tools to use for links and other things. both are very strong. If you are using photoshop got with GoLive since it is interchangable with photoshop.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Our page is all PHP and has direct load for the gallery. Dont forget if you check it out were still in progress so its not all finished. actually most isnt finished. www.team302.com

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I use Dreamweaver 8, Flash 8, and Photoshop CS2 to design our team's website. About 1.5 months ago I was told that our team needed a webmaster so I decided to take a swing at it, but I didn't even know what HTML was. Through some intense online training I learned the basics.

Dreamweaver is heavy with CSS (cascading style sheets) that make your website consistant. I haven't used any other Adobe or Microsoft programs but I can say that Dreamweaver is "easy" to use. I know it's expensive but it might be worth investing in. I don't know with Adobe is going to release another Macromedia Studio so version 8 might stay a while longer. (By the way, Adobe released Photoshop CS3 beta and you can try it for free if you have a PS CS2 cd-key. I heard it was good.)

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

to get a little off topic but to carry on with cs3 for photoshop. Its good, but i dont like the immediate setup. It can be transformed to fit CS2 layout but it comes with the tool bar a single line of tools unlike cs2's double line of tools. the layers and everything are all collapsable with a click of a button to give you more veiwing room but why not just hit tab instead. I currently use a wacom 9 x 12 tablet for all my drawings and photoshop pays off. when the upgrade comes out for cs3 you might want to get it (March) but not to much diffrence. Does anyone know what RAW feed is ? I never figured that out. I may go search google for it

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

It might have to do with the 'camera raw' feature. I don't think it is 'unlocked' in PS CS3 beta but it is a new feature. You can edit raw camera images without importing it fully into PS.

For me the camera raw feature is a waste since our team's sony Cybershot takes pics in .jpg format. It compresses it before i get a chance to compress it! What camera do you all use to take pics what what format is the image saved as? I want to take professional looking pictures for our team and the Cybershot just isn't cutting it.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I love the Camera RAW format (also, adobe's universal digital negative format is amazing). My dad got a Canon Digital Rebel XT, and using RAW gives me a lot more power than .jpg's. I had a camera that just outputted a jpg picture; I loved it until I tried my dad's. With RAW, you can do a lot more with light values and still keep the same detail.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Some sites are best built in simplicity. Like a couple other posters, I used notepad to make some pretty decent-looking websites in pure HTML with CSS.

For another group I'm in, I graduated to a CMS (content management system) that makes it nicer when doing dynamic updates and adding some pretty cool functionality. It's built off PHP and MYSQL on the back-end. I still wanted to modify things like title logo, banners, and other aesthetic elements so I used Photoshop CS to do most of that work. Joomla! works great as a canned (turn-key) solution. Installation is wicked (yes, I'm from new england) easy, and the functionality is wicked awesome. The added benefit is that I didn't need to spend days or weeks trying to tweak everything the way I wanted...I'm just too busy these days to muss with coding.

So, I guess after reading all of these posts, I bring the question back to you:

"What is your goal in building the website?"

That question should drive the need for tools to succeed in your goal.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I use Dreamweaver MX (color syntax coding for XHTML, CSS, and PHP), Fireworks MX (for designing conceptual designs and graphics), Photoshop CS2 (always great to have in your bag o' tools!). I use Fireworks to design web pages, Dreamweaver to code them, and Photoshop to do amazing batch processing and editing of pictures for the photo galleries.

I've used FrontPage, and it was okay if all you are doing is editing HTML, CSS, and Javascript in the "Code View" and using its built in FTP. But I absolutely HATED that it did not have color syntaxing available for PHP. So I went out and bought Macromedia Studio MX to get Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Flash.

I've also had some experience with CMS's, and they can be great. I was originally going to use a turn-key PHP/MySQL CMS for team228.org's 2007 website (our new site revision is still under construction) and then hack it down to the software core and rebuild it the way I wanted it to work, but I didn't like any of them enough, so I writing my own from scratch. It's fun to try the impossible! ;)

* Actually, it's not that hard. I already have a news system done, about 40% of the administrator back-end done, the photo galleries are well under way, and overall its coming along great. The hardest part was importing 2100+ pictures into the MySQL database, tagging them, and adding descriptions for the photo gallery!

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

What camera do you guys use? I like the wallpaper section:

http://www.team228.org/media/wallpaper/

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

DITTO on that question!

I love the composition of your photography...someone's got a good eye and has some talent!

As for me...Digital Rebel (first generation) 6.3 MP...definitely does the trick for a lot of the stuff that I do.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I also like using Notepad ++. It allows me to use the same program to create html, css, and php files. At school I have to use Dreamweaver because, which works ok, but I am just not as fond of it.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I've been through many programs trying to settle on a good editor for my many uses. I would say that the best choice I have found by far is Dreamweaver, if you're willing to spend the money. It is formatted to assist your code in just about any language you would need for a website. Since I'm not much for the visual parts of any editors, I can't speak for its visual editor. I've never used it. I write all of my code out, so if that's what you're looking for, it might not be the best answer.

However, if you don't want to spend the money, I have been through several of these as well. The obvious starting point is Notepad, but that is about the simplest and quite annoying at times. I've also used TextPad and PSPad. Both are nice, and each is good for different things. The one big downside I've found to PSPad is that its indentation isn't standard for most other programs. It uses two spaces as a tabbed indentation, even when opening a file that was created with a different format. That's my only problem with that, aside from that it's not as nice as Dreamweaver.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Programmer's Notepad (http://pnotepad.org) is pretty nice too.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Thanks! :)

I took all of those photos on my ancient, but trusty (20,000 picture strong and counting) Samsung 4.0 Mp camera. Some of them ("Robotics", "Cogs", "Nexus", "Gearbox", "Schematic", and "Vexed") I edited with a few filters in Photoshop CS2 or Paint Shop Pro 8, but with all of them I used the "Macro" setting on my camera.

Otherwise, since I almost always have at least one of my cameras (digital still and/or my Mini DV video) with me at every robotics meeting, I often just pick up objects on the table and start photographing them. I took dozens of pictures of the pieces of 80/20 extrusion, as well as the gears from the "Cogs" picture until I found some that I liked. (With a 2Gb SD card, and a backup 1Gb SD card in my wallet, I take TONS of pictures, including most of the pictures on our website from 2005 until present.)

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

When I started out, I used notepad, which is great for learning HTML because you have to type it all out. I have since switched to Dreamweaver, and LOVE IT!!
I use Dreamweaver with PHP and it works fine, but, hey, to every man his method.
Personally, I would recommend against Frontpage. While it *can* be used to make basic sites, the code it generates borders on unreadable.

So, if you can, I would suggest getting Dreamweaver.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Adobe Dream weaver is good... thats what I use..

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I make web sites on Microsoft Expressions web, photoshop and flash. And use notepad ++ as an editor or if i feel like typing c code or xml. All expressions web is, is a simplified version of DreamWeaver, i know cause i used to use dreamweaver and frontpage before that.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I'm a dreamweaver fan

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

We use frontpage, dreamweaver, flash, fireworks in the proccess of creating our website.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

My advise: Learn in notepad, produce in an editor.

Personally, I still use Notepad (although, Notepad ++ will certainly help). I've used Dreamweaver, Netscape Composer, MS Frontpage, and MS Publisher. To me, any one of them could never do everything I wanted (PHP, javascript, asp, CSS, XML, HTML frames, ...). So, it depends what code you'll be using.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

My team's website started out on Freewebs, and we just used the built-in HTML editor. Now, however, we've upgraded our servers and have FTP support. At work sessions, we use Dreamweaver due to ease of use and FTP integration. At home, since I don't have Dreamweaver, I use Smart FTP and make small edits in Notepad.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I have designed a few websites, and am currently managing three, with three different programs:

http://www.frogministries.org - Notepad
http://www.solidcornerstone.com - Frontpage
http://www.first1444.com - Macromedia Flash

Please feel free to explore the capabilities of the sites.

For the HTML user, I suggest Frontpage (better, faster coding)
For the HTML user who feels comfotable with a computer: I suggest trying a 30 day trial of FLASH. Flash is very simple to use, with practice.
For the user who does not have money to spend: Use note pad

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Microsoft FrontPage 2003 does not usually generate HTML code that adheres to the W3C Web Standards. (Before I went out and purchased Macromedia Studio MX, I was constantly fighting FrontPage to try to generate valid code... :() In response to the rise of Mozilla Firefox and hence the demand to code websites to W3C Standards, Microsoft has dropped the FrontPage product line and now is unveiling Microsoft Expressions, which claims to create 100% W3C Web Standards valid code.

I haven't used Expressions yet, as the 200 Mb Beta of it in the fall months held me back, so I can't offer any concrete suggestions based off of it. But if the file size of the compressed .exe download has anything to say, I'd say that Expressions - while it may work decently - is just an overly bloated piece of software. (As compared to the 93 Mb that Dreamweaver needed on my laptop, which more or less does the exact same thing and has the same features.)

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I use Photoshop to design, Imageready to slice, and Dreamweaver to code, with FileZilla as my FTP manager.

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

Really? I was not aware of that. Thanks!

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I recomend Macromedia/Adobe Dreamweaver. If you really wanna be "cool" get Studio 8 and you can design with both HTML, or if your 'really cool' PHP or ASP, and even add Flash elements to your site to make it just amazing!!

Re: What program should I use for website design?
 

I designed our team site in SlickEdit which is essentially a supped up text editor that lets you handle multiple files. I edited all the php with SlickEdit also.