Easy to use program to build a website?

[+ Archer]

There seem to be many experienced computer guys on this message board, so I thought I would ask you. What is a good, easy to use program to build a website? I am a complete novice at this.

 

Thanks for your responses.

Archer

[+ deej]

Sorry, but that's a little like asking whether you should buy a hammer or a saw to build a house. You'll need both, and then some.

 

You can build a website using Notepad. It can be fully functional. It will take a long time. You can also spend a lot of money (and learning curve) on one of the webdev suites from Microsoft or Macromedia. And there are many variations between those two extremes.

 

A lot depends on what you want the website to *do*. Will it just be a listing of stuff? Do you need to sell stuff? Do you need email and/or fill-in forms?

 

Chances are that a complete novice will best be served by hiring someone than by getting a tool, unless the requirements are modest and unchanging.

[Guest greatness]

Hi Archer, you can go to youtube and watch some vids on the website building. Some people use programs but you don't really have to use programs if you know the basics. You can just read through a book at Barnes and Nobles and figure out what you need to do. That way you will save money and don't have to pay for someone else's program that you really don't need. There are tutorials on how to web design and obtaining a domain and etc..on youtoube.. I hope this helps.

 

There seem to be many experienced computer guys on this message board, so I thought I would ask you. What is a good, easy to use program to build a website? I am a complete novice at this.

 

Thanks for your responses.

Archer

[+ Archer]

A lot depends on what you want the website to *do*. Will it just be a listing of stuff? Do you need to sell stuff? Do you need email and/or fill-in forms?

 

Initially, the site will just be for showing off artwork, fill in forms, and send and receive emails. Eventually, I want to expand it to selling things.

 

Hiring someone to create my website has proven to be problematic. He came highly recommended from someone I trust. I took the precaution of having him sign a contract with a time limit and specific requirements. The time limit has passed, I have no website and am out a good faith deposit. So much for recommendations.

[rland54]

Hello Archer, if you are looking for a very easy to use and relatively inexpensive place to do a website as well as hosting, I can definitely recommend webs.com. Last year I started one for a society I belong to and knew NOTHING about how to do it or get started. Between it being very user friendly, the tutitorial, and the customer service, I was able to build a pretty decent one. Of course the cheaper sites like this don't have all the bells and whistles one sees on other sites, but I have been able to post quite a few pictures on it, along with a considerable amount of content. Hope this helps.

[+ deej]

Initially, the site will just be for showing off artwork, fill in forms, and send and receive emails. Eventually, I want to expand it to selling things.

 

Hiring someone to create my website has proven to be problematic. He came highly recommended from someone I trust. I took the precaution of having him sign a contract with a time limit and specific requirements. The time limit has passed, I have no website and am out a good faith deposit. So much for recommendations.

 

Hiring a web developer is just like hiring a handyman or contractor, except it's less regulated and there are no "building codes" governing the result.

 

I'll tell you now, though, that while "send and receive mail" sounds nice, in reality websites DO NOT receive mail. The domain may host addresses, but the site itself does not receive mail. Sending mail is easy with a mailto: link but that uses the mail client on the viewer's machine.

 

Fill in forms are a bit of a bugbear. Forms are easy to make, but what do you do with the data collected in those forms? You'll probably want a database, and then you need a way to hook your forms up to that database. (And once data goes in, you'll need a way to get it out.)

 

And it sounds like you have a shopping cart component in your future.

 

With those goals in mind, shop around at the various hosting companies. (Google will find a bajillion of 'em for you.) They almost all offer rudimentary site building tools. Look at their offerings and compare them with your needs (both initial and projected).

[nate_sf]

The very first website I created for myself used fill-in templates through Yahoo web hosting. It was really easy to get up and running in just a few minutes, and they offered some decent template formats to choose from. As Deej mentions, you can shop around for other web hosting, and many offer templates that might do what you need to do. I find Yahoo’s web hosting to be easy to use and the prices are decent, and I’ve also used Network Solutions for some simple sites and liked them fine.

 

I designed my natebruno website myself using an old, old program from the 90's called PageMill. I still like the program because it is so simple, but it is very limited in terms of options. Plus people will make fun of you if they find out that’s what you’ve used, it's such a dinosaur of a program. You can still get old copies of it on eBay for next to nothing. It has compatibility issues with Windows 7 however, so its usefulness is becoming even more limited.

 

Dreamweaver seems to be the preferred off-the-shelf do-it-yourself program these days, though there are a few other programs that people also seem to like. But Dreamweaver is pretty ubiquitous. It is more complicated, so you will need to get a tutorial book or take a class. I took a class in it a few years ago and would consider it “intermediate” in terms of difficulty. There is a learning curve, but it’s not prohibitive. It has a lot of capabilities, and can probably do most or all of the things you want to do.

[+ Archer]

Thank you for all your suggestions. For the first, simple site, I'm going to start with Yahoo web hosting and the webpage creator they have.

 

Again, thanks for your help.

 

Archer

[socalboy2283]

The only thing to watch out for when using those pre-made templates is how professional they look. For a site that any sort of prospective client will be seeing you want to make sure it's aesthetically pleasing and presentable, and sometime those templates have awful "BUILT BY _____" banners everywhere and other sorts of things. Just something to consider ~!

[Steven_Draker]

Dreamweaver seems to be the preferred off-the-shelf do-it-yourself program these days, though there are a few other programs that people also seem to like. But Dreamweaver is pretty ubiquitous. It is more complicated, so you will need to get a tutorial book or take a class. I took a class in it a few years ago and would consider it “intermediate” in terms of difficulty. There is a learning curve, but it’s not prohibitive. It has a lot of capabilities, and can probably do most or all of the things you want to do.

 

I have a free copy of Dreamweaver if someone is interested in it. Send me a private message.

[Guy Fawkes]

As Strange as it may seem...

 

I had a lot of problems with the concept of using a simple text editor to create HTML when I first started. I was assured by several excellent Webmasters that's all I needed.

 

I've been through Frontpage and Dreamweaver sagas and now ten or so years later, my opinion has swung around to the point that I prefer to use a programmers editor (I use BBEdit).

 

The problem with the DreamWeavers, Expression, and BrandX HTML editors of the world is that they tend to shit on my oh so pretty code, they tend to not fix the bugs that are causing me to go bald, and the cost keeps going up.

 

Slowly but surely I'm weaning myself off of DreamWeaver and I suggest that you don't take up that costly habit. Find a reasonable text editor that works for you and simply learn the HTML. To do a reasonable job your going to have to learn HTML eventually and IMHO sooner that later is better.

 

In teaching an HTML 5 class, I found that "All I need to know" concepts really do boil down to about six or so. The rest tends to be techniques that become ingrained fairly quickly and that a handful of reference sites fill in the voids nicely.

[Guest Bauer]

Netscape Communicator 4 is freely available.