website design

[dogoftheunderworld]

I have a friend who has used FrontPage in the past to create his small business website. He is looking at updating his site, and creating a new site for a new business.

What would be a good choice? I'm not sure of his technical skills.

Thoughts on:
1. Notepad
2. KompoZer - Easy web authoring
3. Dreamweaver
4. other?

Thanks,

Brian
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[Tharian]

If your friend used FrontPage in the past, that could be a route going forward. It's still being made and nothing would stop him from using his existing copy, as far as I know.

Beyond that, Notepad is good if your friend knows how to write HTML by hand. Though, I would recommend Notepad++ over Notepad since it can colorcode your HTML and make it easier to see when you've made a mistake. Other comparable free options exist based on OS and preferences.

I've not used Kompozer in such a long time that I don't think I can offer any practical advice there. It looks rather analagous to FrontPage, though, so that could be of comfort when not very comfortable in HTML.

Other software, like Dreamweaver, exists, but I've used Notepad++ for my basic needs and have not used any of the others.

Best of luck to your friend.

 

[Thanee]

With some work and using existing frameworks as a foundation (i.e. joomla CMS or jQuery JavaScript library (jQuery Tools is also worth a look), you can do some really fantastic stuff without knowing all that much about website programming (some knowledge required, of course).

Bye
Thanee

 

[dogoftheunderworld]

Just a "thank you" for the replies!

 

[ssampier]

That's a tough question. I'm guessing this is going to be a brochure style site - where you change it once and never touch it again. If that's the case, FrontPage or pretty much anything else will be fine.

If your friend has products that change or season specials, I have a preference for some type of Content Management System. Unfortunately to do things right with a CMS usually isn't cheap and it require constant content updating, maintenance, and backups.

What type of business is this?

 

[nedjer]

Notepad++ alongside Kompozer is a good combination for static sites.

Any kind of regularly updated site or blog site needs a database structure and Wordpress is usually the easiest starting point.

 

[faith1806]

i have tried weebly bog, and it is easy to use. others i have no idea.

 

[jimmifett]

I use eclipse, or ultra edit for something quick.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

I'm still using Dreamweaver 4 form about 10 years ago, couldn't afford to upgrade that AND my art software so I still use Dreamweaver #4, lol
I find that works great

 

[Cergorach]

If it's for a business, your friend might consider hiring someone to do the site, someone who does this for a living generally does it quicker and better then your friend ever could. In the end this tends to save money (time=money), your friend does what he does best, a webdesigner does what he does best.

Tools:
I prefer Ultraedit over any other (free) text editing tool, it has some seriously powerfull search/replace and compare features.
Dreamweaver is good, but relatively expensive, it does some things really fast and really well, others require a lot of configuration before they work. I don't use it that often (even when I have acces to it).
A CMS (Joomla, Droopal, etc.) works well, but only if you know what your doing, really need the interactivety and you keep it up to date (deploy security patches). Generaly a couple of well designed html pages work extremely well for a small business site...