skozzy

A friend of mine wants to make a homepage for themselves and they have never done it before and I don't want to have to teach them. They currently have Frontpage but it's not what I call a beginers web authoring program.

I have googled for a few programs and found some that the user doesn't need any html knowledge, they just write text and stick pictures on a page whereever and however they want and they seem to be true WYSIWYG. But the few I downloaded and tried are very limited to around 2 weeks usage. I am hoping to find some that gives longer time to evaluate which gives them longer time to learn before they choose to buy anything.

If someone has ideas what to use, please post something.

rob916

It does not get much easier than frontpage.

It is easy to get all these nice programs, but they will not write the page for you or make it too much simpler than frontpage.

Keep the software simple, if you get stuck do some research( there are quite a few web pages on this!) or look at another pages source and work out how they did it.

We want to see the finished product

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Chimp

there are some tricky bits to frontpage, but if you just want a simple web site then as Rob said, you should really be able to do it in frontpage.

skozzy

Well one I have tried and think is better then Frontpage is Cool Page v2.72, its a simple drag and drop design as well as the usual stuff and as a bonus has a tutorial as you design, comes with lots of nifty add-ons. It is limited to 14 day trial. Seems to have a lot more to offer then frontpage. So I might start them off on that program.

Woodstock

Dreamweaver - its simple

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skozzy

I wouldnt call dreamweaver simple for a person who has never tried making a webpage. The friend of mine has never seen html code. And these days you don't realy need to know anything about it when programs do all the background work including posting via ftp in the one package and all you do is stick your text and pics on a blank page and click upload.

Well the responce to this thread is good so far, at least you guys are making the effort to reply, thats much appreciated.

PhillTheQuad

get mods to send it to you
Website maker program

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PhillTheQuad

www.nelsonbaycomputers.net/wpm.rar

giv it a min to upload

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skozzy

Thats handy, ty.

best4less

PhillTheQuad thanks for the download
is this what you recommend for newbies ???

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PhillTheQuad

these things are well lay'd out, not much choice of designs.
frontpage i would say is next, but really need to incorperate photoshop layouts in it and use tables for better effects.
dreams probly the best, but definately harder to use.
say this, Untitled-1
drawn up in ps,a few rollovers in imageready, dropped into frontpage in tables that ps makes when you slice it up.
then edit away in fp.
can do all that in 1hr with practice so its pretty easy.

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z1gg33

It might not be easy for first time users and I understand where your coming from and indeed might not be the best for this situation, but for my money this is by far the best especially when you get used to it, front page never made sense to me I felt like I was using one giant template added to which I think fireworks is the best graphics suite to use its a winning combination combining the two.

I would also say that its very easy to use if all that is being done is a few graphics and some text Dreamweaver will do that better/easier than FP if your friend can click on the menu to insert pics and type then your away..

it comes with inbuilt ftp/site manager to handle the uploading of the site has an excellent help/tutorial section. (so they won't bother you!)

better to spend longer learning somehing good, than spending 2 minutes using something worst than bad

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skozzy

So true, but I know if I give them something not super simple I will be on the phone with them more then I want to.

I will stuff several programs on a memory stick and give them the option to use what they want and cross my fingers I don't get called for help too often.

I guess I should find some links to online tutorials too.

PhillTheQuad

fp is easy for something simple
no coding needed.
create a new web,add pics n text.
trick is, create 1 page, point links to other pages even if there not made.
then open that page, save as the other needed pages.
so make index,point links, then save index as page1,page2,page3 ect
then all links work and pages look the same.
adjust text in other pages.

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salarus

Hi Skozzy,

How days you don't need to design your website via Dreamweaver but can be done online, if your requirements are not to high and like a basic setup.

We are running a promotion at the moment, with sitebuilder meaning you can design your website online via your internet explorer and done in 30 minutes.

Try out the demo sitebuilder - Try now

Currently I'm running a 1 year free webhosting, with any dot.com purchase of$20 AUD.

PM if your interested... the sitebuilder software is very easy to use.

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therufus

Frontpage = Cancer!

salarus

Frontpage isn't that bad for people who are attempting to learn web-design, but I well recommand Dreamweaver is the best on the market, however more complicated since it has more options and functions.

I do suggest Frontpage for beginners and Dreamweaver for advance designers with ad-hoc PHP and HTML language skills for implementing database backends, if not frontpage is fine or online sitebuilder.

Here are the suggested and basic software requirements:

1. Dreamweaver or Frontpage to design the frame work.
2. Photoshop for banners and image design, so you can integrate into step 1.

Be prepared to spend min of 4-8 hours on a basic 5 page website or pay someone else to do it, if you want quality and pride of ownership.

Most of all, have fun building it..... these days websites are considered asset, some forums/website are worth more then your average car.