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Cheap, basic web design tool to replace Dreamweaver?

Use the take a position alone edition rather than the plug-in. It's much better than dw. Using a genuine written text manager is probably not the way to go, though you can always have a look at Textwrangler if you want 100 % free. It doesn't do any format verifying or anything like that.
 
Go for Sublime 3. I never looked back.

I was Coda user for a while but Sublime 3 won me over b/c of huge flexibility/customization, etc.
 
Quotenfrau said:
Can you say now more about Google Web Designer? Is it user friendly? Is it for home users?

You don't need to register with Google?
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It's a simple download, currently in the beta though the software is pretty nifty for creating a flat-ish CSS3/HTML5 site. Really good for the static sites, no so much if you're considering a more blog or dynamic approach.

I'd suggest downloading and playing with it.
 
alternative to Dreamweaver

I have worked on Notepad++, you can go with it. As I haven't face any problem in that you can give it a try.🙄
 
I'm not sure I can spare you a body part or two... but I'm a big fan of doing things right (as possible) from the start. It's MUCH cheaper in the long run.

Even for a simple website these days, I'd HIGHLY recommend using a CMS like WordPress. It's free if you're willing to put in a bit of time on learning. Then pick a good template (also many free ones), and most of your design work is done.

At that point, you just have to populate it and *maybe* tweak the template a bit. Or, pay a bit and get a really flexible , professional template like X (by theme.co) from Themeforest.

The big cost is hosting, but if this is purely a hobby site, you can find pricing to match. If it's more than a hobby, go with managed hosting like WP Engine (you'll, again, be really glad you did in the long-run).

The nice thing about using WordPress is that once installed, it's pretty easy to maintain (especially on a managed hosting provider). You're more or less just adding data and graphics from that point on. AND, should you ever want to do more with it, the sky is the limit in terms of expandability (e-commerce? no problem, client portal? no problem, web-gallery? no problem, training materials site? no problem, etc.).

And, finally, it's easy to make Google (and other search engines) like your website. There are SEO plugins (like by Yoast), and WordPress can be made really high performance (and it's not bad out of the box). If you've ever looked at the output of many of the mentioned apps in this thread (and know a bit about it), you'll realize these apps generally write a horrific mess.

If you don't want to get into this stuff yourself, you can easily find good WordPress devs and people to host/manage it (such as myself 😀 ). But whether you go with the DIY approach or hire someone.... I strongly recommend starting out right.
 
ezekielrage_99 said:
Honestly I'd suggest Wordpress or Rapidweaver for the blogs.

But recently I've been trying Google Web Designer, and it's not too bad infact I'd say it's extremely promising so far and much worth checking out.
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I use dreamweaver for years. For sure it is a good tool.

But I am seriously thinking about Wordpress or Rapidweaver too.
I need a solution that saves me time. With Dreamweaver I can do a lot, but I need lot of time too.

I need a CMS solution, so Wordpress is a good way to go.
But on the other hand, isn't Rapidweaver a faster way to have a quality site, in a fraction of time comparing to wordpress?

I am thinking to go with wordpress if I have the time to invest when I will start reconstructing my site,
or if I am very time-pressed possibly choosing rapidweaver.

Opinions?
 
cool11 said:
I use dreamweaver for years. For sure it is a good tool.

But I am seriously thinking about Wordpress or Rapidweaver too.
I need a solution that saves me time. With Dreamweaver I can do a lot, but I need lot of time too.

I need a CMS solution, so Wordpress is a good way to go.
But on the other hand, isn't Rapidweaver a faster way to have a quality site, in a fraction of time comparing to wordpress?

I am thinking to go with wordpress if I have the time to invest when I will start reconstructing my site,
or if I am very time-pressed possibly choosing rapidweaver.

Opinions?
Click to expand...

Most of those tools are 'good' from the standpoint of a graphic designer, not actually at producing 'good' websites. The code and structure are often horrible.

As with what I said in the post above, I'd recommend WordPress (which will take some learning and work... but then you're on a modern CMS), or just use a service like SquareSpace or Wix, etc.

If you get a good theme, many now have page-builders so you can just layout and design in a more WYSIWYG sort of way, but you'll end up with better code on a modern CMS. The downside of using a page-builder, is that it does output 'custom' code that is tied to that page-builder. That's the tradeoff. (I'd highly recommend X Theme by Theme.co as currently one of the best, most powerful, and most flexible, with incredible support.)

The other point, is that it depends on what you see a website as. If you just want a page or two 'billboard' site, or an artistic expression, I suppose it doesn't matter too much how it is built, so long as it's relatively low traffic. But, if you see a website as a communication and promotion tool, a modern CMS has so much more to offer.

(Note: I started building websites in a text editor, by hand in the first days of the 'Web'. I've tried various tools over the years. I'm perfectly capable of constructing a static website by tool or hand. IMO, it's a waste of time beyond just learning and being a hobbyist.)
 
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I use Coda for development ( built it FTP, server, version control, ect ),
Atom (https://atom.io/) for testing and protyping

As already mentioned, Atom is pretty top notch... and you cannot beat the price: free
 
I like Rapid Weaver for not having to write any code, but being able to manually edit if needed. Plug-ins cost, but are worth the price if your time is valuable.

Does anybody use Flux to as a DW replacement? I read good things about it, but have not tried it yet.
 
I used RapidWeaver before and if you buy enough plug-ins it isn't bad but when you add up the cost of the program plus the price of all the plug-ins you need to make it useable, add in a few decent themes then you have spent quite a bit of money. I have seen Flux and it looks good but I've never used it. I too would be curious to hear people's opinions about it. Some people like Blocs but I haven't tried it. It does look pretty good. I asked people to give examples of its pros and cons in another thread but no one posted anything specific.

Mecha
 
MechaSpanky said:
I used RapidWeaver before and if you buy enough plug-ins it isn't bad but when you add up the cost of the program plus the price of all the plug-ins you need to make it useable, add in a few decent themes then you have spent quite a bit of money. I have seen Flux and it looks good but I've never used it. I too would be curious to hear people's opinions about it. Some people like Blocs but I haven't tried it. It does look pretty good. I asked people to give examples of its pros and cons in another thread but no one posted anything specific.

Mecha
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I use dreameaver for years, I will make a transition to a new way for sure. I find it disturbing to make everything from scratch. It has many tools, but I would like to have something more straightforward like rapidweaver, if I am getting the concept right. I am not sure if dreamweaver has themes, or so rapid development like rapidweaver.

I will try wordpress, but I want a 'traditional' replacement too like a desktop application.


If cost was not a problem,
would you still choose rapidweaver(with addons/themes etc) over dreamweaver,
in terms of fast/easy developing/maintaining a dynamic site?
 
cool11,

I started out with web design using Adobe's long forgotten PageMill and then I moved to GoLive (which I still prefer to Dreamweaver). After GoLive was dropped I moved to Dreamweaver. I did a little hand coding and after that I stopped doing web design and I used Rapidweaver for a small project.

Dreamweaver is more for professionals. It gives you greater control over things that you simply don't have access to nor control over using a product like Rapidweaver. Rapidweaver is a fine product but I wouldn't say it is for professionals. Sure you can use it to get professional looking websites but in general it is aimed at those who need a website but don't know how to or don't want to know how to code. I would guess that most professionals use a combination of tools like Dreamweaver, Coda, or just a simple text editor to write the code. Rapidweaver is easy to use and it is easy to get a site up and going rather quickly but it has more limits than say a program like Dreamweaver. So it isn't just a matter of cost, it is a matter of control. In my opinion, you will pay a lot for Rapidweaver but you will never have the control or the power that Dreamweaver or Coda has to offer but you will be able to build a site without having to know how to code.

Mecha
 
cool11,

I don't know but seeing how you used to use Dreamweaver, I would guess that you would find Rapidweaver lacking in the features department. Just a guess.

Mecha
 
Dreamweaver has more flexibility and capabilities, but when you need something more automated and fast way to go, without bells and whistles, then I have a clue that maybe rapidweaver is preferable.
But of course somebody can think of future expandability and other stuff too.
Not so easy decision.
 
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cool11,

I completely agree with you and you are right, it is a tough decision. I don't do nearly as much web design as I used to and for me, something lighter like Rapidweaver is tempting but its cost and lack of power are disconcerting. I read about "Blocs" here and it looks promising but one thing that is lacking is a good way to directly edit code using the program. I believe there is a way to do it but I don't know how efficient it is and it looked more like an after thought than a full fledged added feature.

Mecha
 
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