Website Design software

[JuliePgh]

Hi, I currently use HTML and CSS for my website without the aid of YSIWYG software. My site has grown quite a bit since I started and every time I need to make a change to my navigation, I end up having to individually change dozens of pages. I've avoided frames for multiple reasons, but need to change how I do updates.

I'd like to know what others recommend for software that runs well in iMac, allows me to easily transfer content over, and still gives me flexibility to do SEO and customize the design. Also, my content includes a Wordpress blog.

Thanks!

[SandboxGeneral]

Have you considered Adobe Dreamweaver CS6, or RapidWeaver 5?

[JuliePgh]

I thought of Dreamweaver, but haven't used the software in over 10 years, and there seem to be so many versions of everything now! hank you for the recommendation...I need that as a starting point so I can read up in the features. Do you have a preference of one over the other?

[SandboxGeneral]

I've not used RapidWeaver, but I do know it's a very popular choice of web developers on the Mac platform. I use Dreamweaver only because I've been using it since it was owned by Macromedia in the '90's - so I'm used to it.

[JuliePgh]

Originally Posted by SandboxGeneral

I've not used RapidWeaver, but I do know it's a very popular choice of web developers on the Mac platform. I use Dreamweaver only because I've been using it since it was owned by Macromedia in the '90's - so I'm used to it.

dreamweaver looks overwhelming, as if you need to be a programmer to follow. RapidWeaver seems more straightforward for creating a basic static site.

Do you think both would allow me to import content, or will I literally have to retype every section of text, relink, and re-add images, of which there are many?

[fig]

Dreamweaver is, generally speaking, for people that don't really know how to build websites.

Coda and Espresso are the two best Mac apps I've found for general webdev.

[phoenixsan]

Dreamweaver is a standard in most web design environments, but not sure about it is suited for your specific uses. And about SEO, maybe these sites are worth a look:

http://www.ragesw.com/

http://www.link-assistant.com/

[CliveR]

And if you want a quick taste of Drupal, try Drupal Gardens, which is a sort of online kit version of Drupal.

[defektion]

Use Sublime Text. It's really customizable and flexible. Once you install package manager you can see how awesome Sublime text is once you install all the great plugins!

Dreamweaver is super bloated.
Coda was good but just wasn't flexible enough.

[-pete-]

Originally Posted by defektion

Dreamweaver is super bloated.
Coda was good but just wasn't flexible enough.

I'll agree with this to an extent, Dreamweaver has so many features and support for legacy stuff but the code it produces via WYSIWYG is pretty horrible, its easy to see why it used to be great, but these days... not so much.

I really like Coda's interface, sure it might not be that flexible but it has 90% of the features I need.

However if I'm working on bigger projects, need to do back end work, debugging or have to work with a SVN, I have found PHPStorm to be easy to set up, customisable and very fully featured so I would make that the "step up" from Coda.