Website Design Software at DVinfo.net

Andrew Clark · January 16th, 2010, 07:31 PM

(I touched upon this lightly in a different thread, so please forgive if this seems redundant!!)

For those of you designing your own websites, I'm curious to know what software you are utilizng to design your websites?

Edward Carlson · January 16th, 2010, 10:11 PM

I use Dreamweaver. I think I've been using it since Macromedia owned it, but have since upgraded to CS4. I started way back using Notepad and Tripod free hosting. Now I have two websites (personal and business) at Welcome to EdCarlson.com and ALT-5*∞ Productions | Welcome
Knowing Photoshop and raw HTML don't hurt either! I sometimes don't bother with Dreamweaver and just edit the raw code.

Chris Davis · January 17th, 2010, 08:21 AM

Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. That' not a recommendation (and probably kind of overkill) for a DIY website, but much of our business is software development.

Nigel Barker · January 17th, 2010, 01:11 PM

My wife does web development for clients & predominantly uses Joomla which is a Content Management System which speeds up development, aids debugging & simplifies maintenance & updating. Joomla is what she is most familiar with but there are other CMS that are of similar quality. Here is a comparison of Joomla, Drupal & Wordpress Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal - Which CMS should you choose?

Here is her site with some links to some clients' sites The Number One Ladies Website Agency

Mark Williams · January 17th, 2010, 02:36 PM

Web Expression 3 for < $149.00. Can download 60 day fully functional trial.

Chris Davis · January 17th, 2010, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Williams

Adobe Web Expression 3 for < $149.00. Can download 60 day fully functional trial.

*Microsoft, not Adobe. http://www.microsoft.com/expression/. It's pretty good, certainly worth checking out.

Brian Luce · January 17th, 2010, 05:11 PM

I use wysiwyg. It's a html generating software. It's simple. Very simple. $49 I think.

Cole McDonald · January 17th, 2010, 07:19 PM

I'm using Text Wrangler... because it allows for better management of multiple open documents and find/ replace than Text Edit which I used for 15 years.

Although much simpler to use, I hate the code that WYSIWYG editors generate... it's not all necessary, and when I started developing web sites, most of my viewers were on 14,4 modems, so load times were of tantamount importance.

I've continued to be unimpressed with all of the options out there and finally stopped looking for alternatives about 5 years ago... the closest to good was Claris Homepage, nice clean code generated there.

Nigel Barker · January 18th, 2010, 02:37 AM

For creating web sites there is a major difference between a CMS like Joomla & Wordpress & design software like Dreamweaver, Rapidweaver, Web Expression etc. mentioned by the others responding in this thread. With the former your content is separate from your design which is done with some form of template whereas the latter are in effect HTML generating word processors. You can achieve stylish & dynamic designs with a CMS just as you can with design software but the management of the whole site rather than merely individual pages is far superior. As an example Philip Bloom's site is done in Wordpress which nowadays is used for far more than the original purpose as software for writing a blog. Philip Bloom - DP, Director, Filmmaker

Andris Krastins · January 18th, 2010, 03:48 AM

I switched my website from a self-coded html/css piece to a Wordpress powered one because it's then much easier to update it and have more features, like tags, comments and categories.

The skins are many and it's not hard to modify them, if you want.

For a html wysiwyg editor I suggest Dreamweaver.

Paul Mailath · January 18th, 2010, 05:17 AM

If you want to be a web developer there are plenty of options - if you want to have a web presence and get on with the business of video productions - why don't you look at ready made templates? they're around 50-100 bucks and look really slick. All you have to do is modify the text to suit your site and you're off.

It might be a nice hobby or pasttime or waste of time developing your own website but - what business are you in???

Andris Krastins · January 18th, 2010, 05:27 AM

There are also a lot of free templates around.
For example: http://templates.arcsin.se , http://www.freelayouts.com/

p.s. I used to be a web designer, but these days due to lack of time because of a day job I too find it easier just to use a template, maybe with slight modifications.

Craig Seeman · January 18th, 2010, 07:17 AM

Freeway is very easy if you're on Mac
Softpress: Powerful, easy to use web design software for Mac OS X

Kyle Root · January 18th, 2010, 07:20 AM

I agree with some other comments posted here. If you're into making videos, you probably don't want to spend hours and hours designing a website. And it does take considerable time, especially if you need to learn HTML and CSS. Try the free template route of something like Word Press or even Blogger.

If you decide to go with some sort of Dreamweaver type program (I still use GoLive CS2), you'll still need to understand basic HTML and CSS code to get most everything to play together nicely.

While Flash based sites (free ones at like Wix) are the rage it seems, I try and steer clear of them because of load times and compatibility issues.

The pros of having your own site and domain could be important to your business if you have a unique name. Additionally, the advantage of having a hosting service host your page means you can upload videos too. Now, I know that you can upload videos to you tube or vimeo, but they are limited in size/length. For instance on my hosting plan, I have unlimited MB storage, so right now, I have 4 or 5 full length wedding videos at about 400 MB average size.

Hope that helps some.

Chris Davis · January 18th, 2010, 08:44 AM

Another idea would be to trade services. Get a strategic alliance going with a good web designer/developer - let them do what they do well and you do likewise. As web and video become more integrated, this could be a very lucrative arrangement.

January 16th, 2010, 07:31 PM	#1
Andrew Clark Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Bay Area, CA Posts: 477	Website Design Software (I touched upon this lightly in a different thread, so please forgive if this seems redundant!!) For those of you designing your own websites, I'm curious to know what software you are utilizng to design your websites?

January 17th, 2010, 01:11 PM	#4
Nigel Barker Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Posts: 3,531	My wife does web development for clients & predominantly uses Joomla which is a Content Management System which speeds up development, aids debugging & simplifies maintenance & updating. Joomla is what she is most familiar with but there are other CMS that are of similar quality. Here is a comparison of Joomla, Drupal & Wordpress Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal - Which CMS should you choose? Here is her site with some links to some clients' sites The Number One Ladies Website Agency Last edited by Nigel Barker; January 18th, 2010 at 02:26 AM.

January 17th, 2010, 02:36 PM	#5
Mark Williams Trustee Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Deep South, U.S. Posts: 1,526	Web Expression 3 for < $149.00. Can download 60 day fully functional trial. __________________ Mark videos: http://vimeo.com/channels/3523 Stock: http://www.pond5.com/artist/mark29 Last edited by Mark Williams; January 17th, 2010 at 07:08 PM.

January 17th, 2010, 07:19 PM	#8
Cole McDonald Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Sauk Rapids, MN, USA Posts: 1,675	I'm using Text Wrangler... because it allows for better management of multiple open documents and find/ replace than Text Edit which I used for 15 years. Although much simpler to use, I hate the code that WYSIWYG editors generate... it's not all necessary, and when I started developing web sites, most of my viewers were on 14,4 modems, so load times were of tantamount importance. I've continued to be unimpressed with all of the options out there and finally stopped looking for alternatives about 5 years ago... the closest to good was Claris Homepage, nice clean code generated there. __________________ Web Youtube Facebook

January 18th, 2010, 03:48 AM	#10
Andris Krastins Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: Lielvārde, Latvia Posts: 326	I switched my website from a self-coded html/css piece to a Wordpress powered one because it's then much easier to update it and have more features, like tags, comments and categories. The skins are many and it's not hard to modify them, if you want. For a html wysiwyg editor I suggest Dreamweaver. __________________ Our Fire Films - a free film project.

January 16th, 2010, 10:11 PM	#2
Edward Carlson Major Player Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: North Hollywood, CA, United States Posts: 807	I use Dreamweaver. I think I've been using it since Macromedia owned it, but have since upgraded to CS4. I started way back using Notepad and Tripod free hosting. Now I have two websites (personal and business) at Welcome to EdCarlson.com and ALT-5*∞ Productions \| Welcome Knowing Photoshop and raw HTML don't hurt either! I sometimes don't bother with Dreamweaver and just edit the raw code.

January 17th, 2010, 08:21 AM	#3
Chris Davis Trustee Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Willmar, MN Posts: 1,400	Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. That' not a recommendation (and probably kind of overkill) for a DIY website, but much of our business is software development.

January 17th, 2010, 05:11 PM	#7
Brian Luce Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 2,290	I use wysiwyg. It's a html generating software. It's simple. Very simple. $49 I think.

January 18th, 2010, 02:37 AM	#9
Nigel Barker Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Posts: 3,531	For creating web sites there is a major difference between a CMS like Joomla & Wordpress & design software like Dreamweaver, Rapidweaver, Web Expression etc. mentioned by the others responding in this thread. With the former your content is separate from your design which is done with some form of template whereas the latter are in effect HTML generating word processors. You can achieve stylish & dynamic designs with a CMS just as you can with design software but the management of the whole site rather than merely individual pages is far superior. As an example Philip Bloom's site is done in Wordpress which nowadays is used for far more than the original purpose as software for writing a blog. Philip Bloom - DP, Director, Filmmaker

January 18th, 2010, 05:17 AM	#11
Paul Mailath Trustee Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Central Coast - NSW, Australia Posts: 1,606	If you want to be a web developer there are plenty of options - if you want to have a web presence and get on with the business of video productions - why don't you look at ready made templates? they're around 50-100 bucks and look really slick. All you have to do is modify the text to suit your site and you're off. It might be a nice hobby or pasttime or waste of time developing your own website but - what business are you in??? __________________ Cheers - Paul M. www.perbenyik.com

January 18th, 2010, 05:27 AM	#12
Andris Krastins Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: Lielvārde, Latvia Posts: 326	There are also a lot of free templates around. For example: http://templates.arcsin.se , http://www.freelayouts.com/ p.s. I used to be a web designer, but these days due to lack of time because of a day job I too find it easier just to use a template, maybe with slight modifications. __________________ Our Fire Films - a free film project.

January 18th, 2010, 07:17 AM	#13
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Freeway is very easy if you're on Mac Softpress: Powerful, easy to use web design software for Mac OS X

January 18th, 2010, 07:20 AM	#14
Kyle Root Major Player Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Decatur, AL Posts: 883	I agree with some other comments posted here. If you're into making videos, you probably don't want to spend hours and hours designing a website. And it does take considerable time, especially if you need to learn HTML and CSS. Try the free template route of something like Word Press or even Blogger. If you decide to go with some sort of Dreamweaver type program (I still use GoLive CS2), you'll still need to understand basic HTML and CSS code to get most everything to play together nicely. While Flash based sites (free ones at like Wix) are the rage it seems, I try and steer clear of them because of load times and compatibility issues. The pros of having your own site and domain could be important to your business if you have a unique name. Additionally, the advantage of having a hosting service host your page means you can upload videos too. Now, I know that you can upload videos to you tube or vimeo, but they are limited in size/length. For instance on my hosting plan, I have unlimited MB storage, so right now, I have 4 or 5 full length wedding videos at about 400 MB average size. Hope that helps some. __________________ Kyle KR Productions; www.kyleroot.com

January 18th, 2010, 08:44 AM	#15
Chris Davis Trustee Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Willmar, MN Posts: 1,400	Another idea would be to trade services. Get a strategic alliance going with a good web designer/developer - let them do what they do well and you do likewise. As web and video become more integrated, this could be a very lucrative arrangement.