Choice of Mac app for designing a website?

[macstatic]

In the hope of finally creating a modern looking, responsive and functional website I've bought several Mac web-designing apps in the past few years (furtunately through some sales and other discounted promotions), but see that they all have a little learning curve. With limited time available I'd rather concentrate my efforts on one instead of learning them all.

I've created basic HTML websites in the past (manually, using text editors) and understand the basics of CSS, but really never gotten deep into things, so a helper tool for this is what I need to get the job done. Perhaps with a nice template to get started, then add the changes I want to that. I've got the following:

• Flux 7 (current version)
• Rapidweaver 8 (current version)
• Pinegrow 2.951 (this is an old version from around 2016 or 2017. I haven't felt the need to buy any upgrades since I haven't actually used it)

What would you recommend I invest my time into if I want to create the site quickly, without too much fuss and frustrations?
As for templates (what's the difference between a tempate and theme anyway?) -I find they all look more or less the same, but maybe that goes mostly for the free ones (??). Any suggestions for a good source (good quality free ones, or low cost paid ones)?

 

[hg.wells]

I've been there done that and got many t-shirts

What sort of website are you trying to create, do you want to learn to code as part of it?

If you want to create something quickly, that includes the hosting cost - look at SquareSpace https://www.squarespace.com regular updates, and you can update pages from your iPhone or iPad as well.

 

[macstatic]

Hehe... I can relate to the T-shirt part

I'm looking to create an informational type of website with an FAQ where the FAQ-section is the biggest challenge. The Bootstrap affix/scrollspy sidebar navigation seems to be ideal for this, so I want to integrate that somehow.
There used to be a nice demo at the Bootstrap page, but I think they removed it. However, there's something similar here (minus the smooth scrolling action which I want to have as well).
I only need that for the FAQ page, but all the templates I've come across have the same layout for all pages, but I have a feeling that with the right tools mixing/matching templates (or sections of them) isn't really that hard ❓

I was hoping to find a way to have the framework itself more or less ready to use, then copy/paste my own text and image content into it.
Like I said, I do know a little basic HTML/CSS, but that's from 20 years back and I simply don't have the time nor interest in re-learning everything from scratch in order to make one website.
Still, I see the usefulness to have some sort of editor where I can edit the code if I need to make some changes in addition to mostly point & click.
Oh -the website content will mostly be static (it's not a blog). I will probably update it now and then, but we're talking 2-3 times a year.

Thanks for the link to Squarespace. It looks good, but I already have access to a server from a friend where I just upload the HTML documents, images etc. via FTP/SFTP.

Will any of the mentioned web-design apps do, and possibly together with some templates?

 

[vagos]

I'd suggest you give wordpress a try. You can extend it through themes and plugins easily. It powers 40% of the internet for good reason. Plus you can use it on your existing host.

 

[LeeW]

To be honest, it does not appear you have any strength in coding, nor do you want to have it. That would suggest you really need to look at something like WordPress.

Have a look at the Blocksy theme, highly customizable and very performant. The free version is more than enough for most. That with a plugin or two should get you to where you want to be.

 

[macstatic]

Looking good, but that would demand Wordpress software to be installed on my friend's server in order to accept a Wordpress theme.
Another option could be to get started with one of the free Bootstrap themes. I could probably use just about any "standard" type theme for most of my site, then adjust the colours, fonts, add images etc. to personalize it.

It's the FAQ section where things get complicated as I obviously want to keep the same appearance of the rest of the site but in addition include some more complex navigation bars to make it quick and easy for the visitor to go through the various content sections of it.
Maybe I could just find working examples of the navbars and copy/paste it into the existing theme. As long as it's all based upon Bootstrap (and the same version), that could be doable without too many frustrations, right?

 

[BrianBaughn]

What's security like on a "friend's server"? Is this website for you or for the friend?

Commercial website space is cheap. I maintain a Wordpress site that costs me 95 cents a month.

 

[macstatic]

It's my friend's server. He runs/maintains it and has let me use it to set up a private website. He's a professional in the IT industry so I'm pretty sure security is up to specs.

I didn't know Wordpress sites were that cheap to have (may I ask which one you're referring to?).
Is it also possible to store downloadable files on those Wordpress sites? How about adding a domain name?

 

[BrianBaughn]

It's my friend's server. He runs/maintains it and has let me use it to set up a private website. He's a professional in the IT industry so I'm pretty sure security is up to specs.

I didn't know Wordpress sites were that cheap to have (may I ask which one you're referring to?).
Is it also possible to store downloadable files on those Wordpress sites? How about adding a domain name?

Wordpress has a few basic requirements that virtually every commercial web host service will have:

Requirements

Requirements To run WordPress, it’s recommended your host supports: That’s really it. Apache or Nginx is recommended as the most robust and featureful server for running WordPress, but any server that supports PHP and MySQL will do. That said, for the smoothest experience in setting up—and...

wordpress.org

Yes, you can store downloadable files. Check the storage and download limits of each hosting plan.

If you own a domain name you go to your domain name provider's site and set the nameservers to point to the web host. This will be explained by the web host.

There are many cheap web hosts. You can be sure that the cheap ones aren't going to help you much but really there's not much to it all.

This is the 95 cent host to which I was referring:

Cheap Domain Registrations | Cheap Domain Hosting

Cheap domain registrations and cheap domain hosting is ULTRAsurge.com's specialty. Only $0.95/month provides quality cheap domain hosting.

www.ultrasurge.com

 

[macstatic]

Thanks for clearing up a few misconceptions I had about Wordpress sites!
This is definitely something to consider, although I'm going to give the web-design idea a fair shot first.
You can't argue with 95 cents a month, but what's the uptime and security like? If they have a working setup in the first place I can probably live without the support or find it elsewhere.

It looks like Rapidweaver is based on a lot of additionaly purchaseable plug-ins/modules to get things done, and from what i've read in comments here and there appears to be limited to using pre-designed templates.
Pinegrow and Flux on the other hand appear more flexible for handling the code itself, so maybe this is the way to go. If I can copy parts of one working template to another one I should be good to go.
I'm still in the process of determining the layout, so I should get that sorted first.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I'm not sure what you mean by "security"…but Ultrasurge seems strict about security, actually. If you're not up to date with your own site/code they'll send you warning emails…and I mean "warning" emails. They'll shut down your site if you don't get it up to snuff.

Uptime at Ultrasurge hasn't been an issue for me but I've never had a site that's accessed much.

 

[macstatic]

By "security" I meant to protect against hacking etc. I assume the same thing you were wondering about back in post #7 when asking about my friend's server.
Good to hear they check users' security.

My site won't be accessed that much either, but still I want it to be working if/when people do visit.

 

[grandM]

In the hope of finally creating a modern looking, responsive and functional website I've bought several Mac web-designing apps in the past few years (furtunately through some sales and other discounted promotions), but see that they all have a little learning curve. With limited time available I'd rather concentrate my efforts on one instead of learning them all.

I've created basic HTML websites in the past (manually, using text editors) and understand the basics of CSS, but really never gotten deep into things, so a helper tool for this is what I need to get the job done. Perhaps with a nice template to get started, then add the changes I want to that. I've got the following:

• Flux 7 (current version)
• Rapidweaver 8 (current version)
• Pinegrow 2.951 (this is an old version from around 2016 or 2017. I haven't felt the need to buy any upgrades since I haven't actually used it)

What would you recommend I invest my time into if I want to create the site quickly, without too much fuss and frustrations?
As for templates (what's the difference between a tempate and theme anyway?) -I find they all look more or less the same, but maybe that goes mostly for the free ones (??). Any suggestions for a good source (good quality free ones, or low cost paid ones)?

Glanced at your links [flux did not open] and RapidWeaver looked the least tech skill demanding. Most paying hosts come with free tools too. But what offers a satisfactory result the easiest and fastest way?