web design program for a noob!

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kzef

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Hey,

I'm just a beginner at web design, and have learnt some HTML basics. Now I just want to have a little play on some WYSIWYG programs, has anyone got any recommendations for a good free one?? and one that I can pay for??

cher
 
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Lasha

Guest
I don't know any free WYSIWYG programs, but I do know for sure that Front Page is strictly for beginners. If you want something more advanced, then you gotta go with Dreamweaver. :)
 
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Brigrat

Guest
kzef said:
lasha what did you use to make the graphics on your website?

I use PageSpinner, a free download from versiontracker. It is shareware, so they ask you to register it for a small fee after a couple of weeks. It is a great full featured program. I actually have Dreamweaver, and GoLive, and still prefer PageSpinner. You really can't go wrong with the free trial!
 
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I use Dreamweaver for school, it is nice, but you can do the same stuff with basic text editor. It is a little too pricey for someone that isn't a professional, IMO.
 
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Lasha

Guest
kzef said:
lasha what did you use to make the graphics on your website?

I used Photoshop for the graphics, nothing else. I hand coded everything myself as well. I only used Dreamweaver to quickly locate tags and etc. when needed. Why what's up?
 
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I would try out freeway, that's a nice program. I use Canvas 9 myself but that's mainly because I own it, because I also have to make layouts for documentation (illustations, placing of pictures and so on) and the program does both. It does make websites really well but you have to render all the photos down before saving it to web otherwise you get faults in the render. Can make really nice changing web buttons in it.

If I had a choice for just a program that makes websites I'd go for freeway as I hate dreamweaver, especially at the price that you pay. But it is down to personal taste. I'd suggest that you download demos of all of them to try out.
 
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For really easy fast website creation, check out rapidweaver 3, it's really cool for whipping up a decent website in 1-2 minutes. It's theme based though, kind of like Keynote for websites.
 
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D

destalk

Guest
kzef said:
Hey,

I'm just a beginner at web design, and have learnt some HTML basics. Now I just want to have a little play on some WYSIWYG programs, has anyone got any recommendations for a good free one?? and one that I can pay for??

cher

All the programs recommended so far are good. I think that a lot depends on what you are trying to achieve or learn. When you say 'web design', do you mean the front end graphics and creative design? Or do you mean the coding/development? Or all of those things.

Dreamweaver is available as a 30 day trial (fully functional) and so is GoLive (I think). They are the only true WYSIWYG packages that code HTML at the same time, so you can see what you are doing - which is essential if you want to carry this on in any professional way. Otherwise, Freeway is also WYSIWYG, but (from what I understand) it tends to generate the site afterwards, based on your graphic layout.
 
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kzef

Guest
Hey, thanks for all the help guys, and destalk I mean everything really,graphics, development and coding. I'm only new at this, but I'm pretty interested in making some cool websites, i just got Nvu and I downloaded the trial of adobe illustrator cs. Is this the right program to make web graphics? like menus,logos and headings? or should I have got photoshop?

I still can't figure out how to make like 3d headings, like you can with xara and flaming text, can someone tell me how to do this?
 
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You need photoshop as illustrator is a layout program. I would also check out photoshop elements if money is an issue as it's a lot cheeper.
 
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flonejek

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<Opensource rant>

If you're patient and haven't yet learned photoshop try messin with the gimp. After messin with it for a bit and goin through about 5 tutorials at gimp.org I can do some pretty cool stuff, but you have to have either Apples X11 or a third party X11 installed... and its pretty out of sync with the HIG but thats ok with me. Theres also inkscape but thats harder again..., anyway thing is both Gimp and Inkscape are great for making web graphics though the learning curves steep and not worth it if you already know photoshop/fireworks (tho there are a few similarities). Oh and for 3d logo design I've fallen in love with blender, a really nice but hard to use opensource 3d production suite. Its extremely hard at the start and i think i gave up 3 times before succesfully completing a tutorial but once the first bits learned its all downhill, and you notice all kinds of neat things about it.

</Opensource rant>

links (apple info pages coz their fast)
blender: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/blender.html
beginner info: Blender Store

inkscape (kinda tricky to install): Draw Freely | Inkscape

gimp: Apple - Support - Downloads
starter tutorials: GIMP - Tutorials
 

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