For those who have their own website...

Cauldron · #1 11-03-2006, 08:15 PM

Did you create your website by programming in HTML or java etc.? Or did you use something like Microsoft Frontpage? Does anyone know anything about Frontpage? Are there similar but better programs? How sophisticated of a website can you get with one of these programs vs. physically programming it yourself?

I had an idea for a website / was interested with messing around with something. I'm mathematically inclined, but don't know much about web programming. I did have some programming in college, but haven't done much since. I would imagine that knowing a language is better than using a program (i.e. Frontpage) but if they are decent, then obviously it would be easier.

I realize this is a lot of questions, but any info would be helpful. Thanks.

John21 · #2 11-03-2006, 08:24 PM

I use adobe golive. Dreamweaver is another popular what-you-see-is-what-you-get professional program.

If you go to adobe's site, you can download a free 30 day trial version of Dreamweaver.

rjp · #3 11-03-2006, 08:51 PM

I have a site I developed from scratch in Perl/HTML, and another I've modified from Wordpress (PHP/HTML).

For basic content you can do everything with HTML, but for dynamic applications you'll need to know JavaScript, Perl, PHP, etc.

wmspringer · #4 11-03-2006, 10:01 PM

I'm too lazy to do all the html myself, so I've taken up using NetObjects. I have a plain website made with Netobjects here; once you have the content building the actual site only takes a few minutes.

scotty M · #5 11-03-2006, 10:46 PM

Never heard of NetObjects. Just checked out the site though.
How tough is it to do server side programming with this software? Does it make it easier to set up user logins, forums, stuff like that?

-Scott

wmspringer · #6 11-03-2006, 11:33 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Never heard of NetObjects. Just checked out the site though.
How tough is it to do server side programming with this software? Does it make it easier to set up user logins, forums, stuff like that?

-Scott

[/ QUOTE ]

Neither had I, until recently :-) My webhost offers it as a free download, so I decided to give it a try. However, so far I've only done the basic stuff; I've yet to try anything complex. Playing with it now.

Pokeraddict · #7 11-04-2006, 01:53 AM

[ QUOTE ]
I use adobe golive. Dreamweaver is another popular what-you-see-is-what-you-get professional program.

If you go to adobe's site, you can download a free 30 day trial version of Dreamweaver.

[/ QUOTE ]

I bought a template for my old site and used Dreamweaver to edit it and create it from there. It is expensive and more experienced designers hate it but I like it.

scotty M · #8 11-04-2006, 03:35 PM

I just got a copy of NetObjects. Gotta say it's pretty impressive. I use dreamweaver and have tried frontpage.

I'm probably going to use NetObjects for most of my projects from here on out. It's simple to use, and you can crank out a nice website in 30 minutes to an hour.

Dreamweaver costs more and has a bigger learning curve. But it is more powerful.

I was literally building pages with NetObjects within 2 minutes of starting the program.

I'd recommend it for beginners and for anyone who wants to crank out websites faster. This could be a great tool for the MMF project. On the other hand, I've only had it for a couple of hours now. I haven't come across anything I don't like, I'll edit this post if I do.
(Not affiliated with the company.)

EDIT: You can make some really nice looking stuff combining this with fireworks or photoshop. I was worried about it producing a generic look, you can make it look however you want to. Still not much to complain about so far.

markum9 · #9 11-04-2006, 04:31 PM

Any suggestions for a total noob? IE: I've never built a website, touched html or any of that. I saw that Nato76 suggested XSitePro. I went to the site and it looks pretty solid. The only negative is that it's $200. I could swing that, but if there's something comparable for cheaper that would be ideal.

I'm willing to learn, but i don't want to fall behind in the forum building project. I'd rather spend my time trying to build solid content and trying to use SEO and all that. Thanks.

wmspringer · #10 11-04-2006, 04:35 PM

Yup, that ease of use is one of the things I like about it. I was playing with it yesterday and threw together the start of my site for the project - Twenties Retirement - in a couple of hours, and most of that was playing with some logo creation software and deciding on which logo I wanted.