Have To Build Site... Haven't Touched Html In Years

[CosmicSurfer]

It's been years since I've built a site, or even updated my own webpage.

But now I need to do it.

Something basic... Java and Flash aren't required...

Pull down-menus, Graphics, Contact forms, etc.

The last software I used was Frontpage.. which is now gone.

Any suggestions for an Oldbie that has to dive back in??

Any Software that is intuitive, user friendly and Drag & Drop preferably...

and of course WYSIWYG.

Free if Possible... Paid if worth it.

Thanks in advance

CS

[thaicbr]

Yep. get someone to do it for ya. cheap as chips here.

[DaveBKK]

Alternatively you could use a CMS like Wordpress (free) with a template (some free / some paid) to build a site. Easier than using something like Frontpage. Google "wordpress template" for zillions of template choices.

Or you could use one of the plethora of new "build a site services" such as: jimdo.com, sitekreator.com, weebly.com, and synthasite.com.

[CosmicSurfer]

Alternatively you could use a CMS like Wordpress (free) with a template (some free / some paid) to build a site. Easier than using something like Frontpage. Google "wordpress template" for zillions of template choices.

Or you could use one of the plethora of new "build a site services" such as: jimdo.com, sitekreator.com, weebly.com, and synthasite.com.

Thanks, but Wordpress is Blogging software to build a Blog.. I need a commercial site.. a simple one, but still a straight web-site, not a blog.

(I was joking about not knowing what RSS was.)

I have Dreamweaver and MS Expression on Disk, but I'm leary of the learning curve and I don't think I need anything so extensive.

A friend recommended WYSIWYG... I looked at their site, so I may head to Fortune tomorrow and see about picking it up.

Looks basic enough.

If not, I can always dig up and install my old FrontPage disk... I really don't envision needing anything more complicated right now.

If we need to upgrade later, I'll hire a pro.

But have you seen a decent Thai designed site..... I haven't.

To build a well designed web-site you need 2 attributes sorely lacking in Thailand....

Intuitivness and common-sense/logic...

... or is that 3 attributes

CS

Edited June 9, 2009 by CosmicSurfer

[DaveBKK]

Thanks, but Wordpress is Blogging software to build a Blog.. I need a commercial site.. a simple one, but still a straight web-site, not a blog.

Actually, Wordpress is a Content Management System, that is most often used for blogs, however there are sites that use it for catalog type commerical / retail sales. I suggested Wordpress (as opposed to Joomla or Drupal) since it's really the easiest to use, and that seemed to be what you are looking for.

There are several Wordpress plugins for commercial purposes.

[Crushdepth]

A CMS is the way to go if you think you will be updating the site reasonably often or want to take advantage of free graphic design/themes made by others. ImpressCMS is quite nice, actively developed and pays a lot of attention to security (recent derivative of XOOPS).

If you just want a few pages, stick with your HTML and try Dreamweaver if you're familiar with Frontpage, you'll figure it out.

[surface]

Go with a CMS.

Wordpress

CMS Made Simple

Joomla

Drupal

I listed them in order of ease of use. The last 2 being about the same, since they have similar roots, but are also getting close to enterprise CMS in size, features, complexity.

Wordpress is pretty easy to make a site, which is all it sounds like you're going to be doing with it. It will look nice enough if you find a nice theme.

[klikster]

If you have Dreamweaver already, better to learn it and use it, IMO .. rather than messing around with an editor the writes bad code (Front Page). I personally build sites with non WYSIWYG .. raw coding .. and learned quite a lot of it on free tutorial sites like W3Schools http://www.w3schools.com/htmL/ and Tizag http://www.tizag.com/.

CMS? I don't recommend them for standard HTML sites, especially Wordpress*. If you install a theme and the thing updates, it may well break the theme. As I understand them, most CMS store content in a database. That means the pages will load a bit slower and put more load on the server. And if you fail to set file privileges correctly (UNIX), you leave your script wide open for hackers.

IMO, the most important aspects of a good website are graphics, placement of content, and the quality of that content. CMS don't usually make placement of graphics and arrangement of content all that easy.

For menus, you can find free javascripts like Tigra http://www.softcomplex.com/products/tigra_menu/. The troubles with javascript menus include disappearing if the user has JS turned off in their browser. I use SSI (server side includes) for all my menus. With some creative CSS (styles), you can get pretty much any effect you want, except dropdown, and the upside is that the are much more intuitive to edit and search engine bots have no trouble following them .. because the are text.

Too many people make a big deal of uploading pages. Filezilla is free and easy. Set it once with a username and password and just drag from one window to another.

IMO, best approach is learning HTML and CSS, build your pages with raw code (Dreamweaver allows you to do that as well). You will have a more secure, flexible site where you control the theme and updates. There are free code libraries all over cyberspace that will allow you access to code that will do pretty much anything you need.

Quite a number of free HTML templates are also available is you search .. and some look really nice. HTML sites are easier to SEO as well.

RSS? I know almost nothing about it except that it can be set up on static sites just as well as CMS.

*Wordpress is probably the CMS most targeted by hackers.

[froglegisgood]

the first thing i would say is stay away from illegal sw from pantip or the street, first of all, it is illegal and second things like dreamweaver can leave of lot of identification in your code to track you later on for having used a pirated software. You can also end up with a nasty trojan on your site and if you do banking from your computer, the end result might be much more expensive than you saved... Also if you use it commercially, respect the rules, you would not like anyone to steal what you will be trying to sell would you!

second I would go for free open source, and Joomla is my favorite. Very easy to use once set up, maybe difficult at first to install, pick a nice template from the thousands available on the web for a few bucks or even free and build from there. There is no limit to what you can do with joomla as there are so many plug ins you can add.

a CMS will be so much easier later on to edit or modify, and you never know you might find a way to make a nice income helping all these companies lacking logic etc...

[cdnvic]

Agree on the CMS. They have developers who are constantly patching and watching out for security issues. Unless you can do the same it's best to leave things to the experts. Wordpress, and Joomla have very good support and a large community of users.

[stumonster]

maybe something like this - just google for some basic site templates to start with then modify it to suit

Easy web authoring

Ecommerce Web Design KompoZer is a complete web authoring system that combines web file management and easy-to-use WYSIWYG web page editing.

KompoZer is designed to be extremely easy to use, making it ideal for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive, professional-looking web site without needing to know HTML or web coding

http://kompozer.net/

[klikster]

.. things like dreamweaver can leave of lot of identification in your code to track you later on for having used a pirated software. You can also end up with a nasty trojan on your site and if you do banking from your computer, the end result might be much more expensive than you saved

Please explain how Dreamweaver invites nasty trojans to your site.

[cdnvic]

.. things like dreamweaver can leave of lot of identification in your code to track you later on for having used a pirated software. You can also end up with a nasty trojan on your site and if you do banking from your computer, the end result might be much more expensive than you saved

Please explain how Dreamweaver invites nasty trojans to your site.

Buying a pirated version with a trojan in the code. Happens all the time.

[klikster]

Agree on the CMS. They have developers who are constantly patching and watching out for security issues. Unless you can do the same it's best to leave things to the experts. Wordpress, and Joomla have very good support and a large community of users.

Any website can be taken over when someone gets a username and password, or takes over a shared server. Aside from that, it's damned difficult to hack a pure HTML site that does not run vulnerable scripts or run off databases.

Wordpress and Joomla have a large community of users because they are free, can often be installed with one click on CPanel, and they are initially easy to use.

The reason they have so many experts " .. constantly patching .." is because of so many vulnerabilities the hackers keep finding in the code they write.

[klikster]

.. things like dreamweaver can leave of lot of identification in your code to track you later on for having used a pirated software. You can also end up with a nasty trojan on your site and if you do banking from your computer, the end result might be much more expensive than you saved

Please explain how Dreamweaver invites nasty trojans to your site.

Buying a pirated version with a trojan in the code. Happens all the time.

A slightly longer answer to explain how said trojan gets from the disk to your HTML code might be enlightening. BTW, can you or anyone else document a single case of Dreamweaver generating a trojan on a web page it produces?

[froglegisgood]

.. things like dreamweaver can leave of lot of identification in your code to track you later on for having used a pirated software. You can also end up with a nasty trojan on your site and if you do banking from your computer, the end result might be much more expensive than you saved

Please explain how Dreamweaver invites nasty trojans to your site.

dreamweaver does not, the pirated copy you pickup at pantip might and often do. I was part of a survey that looked at pirated product from pantip and most of expensive product that do not sell in vast quantity were infested with trojans. The money they (mafia etc...) make by selling some less popular software is not worth the effort to crack, but the data they collect is by far more interesting.

[froglegisgood]

.. things like dreamweaver can leave of lot of identification in your code to track you later on for having used a pirated software. You can also end up with a nasty trojan on your site and if you do banking from your computer, the end result might be much more expensive than you saved

Please explain how Dreamweaver invites nasty trojans to your site.

Buying a pirated version with a trojan in the code. Happens all the time.

A slightly longer answer to explain how said trojan gets from the disk to your HTML code might be enlightening. BTW, can you or anyone else document a single case of Dreamweaver generating a trojan on a web page it produces?

you do not need a long answer, just run the install program and it will install dreamweaver and the nasties bundled with it. My comment was not to say dreamweaver infects you but the people who create these pirated unlocked copies of less popular software must find a way to make money anyway. Products we found containing trojans were business plan writer, business document creator, accounting software, cad cam package, design package etc... There was a trend to see trojans associated with business oriented software. mind you we found a copy of windows me with a trojan as well.

When I say trojan, I actually should say keyloggers.

[klikster]

Kind of rude telling me what I need and what I don't.

In all of the above, no one has explained how said "trojan" gets into the code on your web page .. on your server .. which is what I originally commented on. And how will a keylogger on your computer affect users of a web page on a server?

I don't know what a discussion of business and cad/cam software .. or the need of software pirates to make money .. has to do with this topic.

[cdnvic]

You could do well to tone down the attitude Klikster. This forum is quite helpful and functions well without know-it-alls criticizing everyone that disagrees with them.

Let's get back to the discussion on the various choices the OP has to build a site with, before he loses interest while irrelevant arguments go on.

[phetaroi]

Although not free, I can vouch for Dreamweaver. I know nothing about HTML but have a pretty nice site that I did with Dreamweaver. Mostly it's fairly intuitive, although I do recommend one of the guides when using it.

[Crushdepth]

I use Dreamweaver occasionally when I want to see what the layout of some code looks like. Often helps to locate the right thing to edit or move in a dynamic page. But the code it generates tends to be cluttered with unecessary and annoying stuff and the built in FTP is horribly slow. For writing HTML I prefer to use a nice text editor like Jedit, but then I like to keep it simple.

HTML sites are good if you have a handful of static pages and don't want to update them often, but if you want a big or frequently updated site a CMS is the only way to go (and once you're familiar with one you'll inevitably end up using it for simple sites as well, because DIY html sites tend to be UGLY).

[GmB]

For writing HTML I prefer to use a nice text editor like Jedit

I agree, there is nothing better then a text editor. Ultraedit is another good one

[filguy]

Better use CMS nowadays and I can recommend Joomla because its an open source and you can get lots of extensions and templates. Just be careful when using the extensions. If you know PHP, you can review the code. You can also develop a Web 2.0 site.

[deathraser]

It's been years since I've built a site, or even updated my own webpage.

But now I need to do it.

Something basic... Java and Flash aren't required...

Pull down-menus, Graphics, Contact forms, etc.

The last software I used was Frontpage.. which is now gone.

Any suggestions for an Oldbie that has to dive back in??

Any Software that is intuitive, user friendly and Drag & Drop preferably...

and of course WYSIWYG.

Free if Possible... Paid if worth it.

Thanks in advance

CS

Maybe you could try to use this software called NVUComposer which is free and it very basic to use.

[Insight]

If you're concerned about standards I'd avoid hiring a web developer here - most of them haven't got the first clue what CSS is as their experience only tends to go as far as the Macromedia products. I would really, really appreciate somebody proving me wrong on this (with name and contact details), but it's yet to happen.

Being a dot net'er I recently went with the DotNetNuke CMS and a purchased skin. It's saved me a lot of time and has been an interesting learning curve - I'm now also in the process of developing my own DNN modules to use with the site and possibly sell on. Well worth investigating if you learn towards the MS side of things.

[shriah]

If all you need is a basic static html website its better you learn html and some css . There are lot of material to help with HTML and CSS. If you are going to use a WYSIWYG this how the site will look like Fugle Site . You can get started here Css Zen . If you need database support and lot more advanced stuff you can go for Drupal ,Joomla and other things. Even Ruby on Rails is very simple to create if you need a frontend for a database. Good Luck . Use HTML and CSS !