Sandvox, Freway Express or Rapidweaver or Dreamweaver

[caledonia64]

Hi
I am stiarting to do some web design - not high end or fully professional and I can only code HTML for very small things/easy functions (although I would prefer to be creating standards compliant code if it is the programme that translates). I would therefore prefer a visual/designed based programme but one that allows me also to create my own pages from scratch (with a good clipboard function).
I have two Macs (Notebook with 4gb memory, 2.4 processor) and a macmini which...I do not know the specifics of right now) and a crappy crappy old Dell Inspiron running XP poorly and slowly (for school - I am a teacher for now).

My main issue is that if I design sites - they might often be for schools or and would have to be uploaded to the RM Host via ftp (secure) or fiiezilla (somehow - I do not know the details but this is what my friend Jo does with her site: she is a headteacher). In addition to this it might be that people would want to perform small edits on their sites themselves or maintain them. As you have usually to be onsite to upload to the RM server (onsite at the specific school) my maintaining sites could be problematic. Some of the same issues would apply to websites built for people using Windows.

I have built a number of sites (this will be pathetic to all y'all) using iWeb (which has very much lots of limitations but did import graphics and fancy jpg from Photoshop nicely) but no one else can edit that site without my iWeb files on their own Mac and some sites - very basic and plain - using Weebly (which has graphics and design limitations but has the advantage of my being able to edit remotely with account details - or the person themselves).

I have lots of experience using packages such as Photoshop, PaintShop Pro (Corel), ACDSee to do layered signatures and other designs/graphic design things.

So - long preamble - which for my needs would be best: Sandvox (Pro?), Freeway (Express or Pro) , Rapidweaver or should I spring for the cross platform (sort of) flexibility of Dreamweaver.

NB for School Websites I appreciate I could continue to use Weebly quite successfully for all its simplicity.

 

[testcss]

What's your budget?

If you are tight on money I suggest using a decent image manipulation and creation programme like Pixelmator on the Mac App Store. If you already have photoshop just use that. I think Rapidweaver is a good programme but I really suggest Panic's Coda. It has a great, clean editing tab for your html needs and has a preview function that lets you see what your site looks like. It lacks wysiwyg features ( You can't directly edit the preview version), but if you know basic html that shan't be a problem. By the way, any site you create using html/xhtml/html5 can be viewed by almost all windows and mac users. People with very old computers may not be able to see every thing, but most will. The best part with Coda is that you won't need filezilla as Coda comes with Transmit, the best ftp client in the world. You could probably find free web hosting on a education site or for a more secure experience by cheap hosting somewhere.

If you aren't worried about money go with dreamweaver. Even better you can get a teacher discount of near 80% off of a software suite like Adobe Web Premium. That includes Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, Contribute( lets you edit sites easily), and more for not that much with teacher discount. This is the most complete package you would want to develop with. Also, I suggest some online resources to help you increase your knowledge of html. Check other posts that have info on that and visit html teaching websites.

To let you or your students manage website I suggest the free version of Cushy CMS which lets you edit any website simply using their online editor( downside is you have to use their subdomain) or you could find another CMS (content management system) that fits your needs.

That's my opinion of course do whatever works for you. Good Luck.

 

[snberk103]

I use Sandvox extensively, and Dreamweaver a bit. I build websites only for my own use. I like SV a lot, but I don't think that SV is the way to go for you, in this case.

SV is very easy to use, and you can create a full website in very little time (the Pro version allows HTML editing). With a little under-the-hood editing of the templates you can create your own designs. However, pages built with SV don't translate well when opened in other editing applications (except as pure text) - so anything you built for other people will need to be maintained by SV. Once a page is built and uploaded, you can - of course - edit the HTML code in any text editor, but to do any major changes you will be working with a complex set of CSS styles and related media files. (i.e. SV is for dummies like me, hand-coding the pages built by SV is for experts not like me).

Unless you are happy playing with raw code, then, you will need to have the SV file and application with you on-site to do any serious edits (since it sounds like the sys admins have disabled remotely uploading things).

Hope this helps. I'm pretty sure Sandvox comes as a trial, as does Dreamweaver. I've messed with DW a bit, and found it actually has a good set of tutorial videos. I was up and running in just a few hours of video watching, building my first DW website. Actually, I find the Adobe help pages to be full of very good content. I have no issues with taking on a new project in Photoshop or Lightroom, knowing that whatever info I am looking for will likely be on their help site. If I can't get the full picture there, I will have enough details to do a precise google search for someone who has posted the info on the web.

The academic pricing of Creative Suite (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc) is very attractive and I recommend taking advantage of it. The license has been loosened to allow non-academec uses, iirc.

Good Luck

 

[jonnysods]

I dont have a lot of experience with hardcore web design, so I started out using iWeb and rapidweaver. I moved to wordpress, and it was the best thing I ever did. You should check that out first and foremost.

There are tons of premium themes that you can buy and modify.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

Espresso + Rapidweaver IMHO