Best software for creating website?

[MikeW]

I've used Front Page 2000 for a couple of years now and would like to move on to something else. I'd like to create something with a professional look to it using some form of Java. My current look is simple text that hyperlinks to Excel data saved as a web page.

Any suggestions?

[Steve Mehs]

Macromedia Dreamweaver, no doubt. I've used (and have most of these on my computer right now) FrontPage 98, 00 & 02/XP, Netscape Composer, Adobe GoLive 6 and FrontPage Express, Dreamweaver 4 and MX, and Dreamweaver MX has to be the most advanced and easiest to use for me. One of the things I like the most is the split screen feature, you can divide your screen so you see the HTML coding on top and the wysiwyg editor on the bottom. This makes things a lot more easier since you don't have to go between views. This is a no brainier, but I love the integration between Dreamweaver and Flash. One thing through, Dreaweaver takes some processor power to operate smoothly, I have a 700Mhz P3 w/ 384 MB SDRAM and it can be a bear at times when doing large graphics or even fairly large tables. I also like Dreamweaver's ease of use with frames, stylesheets and forms, but frames are the only thing I've really played around with. I get way too aggravated at stylesheets to use them on a regular basis. I've worked a lot with FrontPage in the past, and another thing I found Macromedia does better is site organization. Within Dreamweaver there is a site tree and it's very easy to add new folders, pages, multimedia, ect. With FP you can do it in Navigation view but you don't have as much control as you do with Dreamweaver.

Dreamweaver has become the Photoshop of web design, I don't know why MS doesn't improve FP, but it simply can't compete with Macromedia’s powerhouse of web and multimedia design applications.

BTW- for those who used Macromedia in the past but went away for some reason or another, the MX line is fantastic. I have Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, Fireworks MX, Freehand MX and Director MX and I can only speak for Director, Dreamweaver and Freehand, but the MX versions are much improved in UI, ease of use and performance then previous versions.

[waydwolf]

Not to be a wiseass, but the best software for you, no kidding, is...

(drum roll)

NOTEPAD

In the end, web page construction is still about coding. Meaning programming. Meaning lots of tedious typing of alphanumeric text characters. I know, I don't like it either. But I used to write my own word processors in 6502 assembly each time I needed to write something rather than shell out for one. Thank God for a friend giving me his copy of AppleWriter ][ at one point or I'd have done that for another three years.

And inevitably, no single app will EVER allow you to get everything done that you want. You'll need a veritable toolbox of apps and when all the dust has settled from all that, you'll still need to tweak.

So, http://www.dbstalk.com/images/smiles2/read.gif, and http://www.dbstalk.com/images/smilies/pcguy.gif...

If you think this is long and drawn out, check out POV-Ray at www.povray.org (http://www.povray.org) and keep in mind that it started as a DOS/Unix shell based app and to this day is totally script based, despite the GUI enhancements. I used to actually run batch files to automatically feed scripts to generate successive animation frames before I got trueSpace 2.

[firephoto]

You might try NoteTab Light if you want to edit the html that way. It has some html tools.
http://www.notetab.com/download.php

As far as all out web page building Dreamweaver is pretty good.

[Mark Holtz]

I have a preference to NotePad+ (http://www.mypeecee.org/rogsoft/notepad.html) for years already. Unfortunately, there will be no updates since the author lost the source code.

And, I wouldn't go out and spend the money on Dreamweaver or Frontpage if you are starting out designing web pages. I would start out with what is free, namely Frontpage Express and Netscape Composer. They just make the basic composition of your web page easy since you have to use codes to display certain symbols. Making tables is easier to do under a WYSIWYG editor instead of hard-coding it. Then, go in with notepad to tweak the web page code.

You can also try out some of the freeware/shareware web composition programs that are downloadable from Tucows, download.com, or Strouds.