Need web page creation tool

[Trab]

I am trying to get a webpage creation program, preferably a reasonable one at ZERO cost. I don't know html, and don't want to learn it. I need a WYSIWYG type of program but that allows for the creation of things like online registration, blogs, emails, etc. I have a Mac, so Frontpage isn't an option, not to mention that I've heard it's not that great a program anyway. Bottom line though, is that the iMac program, iWeb, is not nearly good enough. I was told nvudev was a good place to go, but I have not been able to open that URL, nor been able to find anyone else able to open it, in days. Obviously something has gone wrong with them. I suppose they might be based in the Ike affected area, but the official listings show them as CA based, so that's unlikely to be the issue.

Anyway, suggestions would be welcomed, as I just can't find out anything from my direct list of friends.

[Tanuki Racoon]

http://webdesign.about.com/od/htmleditors/...pfreewysmac.htm

There ya' go.

Never used SeaMonkey but have heard it's okay.

Otherwise buy DreamWeaver (R?500,000,000,000)

[Camy]

Ah-ha! Now we can work out the official Raccoon to US $ exchange rate.

[Richard Norway]

I checked with my local bank for exchange rates, but it took them a couple of hours to find Raccoon in their computer, but they eventually found it. It turns our that $500,000,000,000.00 RD (Raccoon Dollars) equals about $ 1.38 USD.

[Tanuki Racoon]

I hate to insult all of you, but what the hell. IDIOTS THE LOT!

The raccoon would NEVER stoop to using dollars. The raccoon uses pounds. Raccoon Pounds.

R? <--- see?

That works out to US$20.38

I will accept your collective apologies.

PS: Frontpage is made by Microsoft, Bart. Imagine how badly it sucks balls.

[Trab]

I didn't think ball sucking could ever be truly bad, but I think I see what you're getting at.

[Trab]

Sea Monkey, while free and basic, is TOO basic, and I can do more with my iWeb program.

[The Pecman]

Dreamweaver can be had for much less if you shop around. There are people on eBay hawking the "educational" version, which is the same program except you can't upgrade it. But if it costs 1/4th the price of the full version, you figure, what the hell.

Be warned there's a steep learning curve on Dreamweaver. I've bought a couple of books on it and have yet to use even 2% of everything it can do. Very powerful program.

[Tanuki Racoon]

Dreamweaver can be had for much less if you shop around. There are people on eBay hawking the "educational" version, which is the same program except you can't upgrade it. But if it costs 1/4th the price of the full version, you figure, what the hell.

Be warned there's a steep learning curve on Dreamweaver. I've bought a couple of books on it and have yet to use even 2% of everything it can do. Very powerful program.

All true. But I learned to use what I want easily. If you just play, it's easy. If you want CSS and all that crap you might need a book. But building a layout, colouring it, and doing all that stuff is easy. And the ever powerful OA-J lets you do lots of stuff.

[colinian]

...If you want CSS and all that crap you might need a book.

CSS is definitely worth learning, along with XHTML, because it lets you develop websites a hell of a lot faster than just hacking away at HTML and formatting everything inline as you go. One of the best books on CSS is The Zen of CSS Design. It takes the same content and show how by changing only the CSS style sheet you can completely change the look and feel of a website. And they tell how it's done, and show the exact CSS code.

CSS separates the content of a website (the words and images and how they're organized in blocks) -- the XHTML part -- from the formatting and layout of the website (the style definitions that are applied to blocks of content)-- the CSS part. If you want to get really fancy you can add code written in JavaScript or PHP or other scripting languages, but 99% of what you want to do on a webpage can be done with XHTML and CSS. If you want to change the way something looks, you change a CSS style (an element that defines how the formatting and/or layout of one or more parts of the content) and every page on the website that uses that style will be changed -- automatically. All you do is upload the modified style sheet to the site and one or more pages -- maybe hundreds or thousands -- will change without having to touch those pages. If the content changes, you just change the page where it appears. Using a scripting language, content can be loaded from a database which means once it's designed a webpage doesn't ever have to be changed manually.

Okay, review pages 46 through 116 in Shea and Holzschlag for the quiz Monday morning.

Colin

[The Pecman]

Trab, I just found a much cheaper Mac web-design program for you:

http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver

It ain't free, but it's much better than iWeb, it handles CSS automatically and it's about $79. For what it is, it looks very impressive. They'll let you download a free version to try it out before you buy it.

[Trab]

I've been looking at it, and it DOES look good.