Okay, so I'm going to start a website... what software do I need?
By Leca
@lecanis (16647)
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
June 17, 2007 12:47pm CST
I decided to start a subdomain off my husband's band's website for my own use, since all I've done online for years is blog and I'm not very good at that. I want to have a website where I can put my writing, photos, information about things that interest me, etc.
The problem I'm having is that I have no clue what I need to get started. While I pay for the site I'm using, I don't actually make it myself, and when I tried to use the "pagewizard" provided by the host I had no luck. I really want some simple (free or cheap)software for creating web pages so that I can just make my page and then upload it to the host without having to deal with the host's crappy tools.
For those of you who have pages, what software do you use? How hard is it? Where would I get it? How much did it cost?
4 people like this
18 responses
@missak (3311)
• Spain
17 Jun 07
The professional one is Dreamweaver I think, but it is too complicated. I like Webstudio which is really simple and has a lot of nice tools for faster development: http://www.webstudio.com/ (you can download from https://www.webstudio.com/site/DownloadRegistration.asp a free 30 days trial).
1 person likes this
@babostwick (2036)
• United States
17 Jun 07
I use a program called HTML Validator. That's more if you know the codes but it does end them for the most part. I got that at download.com, it's the light edition but works for me pretty good.
Good luck in web design. If you need some help, I'll see what I can possibly to help you in the future.
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13139)
• United States
18 Jun 07
If you can afford it or can find a copy I love FrontPage. It's very easy to use and to upload with it. However since it is costly I would suggest NVU. It's a free program that is very similar. It's easy to use. You will probably need an FTP program as well if your husband doesn't already have one one the computer. FTP Commander has a nice free one that's easy to understand.
You can do notepad and do straight html coding on it. To me that is a lot more work and very easy to make mistakes on. A builder like frontpage or NVU works far eaiser.
You can find both programs I mentioned here:
http://www.nvu.com/index.php
http://www.internet-soft.com/software-download.htm
I hope this helps.
@punkish (424)
• India
18 Jun 07
well u need many thing it frnd
2 design u need front page n many many softwares......i think u ll b benifted if u get it done by the profesional....he gonna tell u evrthing....really do consult the profesional 4 this.....sohave a nice dayn n all d best 4 ur site
@happymom1 (1179)
• United States
19 Jun 07
Hi lecanis try this website hope you like it. They have lots of nice tools to choose. Visit my blog you can find some websites to try on. Here`s my link www.mommygen.blogspot.com
@TDonald (1421)
• United States
18 Jun 07
Check out the Mozilla Composer (search that term).
It's free and easy to use. It's a WYSIWYG editor, what you see is what you get, so it's easy for a beginner to use. Mozilla also has a FTP program so you can upload your pages to the domain.
I have Dreamweaver too, but I use Composer all the time to make my splash pages. It's a lot easier to use.
@webbuff (926)
• Philippines
18 Jun 07
Building a webpage is easy, you can browse in any website that offers free website tools like geocities. If you wan to customize more your website you need the following tools in order to have a original pages. For Image manipulation i suggest you use Photoshop, photoshop basically takes care of the imaging / creative side and for building the site itself i suggest Macromedia dreamweaver for an excellent output. These software are not really expensive.
@filmbuff (2909)
• United States
18 Jun 07
What I would suggest doing is both free and pretty easy.
When I was working on my website I started using NVU, and then quickly updated it to Kompozer. (You have to download and install both, then just use Kompozer.) This is an updated version of the mozilla software.
Here is why I recommend them:
1. It's free
2. It's WYSIWYG meaning you can see what you are making as you make it, you can also just code directly.
3. It supports CSS and has a CSS editor built in. (You want to use CSS, contact me privately for some good online tutorials if you want them) The reason CSS is so good is that you can set the layout of all your pages to refer to a single CSS file. It makes life, and changing the look of your pages in the future much, much easier.
4. There are many excellent tutorials available for using Nvu/Kompozer on the web. If you're stuck you can often find the answer online, or go to the forums to get someone to answer it for you.
Kompzoser is the unnofficial update to Nvu that fixes some bugs. That being said, it does choke a couple little things here and there. Myself and countless others use it because it's FREE and not a bad program at all.
If you can drop $399 on Dreamweaver, it is a better program, if not go with Kompozer.
Okay here are the links:
Nvu -- http://www.nvu.com/download.php
Kompozer Update -- http://kompozer.net/
Install like this:
Install Nvu
Install Kompozer
Delte Nvu link
Just use Kompozer
Hope that helps. If you have any other questions or need some help, just let me know.
Minnie Mouse is HOT!
filmbuff
@tuayon_san (299)
• Philippines
18 Jun 07
Hi how are you..
may be you can use the Pagebuilder or front page.
actually designing a website is very hard especially if
you don't have background about programming.
If you like I have a friend who is accepting for those
who wants to make a website by him. It is on cheap.
he is very good website designer. that is you like.
if not just try those things. ok
this is a sample I made from pagebuilder:
www.geocities.com/sibulan2003
www.geocities.com/nohs2k2003
@swapw07 (247)
• United States
18 Jun 07
Lecanis, it depends on how much time you have in your hands!
Short anwer - Pay someone to do it. Now this sounds crazy, but you be surprised how much designers and coders charge per web page. I've seen many reputable designers do it for less then $100.
Long answer - Learn from html and start from the basics. This would eventually take you a few months into it. The most likely thing to do is play with Blogger.com and transition to Wordpress. Hard work, but if you are willing to put in..obviously it can turn into something crazy who knows?
:)
-Swapw
@azylum989 (10)
•
18 Jun 07
Yes there are softwares that u can use like macromedia dreamweaver and adobe frontpage.... But they are quite expensive...
However you can use even the microsoft word to do a website!
All u gotta do is design it in word and save it as a web page!
It's that easy...
@feedyourmind (150)
• Philippines
18 Jun 07
As long as you know how to use html, css, go buy some good domain and hosting. its more easier and more good to have your own domain and hosting.
@cabergren (1181)
• United States
17 Jun 07
The one I use is Adobe Go Live. It is pretty easy to use, but it does cost a bit. Check it out.
@ibsnet (1268)
• India
17 Jun 07
The easiest way to design a website is designing it as you typing normally and inserting pics in MS-word is Microsoft Frontpage. Every webhost supports Frontpage. You just make the pages in design view, whatever you like to type on it, and save it in your local computer. Later upload the files to your webhost server right from the frontpage again. You need no knowledge of HTML etc in this case. Also if you want to edit the pages you edit later on and again upload from within the MS-Frontpage and it will go on web. It is that simple. Give a try. Any probs you can PM me in this regard.
@freddy2007 (1)
• India
18 Jun 07
I too thing doing it on your own will be the best thing. You can know about basic html coding in 2-3 days from any website which provides html reference and then create your own web pages. You do not any professional looking site to start with so a basic stuff to start with will do. Gradually when you are more familiar with advance html coding, you can modify the pages to add more features.