Inexpensive web design?

[orthodoc]

Does anyone have suggestions for inexpensive web design software? I would like to design a simple website for my small business. It will have mostly text and a few pictures. Dreamweaver is fairly expensive and probably does way more than I need.

Thanks.

[wormed]

Really, you don't need any software, just a text editor.

If I were you, i'd take an HTML tutorial. Spend a couple of hours on it and do it yourself.

As long as you aren't doing anything too complex, like you said just some text and images you should be fine.

If you want a javascript rollover for your navigation there are some free sites that allow you to input what you want for your nav and then it spits out the code for you to insert. If that is the route you want to go, I can help you out with some of the resources.

[wormed]

echoecho.com

or

webmonkey.com

are good sites with tons of tutorials.

[ashon3611]

microsoft frontpage (i dont know if they have it for mac)?
netscape composer?

HTML isn't even really that hard to learn because its formatted text, not even like programming or anything like that (kinda like how Wordperfect had that reveal codes option). Javascript involves functions and all that but if you know C++ or anything about object oriented programming its not that bad at all. What I usually do is I get either Frontpage or Composer and use it just to get what I want on a page and do the frames manually in a text editor or you can even do that in frontpage too. Hope this helps.

[AmigoMac]

microsoft frontpage (i dont know if they have it for mac)? :p :p :p :rolleyes:

Download Mozilla and work with its composer and do some HTML coding (if needed).Period.

[Benjamin]

ahhhh front page, barf, don't use front page or heaven forbid word export html. Anyway I suggest you swing by of course http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/ mentioned before and also http://www.w3schools.com/. Of course if you would rather have a more visual there is always composer and you can also demo dreamweaver and probably golinve for x amount of days.

[crackrock]

The the best looking website you'll want to get a copy of Flash. It's kind of hard to use at first but once you understand how it all works it's a lot of fun.... but that's a bit expensive... Dreamweaver is a easier to use alternative but isn't as cool...

You would think apple would have been on top of this a long time ago with a program such as "iSite"...

Coding HTML by hand used to be cool but it's so much more time effective to just get a program to generate it for you...

A cheap and easy way to make a site would be to create all your pages in Photoshop or something, keeping it all in layers - hiding each of the layers when you are done creating them, then exporting them into sliced images and using GoLive or something to produce all the individual pages... just link them all together and you'll have a sweet looking site. What do you do for a living? I'm sure your job has a copy of Adobe Creative Suite installed on a computer you can use for a few hours...

[Knox]

The the best looking website you'll want to get a copy of Flash. It's kind of hard to use at first but once you understand how it all works it's a lot of fun.... but that's a bit expensive... Dreamweaver is a easier to use alternative but isn't as cool...

A cheap and easy way to make a site would be to create all your pages in Photoshop or something, keeping it all in layers - hiding each of the layers when you are done creating them, then exporting them into sliced images and using GoLive or something to produce all the individual pages... just link them all together and you'll have a sweet looking site. What do you do for a living? I'm sure your job has a copy of Adobe Creative Suite installed on a computer you can use for a few hours...

*mind boggles* I'm not entirely sure if you're serious or not, but just in case...

Flash can make nice looking sites if you really know what you're doing, however, it should be used carefully and only for the things it's good at (interactive applications etc).

Dreamweaver is *not* an alternative to flash, they do completely different things!

As for the photoshop suggestion.... I really don't know what to say... That's not a web site, that's a bunch of jpegs..

[decksnap]

I agree with Knox- given that orthodoc said he wants something SIMPLE, I don't believe that Flash is a good idea, nor do I believe that suggesting he learn HTML is a good idea. He just wants a simple site for his business. You think he should have to learn how to code to do that? You believe he should learn actionscript and animation to do this?

No. Personally I use Flash/Fireworks/Dreamweaver (but that's my job), so I can't really offer the simplest suggestion to you. I can tell you that there are solutions out there if you look, that don't involve learning to code or using Flash.

[wormed]

"No. Personally I use Flash/Fireworks/Dreamweaver (but that's my job), so I can't really offer the simplest suggestion to you. I can tell you that there are solutions out there if you look, that don't involve learning to code or using Flash."

There is but they cost money. If you don't want to bother spending a couple of hours learning to change a background color and inserting a jpeg than by all means find something else. HTML is simple and for a simple web site it should be learned.

[decksnap]

If hand coding was the simplest way for a newbie to make a web page, they wouldn't make WYSIWYG editors. Glad you know how to code, but it isn't the easiest route by any means.

[kgarner]

I haven't tried either of these as i prefer to hand code, but I hear good things about Contribute and Freeway. Not sure how much they cost or what you define as "inexpensive" but it's an option.

[wormed]

I suppose you're right but I was thinking just some text formatting and a few Img tags was needed. If he wants a proper layout with tables that may be tricky for a newbie.

Having said that, if one wants build a web page especially for a business, they should know the basics of HTML.