Web Software

[Steve A.]

Hi,

I am looking into getting new web-writing software (HTML) for the buzz website, as you can see, the website now took me 3 weeks to write because I was sort of given the role of webmaster. So, I would like to enhance it somehow. Any suggestions on what kind of software to buy??? Thanks!!

-Steve A.
Buzz Webmaster

[Jeff Rodriguez]

The best program i've used is Dreamweaver. It kicks butt. Its pretty expensive though (i think, never bought it :-). It can do things that you wouldn't think of until you see its features. Go to www.macromedia.com to check it out.

[mpking]

Well, I see that you used Front Page Express to generate the site. (Or at least the front most page)

Honestly, putting a web site together isn't so much the wiz bang WSIWYG editior. It does help.

I use the full blown version of Frontpage2000. However, that's just because it came with Office2000.

Lot's of people like dreamweaver. Others like ColdFusion. It's a crap shoot on which you like.

[Elgin Clock]

If you want a no frills site with just neat backgrounds, text and pictures, just make one in MS Word, then save it as an htm or html file. This works good for me for what I'm doing for another website that is non-FIRST related.

[Joel J]

I'll have to agree with Ogre on this one. Dreamweaver is one of the best WYSIWYG editors around. Frontpage, and other Microsoft products are good for beginners, but as you get better you realize how limiting these programs are on actual development of your web-site.

~Just a note for ya.

[Lora Knepper]

First off - if I offend anyone, I apologize!

Second...I HATE HATE HATE Frontpage and MS Word as html editors!!! If you go to a webpage made with either of these programs you will find various "junk codes" in the html source...it's disgusting. Personally I think at that point you are just better off hand coding the html.

I was dead set against all WYSIWYG editors for ages because of that -- but then I came across a demo of Dreamweaver. Excellent program and it makes the contruction and updating of pages a breeze. It's what I use now on FIRST-a-holics and the RCU pages as well as my home page and a local band's site I help do. Highly highly recommended. I know that I havent even found all it's features yet!

~ lora

PS - again, for any of you that use Frontpage or Word...I apologize if I offended you

[Steve A.]

No offense taken here!!!

I was given frontpage express and the manual... this was at kickoff by the way... and I had no clue what I was doing. Now I know that frontpage is not really that good and what is on www.buzzrobotics.org, is really the best I could do in the time frame I was given!! Thanks for the suggestions, it really helped me to make a decision in what to get to help our webpage out!! Thanks again,

Steve A.
Buzz Webmaster

[mpking]

Originally posted by Lora Knepper
PS - again, for any of you that use Frontpage or Word...I apologize if I offended you

No offense. I too agree that MSWORD fills the page with worthless crap. (For the people trying to understand this conversation, if you view the source of the page, a small paragraph would turn into 8 or 9 printed pages of crap.)

Frontpage doesn't clutter the page too much, but it does have it's crappy parts.

I'm an ex-notepad user myself, and I'd probably switch to dreamweaver, but frontpage is what I get at the office, and it's easier to just use one editor.

[mpking]

Originally posted by Steve A.
Thanks for the suggestions, it really helped me to make a decision in what to get to help our webpage out!! Thanks again,

Here's a bit more advise.

In general, it's better if you try to avoid frames. It's easy to make mistakes with them. (Ie, not breaking frames when you leave your site, and spawning multiple duplicate frames.)

Instead you might want to try including a common Table of Contents page in the document, using the object tag (or your Editors way of doing it. Frontpage has a way of doing it, and its semi decent, but it only works on Frontpage enabled webservers)

for specifics, see one of the best resources out there:
http://www.w3.org/
specifically, the HTML section
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/

This is a decription of every tag that exisits, what it does, and what attributes it takes.

[Brandon Martus]

Originally posted by Lora Knepper
Second...I HATE HATE HATE Frontpage and MS Word as html editors!!! If you go to a webpage made with either of these programs you will find various "junk codes" in the html source...it's disgusting. Personally I think at that point you are just better off hand coding the html.

AMEN SISTA!

Originally posted by mpking

Well, I see that you used Front Page Express to generate the site. (Or at least the front most page)

Never _EVER_ have I used, or plan on using FrontPage.
And I'm pretty sure the authors of vBulletin wouldn't use FrontPage also. And if they have... I may have to go thru and edit all the html

ehhe

sorry.. i get all weird about that kinda stuff.

[Jay Lundy]

Go Dreamweaver! It's gotta be the best at everything and the best to work with. To clean up the WYSIWYG junk it sometimes creates (it's not perfect!) I use Edit Plus. It is really versitle and it understands commands for HTML javaScript, PERL, PHP, C++, etc. It's a lot better than notepad

[mpking]

[quote]Originally posted by Brandon Martus
Never _EVER_ have I used, or plan on using FrontPage.
And I'm pretty sure the authors of vBulletin wouldn't use FrontPage also. And if they have... I may have to go thru and edit all the html [/qoute]


Actually, i was refereing to http://www.buzzrobotics.com

[Matt Leese]

The main problem I have with Dreamweaver so far (actually Dreamweaver Ultradev) is that for dynamic actions it only supports ASP, JSP, and ColdFusion. I really wanted Perl support or at least PHP. So, unfortunately, I'm stuck coding a web-based front end to a database in ASP. Aren't I lucky?

Matt

[Brandon Martus]

[quote]Originally posted by mpking

Originally posted by Brandon Martus
Never _EVER_ have I used, or plan on using FrontPage.
And I'm pretty sure the authors of vBulletin wouldn't use FrontPage also. And if they have... I may have to go thru and edit all the html [/qoute]


Actually, i was refereing to http://www.buzzrobotics.com

oh.. hehe my bad

[Joe Ross]

Brandon, didn't you say at one point that most of CD was written using vi. Is that still the case?

When I'm developing a site, I look at the time availible and make my decision. If I have a lot of time, or the site isn't complex, I use notepad (or emacs if I'm not in windows ). Generally (at least when I'm working on our teams site, time is short and money is nill. In that case I use frontpage express to do most of it, and then edit everything in notepad to remove the extra junk.