Site Grinder Feedback

[HarleyMan]

I'm a Graphic Artist that has worked in print media. I am now forced to move to web design to supplement income as the print arena is dying to be sure. I need to get up and running ASAP and have looked at the WYSIWYG web design programs, with of course Dreamweaver being the "Preferred Professional" program. Well I'm not that impressed with Dreamweaver as it seems very powerful, but not the easiest to learn as it is rather complicated. I have read other threads where others are also not impressed by the Adobe hype.

I have looked at the alternatives listed in other threads as well, but did not see SiteGrinder2 listed. I have downloaded the demo and worked with it and it seems the easiest to get started with, and get my brain around.

I am looking for feedback from those that have used, or do use, SiteGrinder2 for web page production. I'll take the good or the bad and looking for the pluses and the pitfalls of SiteGrinder2 !

Thanks a Lot.

 

[Cabbit]

Never heard of site grinder but if you are needing to integrate web design into your portfolio i have a few suggestions and tools i recommend though i am a developer and not a designer the tools are the same these days.

Start with HTML Dog then move onto w3c schools and learn HMTL and CSS and learn it well.

To progress further get some working knowledge of a server side scripting language and if you wish to include some fancy effects get to grips with Javascript then once you are comfortable with the basics of Javascript then you can move on and learn Jquery.

Now the next thing for you is a list of some tools you will learn to love, i will focus on design level applications first.

• CSS Edit - This is the CSS editing program that puts all others to shame and once you learn it you will love it more and more.(try downloading it then using the live preview on a site you like and extract the stylesheet, you will be able to edit the page appearance in real time to try it out.)
• Photoshop - Speaks for its self but remember web graphics are 72 dpi and use the save for web function.
• A text editor - You can use Taco HTML Edit, Espresso, Text Wrangler. Find one learn it and love it for writing your HTML, Javascript, PHP code
• MAMP - Its a all in one solution providing a Apache server, PHP server, MySQL server in a easy to use sandbox environment.
• Cyberduck - Free FTP client software that is easy to use and works well

That is pretty much all i can offer at this point and hope you will take the explorative measure on the applications and resources i have provided and look forward to seeing your first project for review and advice.

Oh before i forget all love for the w3c validator.

 

[angelwatt]

I've seen some sites created with Site Grinder posted here, but personally I wasn't impressed at all.

In addition to the great suggestions above, I would also suggest taking a look through the stickies in this forum as there are some great things in there.

 

[HarleyMan]

Thanks

Thanks for the info babyjennifer but if Im not mistaken, most of your list involves writing the code oneself. I was looking for a WYSIWYG program where I do the graphics, place them, and the program writes the code.

I am asking about Site Grinder2 because the prospective site is built in Photoshop, with tags added to the layer items telling Site Grinder2 what to do with, or how to display that layer when it builds the page. Photoshop is a program that I am already very familiar with.

 

[HarleyMan]

Thanks angelwatt

I did look through the stickies and didn't see much if anything on SiteGrinder2 as a web page creation program.

I'd love to find someone on here that has used or uses the program to get hands on feedback on it.

Thanks for your response!

 

[HarleyMan]

No One Using or Has Used Site Grinder 2?

I can't believe that no none out there has any hands on experience with Site Grinder 2. They (Site Grinder) sure have advertised it a lot and spent a lot of money on advertising as well as maintaining an extensive network of web pages and support for no one having bought it.

 

[ezekielrage_99]

The main issue that I've come across with SiteGrinder is from the main fact there are very little professionals out there who use it. This is the main limiting factor I would factor into purchasing, limited professional support (best industry practice) is never a good thing.

If you are shifting focus I would recommend in learning HTML and CSS, WYSIWYG is great but with something like web design/development it's highly advisable you do know the code.

I don't use Dreamweaver for the main reasons of its price. Instead I use Rapidweaver, Espresso, TextWrangler, Forklift and Photoshop, this overall gives me a pretty good final result.

To put it the terms of print, why would you do professional printing completely on OpenSource?