[majesticmac]

I am starting up a website for my company, just me editing on the Powermac. I was looking for a web design program for the Mac. Any suggestions, it needs to be easy. I made a family site years ago but I don't think that will help. I am also looking for a hosting company, I will need just 2 to 5 pages and 5 or less email names but I need alias. My new Mac does not ship till November and this is my first one so I am clueless, been using PC's for years though. I know some hosting sites come with their own design software but I have read that you really need to buy a program and do a more thoughfull job on it.

[Simon Mundy]

Originally posted by majesticmac:
I am starting up a website for my company, just me editing on the Powermac. I was looking for a web design program for the Mac. Any suggestions, it needs to be easy. I made a family site years ago but I don't think that will help. I am also looking for a hosting company, I will need just 2 to 5 pages and 5 or less email names but I need alias. My new Mac does not ship till November and this is my first one so I am clueless, been using PC's for years though. I know some hosting sites come with their own design software but I have read that you really need to buy a program and do a more thoughfull job on it.

Make it easy on yourself and get the Macromedia Studio MX (with Dreamweaver and Fireworks) which is the 'standard', or Adobe's Design Collection (with GoLive and Photoshop/Imageready).

Both are setup for you to run through some quick tutorials, get you started and ease you into the web design process in a pretty painless manner.

There's a lot of recommendations for hosting companies elsewhere on this forum that will get you started.

Good luck

[majesticmac]

ouch, I looked it up on froogle and I see prices from 1000 bucks? Any buying advice?

I can't afford this right now at that price, any cheaper alternatives?

[Turias]

What's your budget? Just Dreamworks is about $400. But, if that's still too much, maybe it would be better to pick up a couple of books and learn HTML.

You could also download Mozilla and play with the Mozilla Composer. It's pretty bare-bones, but it's free.

[Macola]

Originally posted by majesticmac:

I can't afford this right now at that price, any cheaper alternatives?

Learn HTML and CSS, then you can use a text editor (free or shareware).

http://www.w3schools.com/

[benandkelley]

After you've decided on what to do for development on the current site....as a side thought...You could pick up the Dreamweaver software for about $99 as a student. The student license would not permit you to do commercial development with it, but you could start learning how to use Dreamweaver and learn how the html works to display various items. Then you can apply this knowledge in the future to encourage your company to purchase the commercial package and have you develop additional sites.

[brettcamp]

A couple of cheap alternatives: RapidWeaver and Contribute. RW has prefab templates. Contribute is more for maintaining a site after it's built.

A free alternative that's a step up from handcoding HTML is Mozilla's Composer. It lets you click a button to make links etc. so you don't have to code each link by hand.

[wataru]

Originally posted by Macola:
Learn HTML and CSS, then you can use a text editor (free or shareware).

http://www.w3schools.com/

If you want to do it right, this is the best way.

[t500]

Must go with Dreamweaver. Its pretty much the bast thing out there. With alot of room to expand when your ready!

[djohnson]

Originally posted by wataru:


If you want to do it right, this is the best way.

Agreed. There is nothing better than hand coding everything you make!

[iluvmypowerbook]

Originally posted by benandkelley:
You could pick up the Dreamweaver software for about $99 as a student. The student license would not permit you to do commercial development with it, but you could start learning how to use Dreamweaver and learn how the html works to display various items. Then you can apply this knowledge in the future to encourage your company to purchase the commercial package and have you develop additional sites.

What do you mean???

Does the student/teacher edition have some kind of barrier preventing you from creating live web sites?
When you say for commercial purposes do you mean for like companies or sole trader. How does this edition differ from the other package then?

[brapper]

I hear good things about this: Freeway

anyone else know anything about it?

[Briareus]

I've been messing with Freeway Express for a short time, and for the price ($89) I'd say it's been a good introduction for me. It uses an easy to understand desktop publishing metaphor. Be aware that it's a WYSIWYG HTML generator, not an HTML editor.

If you're just looking to do a simple site quickly, have no HTML knowledge and the free Netscape Composer is not your cup of tea, give it a try. There's a 30-day free demo.

It's been a good starter app for me, but it's limitations and approach will most likely have you thinking about buying books, really learning some HTML, and considering saving up for GoLive or Dreamweaver.

[Turnpike]

if you're on the cheap, learn HTML and CSS. It really isn't that hard. If you have money to buy a decent WYSIWYG editor, hire a web design professional. If you have the money but don't need anything that has any sense of form/function and isn't necessarily clean code, get the editor and throw it together yourself.

or just use office. it won't be pretty and the code will be horrid, but the fact that your company doesn't want to hire a professional to do their website doesn't exactly indicate that the company really cares about the site that much.


Tell your boss to hire out if it really matters, otherwise just spend the two hours it takes to learn basic HTML (4 transitional should be fine for whatever your doing...). If your boss doesn't want to hire out because it is expensive, tell him that web professionals are professionals for a reason and they get paid what they get paid for a reason, and to not expect a whole lot if he isn't willing to pay for it.

[Maflynn]

Originally posted by iluvmypowerbook:
What do you mean???

Does the student/teacher edition have some kind of barrier preventing you from creating live web sites?
When you say for commercial purposes do you mean for like companies or sole trader. How does this edition differ from the other package then?

I could be wrong but the student edition does not have any built in restrictions, its part of EULA. In otherwords its your word.

Mike

[Macola]

Originally posted by Turnpike:

Tell your boss to hire out if it really matters, otherwise just spend the two hours it takes to learn basic HTML (4 transitional should be fine for whatever your doing...). If your boss doesn't want to hire out because it is expensive, tell him that web professionals are professionals for a reason and they get paid what they get paid for a reason, and to not expect a whole lot if he isn't willing to pay for it.

Well said!

[depolitic]

Question: would you rather have a VW with a Porsche engine or a Porsche with a VW engine?

GUI tools ARE EVIL - They hide the basics of a site which is code, making you focus on visual only (Which is at best marginal concern) and teaching you a many a bad habits. That will come back to haunt you if you ever wish to build ever more complex and advance sites.

I speak from experience.

You need the following - a text editor look at SubEthaEdit or TextMate or even BBEdit. and at least two web browsers say Safari, and Firefox.

That is it.

Build you first site even if it sucks and do not worry about how it looks as long as it works.

You must lay the foundations, raise the framework of your site (i.e. code) and then only worry about the style, which os often the most supervise; aspect of any site.

[wataru]

Originally posted by depolitic:
which os often the most supervise; aspect of any site.

Translation: "which is often the most superficial aspect of any site."

This is completely true. Focus on the structure of your code when you write the (X)HTML. Style it after-the-fact with CSS. If you go the XHTML + CSS route, the style is completely independent of the structure, which is as things should be.

[skalie]

Originally posted by depolitic:
Question: would you rather have a VW with a Porsche engine or a Porsche with a VW engine?

Excellent.