Hey! Web Designers!

[Yes We Did]

Alright, I need to switch my webdev program. I've been using golive6 (don't laugh) for the last two years. It's the only program I know, and my coding skills are almost non-existent, although I have learned a few things in CSS and html...

Anyway, I need some good WYSIWYG software that has a visual editor and a code view so I can learn html and CSS.

Yes, I know... "real" web designers don't use a visual editor, but I enjoy doing it that way. I just want to be able to learn the rest to make sure the code is right, plus there just too many features you cannot add without knowing some code...

I downloaded the trial versions of CoffeeCup and Dreamweaver tonight (but I haven't tried them out) are there any others out there I should consider? I'm using a PC (sob sob) so I know I'm omitting some really good ones.

I'd appreciate any feedback on any software you use too.

[Monk06]

1. I used Allaire Homesite for a while. It allowed you to switch back and forth

between browser view and source view. You could insert
common tags without typing your HTML and HTML was color
coded and prompted for unclosed tags.

Sort of halfway between a text editor and Dreamweaver 4

The latest version of DWer is a professional cross platform
development tool and way more than you need unless you are
managing multiple websites with shared content.

[Yes We Did]

2. Well, Acutallly I have about 7 I have to keep up on,

But I'm doing it all myself.

Three of them... soon to be four, are simple ones with roll-overs flash slide shows, images... "Face Painting" websites, but the other ones are going to be extremely complex. There is going to be a ton of video going up, and I am going to need it to run kind of like MSNBC video page.

What I'm trying to do right now... maybe you can help... is I created a image gallery with the set url action, so that you click a thumbnail, and the image switches in the middle. So, I'm trying to figure a way instead of the thumbnail to load a different image, load a different swf file.

I don't want a pop up window or anything like that. I want to have a preview of each film load in one spot when you click the button. Any clue how to do that?

[Monk06]

3. You should author your slide show in Flash 5 with a load movie function. That will take

some skill with action scripting but if you
are ok with putting together logic strings
(if then, if else etc) you can probably do
what you want easily and bug free in Flash.

Don't ask me how. I got run over by Java Script
and Flash 5 in media school. I still have the
tread marks in my face.

[Yes We Did]

4. Try teaching yourself everything!

The only training I have are from the books I bought off Amazon. I downloaded an old version of photoshop, an old version of golive, and bought a faux-flash program...

I recently bought namo freemotion, and can't figure it out. Their book sucks. I think I might pick up a flash book and start reading. It is supposed to be very similar. Actually, I was talking to a girl today who said she had to get it for her flash class.

I don't know... thanks for the advice though.

Hey... what about putting the video on a page by itself, and making it a component. Is there a way to do like a component swap?

It seems like this shouldn't be so hard. I mean, the image swap was so easy... Oh well...

[Monk06]

6. Go to You Tube and right click on any video file and you get 'about Flash Player 10'

Stick with Flash. Get a free version of Flash 4
it has a library of default action scripts you
can use just to get a feel for action script.

Also, the nice thing about Flash is that exports the
swf files which are objects so they will not blow your
pages up with badly written or corrupted code.

This is important if you want the files to live on
all browsers. Also if YouTube is dedicated to Flash
so is the rest of the world because Google owns YouTube.

Don't be ashamed to pick up Action Script for Dummies
I have heard that the series is quite good for novice
authors and is better than the useless texts I was forced
to buy.

[Yes We Did]

8. Thanks!

Flash 4 is downloading right now, and I just ordered a html/xhtml/css book off amazon. I'll get the action script one next.

[Shardik]

7. With Dreamweaver or Contribute, installing flash objects is a lot easier than it used to be.

Just click on your install flash object and tell your program where your *.flv file is and you're pretty much done.

[Yes We Did]

9. Well, what I want to do...

really... is have a bunch of thumbnails around the flash video, and have each one load a different video in the middle. Any way to do that? ( you know, instead of having them load a static image? )

Thanks for head up on contribute too.. I'm waiting for adobe to send me the link to download it.

[Monk06]

11. Try this

http://script.wareseeker.com/download/random-object-appearance-by-action-script.rar/8762

[Yes We Did]

19. That's awesome!

Thanks a lot! Lot's of toys to play with!

[Shardik]

32. I'm sure there is, I've seen something similar.

I believe you would have to make the links part of the the whole flash object which may make for a rather large slow loading page.

f you need any tips, PM me or go on over to the Computers forum and post where there's a bunch of pretty good geeks that love to show off when we can! :)

[Shardik]

5. I use Dreamweaver...

Actually, I have the CS3 Web designer suite. Comes with photoshop, flash, Illustrator, Contribute Acrobat professional and go Live. It's pretty much the industry standard.

They just released CS4 and it's pretty pricey if you don't meet the upgrade requirements. BUT! Contribute is a completely WYSIWYG and will do tons of stuff and is very easy to learn and a great place to start.

[Yes We Did]

10. Yes, I've been looking at it.

The one I want costs around 1700 I think. I really just want to build it visually, but be able to edit code and style sheets... There has to be a trial version of contribute too... right? Thanks. I'll check it out.

[Locrian]

12. wysiwyg webbuilder 5

Hands down the BEST I have used is this ($39 online download - 30 day trial)

http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/


Cheap, easy. Very nice interface and doesnt generate a ton of crap code. Great forum for support, video tutorials, no bugs, just really nice software.

[Yes We Did]

20. Thanks a lot

...Now I have four to try. :)

[City of Mills]

13. Microsoft Expression Web

I know, shoot me kill me it's Microsoft. But it has all the features you're looking for. I'm taking a class in Web Development with Expression Web this semester, so I'll know a lot more about it shortly.

[no name no slogan]

18. ExpressionWeb is MS's replacement for FrontPage

take that as you will.

[Deja Q]

31. FrontPage was crap. Expression actually follows web standards... (prepare to fall over)

including one or two IE does not. :blush:

What bothers me is the poor integration with Expression Media, not to mention a bug many have reported but - as said by Microsoft personnel - won't be fixed until the next release. (And not fixed in a patch! :wow: )

Actually, let me correct that: The bug itself is for the Media component, which they bought from a company that made an image library program for the Mac and Windows and I don't know if the problem had occurred before that point.

But the Expression Web program itself is quite competent and is backward compatible with FrontPage. The code it generates is far, far, FAR superior to what FP slopped out. It surprised me when I tried out the demo; and having had (in storage) an older yet still qualifying version of FrontPage, the upgrade was quite affordable... and legal.

Actually, Expression Suite comes with a lot of bang for the buck, but there are areas that need smoothing out. And I just can't see why they have to wait for a new release to do so. :(

The best part is: Expression Studio costs as much as their Visual Studio suite... but comes WITH Visual Studio 2008 standard edition. Not the truncated "Express" fluff. If programming is also a goal, VS 2008 is a nice bonus...

All in all, there's surprisingly little to complain about.

[NJmaverick]

14. Have you considered going to one of the CMS programs?

[Yes We Did]

23. No I hadn't...

I really haven't heard much about them. There are so many... Any suggestions on which ones to try out?

[NJmaverick]

29. Well there are a few good ones

Word Press is probably the easiest. Joomla is probably the most popular. There are are Drupral and Xoops as well as many others

[mwooldri]

25. That's what I use for my sites, for anything more complex than a basic site...

... that doesn't require a lot of updating. A permanent advert for something like a cleaning company - I'd do a static design for that kind of site. But for a site where there's lots of updates going on... a CMS or even a blog tool like Wordpress is where I'd go.

For my personal site, I use a combination of Wordpress and Gallery.

For my church site I use xoops, because I've figured out how to hack some of the php in there (I modified a jobs listing script and turned it into a prayer listing one instead, plus ported a phpbible script to xoops).

For the new site I've just done for an anti-violence group, I'm trying out Joomla. I'm impressed with this CMS I don't have to hack into the background so much, I don't have to worry about a FTP client... I can use its admin interface to pretty much alter anything I want, plus there's plenty of plugin modules, so if I want a "contact me" form I can do that, or if I want to put in things like calendars, forums, shopping carts, Google ads, well.. find the right module for your needs in Joomla and run with that. It does take some getting used to and learning but you can throw up a pretty neat site if you can figure it out, can take a stock template and modify it for your needs graphic-wise.

Mark.

[Yes We Did]

26. I'm gonna send you a link

It's a site I put up with golive. It's the one I'm referring to. I can't put a link in here... It's a new company and they can't have anything politically linked to them... They're still trying to get funding.

[NJmaverick]

30. You just listed most of the CMS systems I know about

and I have heard similar comments to yours. I use Joomla. The important thing with Joomla is to be careful with security. Be sure to set your folder permissions to 755 and files to 644. Also you might want to look at perishable press's 3 P htaccess list, which helps protect the site from hackers. Just comment out the "includes" line or the back end doesn't function well.

[HopeHoops]

15. Buy Pro CSS Techniques by Croft, lloyd, and Rubin if you want to live.

[Yes We Did]

21. I ordered this one...

"HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide)" by Elizabeth Castro

It had a 4.5 star rating from some 150 people. :shrug:

[keroro gunsou]

16. dreamweaver

ftw

cs4 dreamweaver rocks.

i do miss allaire homesite though... good times... good times....

[no name no slogan]

17. Notepad

It's the only way you'll learn HTML (and CSS and JavaScript) properly.

If that's too primitive for you, go with HomeSite.

I've been doing websites professionally for 11 years, and still use HomeSite for my day to day edits.

[Yes We Did]

22. I'll give it a shot.

[Yes We Did]

27. Never Mind. n/t

[ghostsofgiants]

24. I've been using Dreamweaver for years. It is awesome.

[progressoid]

28. I just downloaded webstudio

Haven't tried it yet but it supposed to be a simple drag-n-drop program.

http://www.webstudio.com/



Also have this link for a bunch of other software that I haven't yet checked out:

http://www.coffeecup.com/software/

[applegrove]

33. I use Dreamweaver. I'm terrible at languages but even I have learnt using DW.