unforum

[Mima]

[Q] Web Page Software

[bill]

Do you hope to use a WYSIWYG editor or are you going to get serious about it?

If you only plan to dabble, get an editor that lets you design the page graphically and then writes the code for you. It's horrible code, but you'll be far less frustrated learning things you'll rarely use.

If you plan on jumping in a bit more seriously, I can recommend First Page 2000, which is free. You have to code the pages yourself, but it does rudimentary syntax highlighting for html and the preview mode does a reasonable job.

If you plan to probe the depths of CSS or PHP, I don't have a good recommendation. The few editors I use for those have annoying usability issues that I've learned to live with.

[Alzheimers]

I've used MatrixY2K (www.crystalfibers.com) for the past few months, and I love it. It is a more hands-on editor, requiring you to know the code you're trying to work with.

It does a great job in hilighting syntax for different languages (HTML, Javascript, PHP, CSS, Perl, and more) and has an IE preview window built in. I believe the new version even allows you to install PHP on your system, and process PHP code with it's built-in web server.

Oh, and it's "donation-ware". One nag a day -- no ads, no spyware.

[joebrent]

I tried FrontPage. Don't use FrontPage.

I know a lot of people who use Dreamweaver, heard good things.

[jamesi]

I use Dreamweaver. It's good software, if a bit pricey. Very user-friendly, and you invariably learn about the laws of HTML when you use a code/design split interface.

However, my newest love affair is with the Mambo content management system. If you can ever get hooked in with a host that offers Mambo as a dynamic website creator, grab it and hold on for dear life. Mambo is what makes Smirkbox the clean and easy-to-manage site that it is. If you don't want to piss around with coding and what not, it's a pretty cool management system.

Frontpage:Web Design::Chevy Cavalier:Luxury Vehicles. Don't use it. Front Page Extensions suck the life out of the internet, to be sure.

[Varin]

[Mima]

Thanks for all the advice, could you explain if

[imbri]

It's something completely different.

Mambo is what is called a Content Management System (CMS). They come with various templates and all that you have to do is add the content. You can take it further, by making your own designs and such, but you don't have to. There are all types of CMS out there ranging from the relatively simple and cheap to the quite complex and very expensive. There are a bunch of different content management systems that you can use on the internet. Some are primarily for blog sites (wordpress and movable type are popular examples) and others are for more portal like sites (such as postnuke and phpnuke). Mambo is kind of inbetween the two and is good software, esp if you have little experience.

There are also webhosts that take it a step further by offering preinstalled CMS in their hosting packages and others that have a "one click install" (Dreamhost does which is how I installed a wordpress blog on a few of my sites). Then there are other services, such as the one ARGTalk uses, that are set up purely as sites that host a specific CMS. Another example would be TypePad, which is a blogging system. Some of them allow you to have your own domain name, some don't.

Dreamweaver is like Frontpage (only tons better!). It is a program that you have on your computer and use to create documents (usually html, but you can create other types depending on your knowledge) for the internet. If you are wanting to learn html, I'd recommend Dreamweaver because you can create a page in a wysiwyg fashion and then watch as it generates the html for you. You can kind of due that with Frontpage, but frontpage does some funny things to the code that Dreamweaver doesn't do. Dreamweaver doesn't write perfectly clean code, but it does a great job and you'll quickly learn to notice some of the stuff that it's doing that, ideally, you probably don't want/need.

There are a lot of great sites out there that discuss this stuff and what options are best for you based on your needs and skill level. A google or two should head you in the right direction. Good luck!

-b

[Mima]

Thanks

Dreamweaver it is, I don't actually want to build a site, but I do want to understand enough to be able to deconstruct ... ARG's do really funny things to you! I can understand some of the code, and work out what it is doing, but would really like to be able to take it further. (I'm guessing though that one thing will lead to another, it usually does!)

Thank you all for you help

[Alzheimers]

Just a suggestion for the first-time HTML Puzzlewriter
check out NotPr0n here: http://deathball.net/notpron/

They've put out some of the best examples of "hidden code" puzzles I've ever seen, as well as a lot of other multimedia puzzles (so get to know Photoshop and Audacity, too!) To kill a morning or a week, try and solve their puzzles without any help! Be warned though, they're european so some of their puzzles assume you know their stuff (in particular: german keyboard layouts, candybars, and that they write their dates D/M/Y instead of M/D/Y in the US)

I'd tried to set up a walkthrough, but I haven't had the time to maintain it, and they like to change their old puzzles up now and then. If you get stuck with one of the early puzzles, look here for some advice.

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6655

[addlepated]

If you really want to be able to deconstruct web sites, don't bother with page builders. Start from scratch, build pages with a text editor, and use lots and lots of Google to look up html tags.

[Mima]

Ouch!