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shockme17 · Apr 13, 2004, 01:31 AM

The only software ive been able to come across is Adobe's GoLive, and that just seems too technical for me. Are there any other simpler to use webpage builders, something along the lines of Microsoft's Frontpage Express ?

cpac · Apr 13, 2004, 01:54 AM

Well it all depends what you're looking to do--you need to give us more details as to your needs and skill level.

For example, if you're coding by hand, there's TextEdit, BBEdit, OmniWeb's Source Editor, Mozilla's Source Editor, etc.

(if it's just a basic page you're looking for I'd definitely recommend the tiny investment of time it takes to learn how to do some basic coding by hand - there are lots of good tutorials on the web)

If you need a WYSIWYG web page maker, there's

Microsoft Word, etc. (using the "save as HTML" option)
Freeway - very nice, from what I hear, but it might be overkill depending on what you're trying to do.
GoLive, etc. (which we know are overkill)

Hope that helps - and if you want more specific suggestions, just post more details about what you're looking for.

phillryu · Apr 13, 2004, 06:44 AM

I don't know the complexity you need, but Realmac Software has something called RapidWeaver, which is a very simple website creator application that comes with some nice themes.

http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver.php

You may want to check that out.

bbales · Apr 13, 2004, 09:05 AM

There's Freeway Express, as well -- not as full-featured, from what I understand, but also quite a bit cheaper.

shockme17 · Apr 13, 2004, 01:24 PM

do any of these programs have built in ftp so i can edit and publish with one step?

Turias · Apr 13, 2004, 01:27 PM

Originally posted by shockme17:
do any of these programs have built in ftp so i can edit and publish with one step?

BBEdit does, but it costs a pretty penny. I've heard that emacs can do it too, but I don't know how hard it is to setup that functionality.

You can often remotely edit files by sshing to the machine and using vi or emacs, but that's slightly different than what you were asking.

qyn · Apr 13, 2004, 02:05 PM

Originally posted by cpac:

Freeway - very nice, from what I hear, but it might be overkill depending on what you're trying to do.

I recommended Freeway to a semi-technical friend of mine and she ended up having a lot of problems.

The site in the end turned out looking pretty good, but I read the HTML and it was appalling (even compared to things like DreamWeaver).

OptimusG4 · Apr 13, 2004, 02:23 PM

Hopefully when Tag is released we'll have another app to add to the list!

Holigen · Apr 14, 2004, 01:37 AM

Well, ya but thats not looking to be a WYSIWYG* HTML editor.

*What you see is what you get. As in manipulating graphics and text with a GUI rather than just coding it by hand. The software does the coding work for you. Dreamweaver is a good example of this.

OptimusG4 · Apr 14, 2004, 08:42 AM

Originally posted by Holigen:
Well, ya but thats not looking to be a WYSIWYG* HTML editor.

*What you see is what you get. As in manipulating graphics and text with a GUI rather than just coding it by hand. The software does the coding work for you. Dreamweaver is a good example of this.

Yea I understand the concept but it does have live preview to show exactly how it will look when finished.

chezpaul · Apr 14, 2004, 06:10 PM

I've tried Freeway Pro. Did a site with it.
It does upload directly from the program to your site.

One thing I didn't like about the program is that my site would look okay in Explorer but all goofed up in Safari... Graphic colors and frames did not work properly and yes I did use web colors only. As I said, looked fine in Explorer.

Called their tech support they said it was a known issue. This was 3.5.6. They just released 3.5.12 and it's still the same.

Freeway Pro is a 30 day trial, so go ahead and try it. Fully functional so U can do what I did and finish your site in under 30 days... ;-)

vcutag · Apr 16, 2004, 12:07 PM

Originally posted by OptimusG4:
Yea I understand the concept but it does have live preview to show exactly how it will look when finished.

You can set Dreamweaver to preview pages in different web browsers; if you tell it to preview in Safari, it launches Safari and opens the page as it will appear (without having to save it, so you can undo changes without worrying about copying over your file or creating a new one.)

Buck_W · Apr 16, 2004, 01:00 PM

I use Freeway Express and have found it to be fairly intuitive. It does have built-in ftp. Safari renders the pages just as well as IE and Nescape.

http://www.softpress.com/en/freeway/express

gpeden · Apr 16, 2004, 01:39 PM

Although not compliant with today's standards and features, Claris Home Page is easy to use, has built-in FTP and is bullet-proof reliable. It's often on EBay for $75 and is a great intro to the whole business of website authoring. I used it for my humble site, logoheli.com, but I am now thinking about upgrading to more modern sofware....

Cheers!

Glen

typoon · Apr 16, 2004, 01:45 PM

Originally posted by phillryu:
I don't know the complexity you need, but Realmac Software has something called RapidWeaver, which is a very simple website creator application that comes with some nice themes.

http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver.php

You may want to check that out.

I'll second that. I bought this because it was what I was looking for and very easy to use. It still helps to learn a little HTML coding

bergy · Apr 16, 2004, 08:05 PM

I don't know anything about this one but in the spirit of information I'll throw it out there ..

Contribute
http://www.macromedia.com/software/c...tribute_082403

AU_student_iceBook · Apr 16, 2004, 11:43 PM

Yeah, contribute is not bad. It is kinda (not really) a dumbed down version of dreamweaver.

It is more designed for someone to build a site in dreamweaver and then it does WYSWYG editing for a novice that doesn't know HTML.

Not bad for that kind of situation, but it might not be powerful enough for you to build a whole site from scratch.

vsurfer · May 7, 2004, 06:16 PM

When I need to make a quick and easy update, I use Pagespinner or BBEdit lite
(when I don't need to or can't be bothered to fire up Dreamweaver 4 in classic layer, yawn).

I use Cyberduck for all my FTP needs.

gpeden · May 8, 2004, 12:14 AM

Hi,

I downloaded Freeway Pro to try, but my first glance at the manual left me wondering about what I think could be a big issue for me.... To make a small change to the site, does one have to "re-compile" and upload the whole works including graphics? Yikes!

typoon · May 9, 2004, 11:08 AM

If you are looking for a templated site. Check out rapidweaver then get contribute and do the modifications that way.

dampeoples · May 9, 2004, 01:12 PM

Originally posted by shockme17:
do any of these programs have built in ftp so i can edit and publish with one step?

Freeway express has built in ftp. I built this page with it. I think it's only $89 downloaded

Simon X · May 9, 2004, 02:49 PM

Originally posted by gpeden:
Hi,

I downloaded Freeway Pro to try, but my first glance at the manual left me wondering about what I think could be a big issue for me.... To make a small change to the site, does one have to "re-compile" and upload the whole works including graphics? Yikes!

No, it only "re-compiles" the changed files and uploads these. If you've edited certain parts of a page, say some text, but not altered any images on the page then it will only re-compile or publish, in Freeway parlance, that page but use the same graphics that were used before. And then it will upload just that page.

It really is rather quick at doing all this and generates pages that render fine in all the main browsers. That is the point on FW, since you let it deal with generating the HTML the app is designed to be very cross-browser friendly.

One word of advice though, seriously consider buying the Pro version. There are a great many Actions, or add-ons for it both free and paid-for which can greatly expand what you can do with it, and they can only work with the Pro version. Highly recommended.

Angus_D · May 9, 2004, 04:40 PM

Originally posted by qyn:
The site in the end turned out looking pretty good, but I read the HTML and it was appalling (even compared to things like DreamWeaver).

Interesting, the HTML is generally regarded as being quite clean. Not terribly modern, but then it was built to deal with the lowest common denominator of browsers way back when. Even the JavaScript produced by the built-in actions is generally quite tidy and readable.

I'm pretty sure we've stated publicly that support for modern standards is a high priority for the next major version.

OwlBoy · May 9, 2004, 04:46 PM

Originally posted by gpeden:
Although not compliant with today's standards and features, Claris Home Page is easy to use, has built-in FTP and is bullet-proof reliable. It's often on EBay for $75 and is a great intro to the whole business of website authoring. I used it for my humble site, logoheli.com, but I am now thinking about upgrading to more modern sofware....

Cheers!

Glen

Wow, I am not the only one...

www.owlboy.com is made with the same app.

-Owl