Struggling to Publish Online

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Hi!
I am new here, very minimally technical, have software questions and a 4-year-old Mac OsX version 10.4.11.
My situation: I am taking over a simple online journal for a friend (now abroad and unable to advise me) that has been going over 6 years, which he put together with Netscape Composer (pretty obsolete, I gather). He always asked that "submissions, if possible, be sent in MS WORD as attachments or as text documents (rich text is fine as well). Images as GIFs or JPGs." So that is my raw material and I have a template set up to fill.
I have the codes to the server and Fetch to get in. I have two issues: first, just making basic HTML documents, text and sometimes an image or two. The nice people at the Mac store first mention iWebs, which seems to be a very basic website maker that imposes it's own templates (frames with lizards and such) and has trouble (or I do) sending documents out of it's own little world (pardon my lack of technical vocabulary and skills). Then they suggest Dreamweaver, which seems to require a pretty steep learning curve for me as a non-professional, and be bundled in suites costing around a grand, also a bit much. What I am doing really seems so simple that I might even be able to just do it on MS Word, which has 'save as HTML' or 'as web page' functions, could that possibly work, which would be better? And the person who sent me here also suggested I check material out with 'text edit' for possible problems? But...
This brings me to my big problem, publishing, some shadowy cosmic metaphysical function called Export? which I clearly seem to need a program for.... hopefully shareware or something more affordable? I have heard Front Page mentioned, is there a Mac version? Something relatively intuitive, not involving a PhD? I am in something of a new world here, relying upon the kindness of strangers; advice much appreciated!

~ Robert
 
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MacBook Intel 2.4, 10.6.1, XP Partition | 1st Gen Time Capsule | 5th Gen 30GB iPod
Heh, you sound overwhelmed. First of all, in my experience new designers do not need Dreamweaver. Have you checked out how much it cost? It's like buying a luxury car for someone who will only being making one trip. And it will not help, unless you are really good at ignoring all that code and staying in design mode, always know What you see is what you get. You can do the same thing with just about anything else that is free these days, so why spend the money?

Basically it all comes down to 2 things;

1 - what are you really trying to accomplish (more details please), and two
2 - how much time and effort are you ready willing and able to put into it (assuming you know very little, as you say)

thanks
 
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Overwhelmed? Not quite "Open the pod bay door, Hal!" but getting close... you are definitely right on how I perceive Dreamweaver, I'm not interested in writing code or refurbishing the entire internet in 7 days... and oh, yeah, I see how much it costs, no wonder the Apple store pushes it!
Basically, I still have the two main issues: first, just making the word documents and jpegs I have into HTML documents. I know I sound like I'm looking for a cheap, quick&dirty way to do that, but I pretty much am. If I can get this issue done I'll have some time to work on my skills before the next one. As I said, what I am trying to do really seems so simple (and probably isn't) that "I might even be able to just do it on MS Word, which has 'save as HTML' or 'as web page' functions, could that possibly work, and if so which would be better? And the person who sent me here also suggested I check material out with 'text edit' for possible problems?" But again...
"This brings me to my big problem, publishing, some shadowy cosmic metaphysical function called Export? which I have no grip on but clearly seem to need a program for.... hopefully shareware or something more affordable?" I seem to be able to make pages with Word but can't get them jammed into the template pages (marvel at my mastery of technical jargon here!).I know some people use Front Page, is there a Mac version, is it easier to use/more affordable?
I know that every problem has a solution that is simple, attractive and wrong, but I'm still hoping for something doable, and I really appreciate advice... thanks!

~ Robert
 
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Sure thing.

I understand you're new at this, and that's okay. iWeb could work for a quickie job, but I have some strong advice.

LEARN HTML.

WYSIWYG programs work for really quick stuff (some of the time:() but when you actually want to make a decent website, they become not so great. A few months back, I was working on a project for school that I decided to do in form of a website. I started using iWeb. Great! I have all of my text, all of my images. It's all right there. No problem. However, I found some real problems with it:

1. iWeb doesn't actually create files until you export your site. It's stuck on YOUR computer and nobody else can get to it to see the work you've done.
2. It takes WAY to long in the long-run to publish a website. Type, save, export. FPT. Fix mistakes. Save (you get the idea).
3. You're restricted to the looks Apple made. Almost every site you can make with iWeb will look about the same. It gives little leeway for customization.
4. As in any WYSIWYG program, there are extraneous codes and files. I ended up with a 20-webpage site with something like 20 or 30 sub directories and 3 CSS files for each page (CSS stands for Style Sheet). It's a mess to keep track of.

The above points are going to be the case with almost any WYSIWYG editor. I get that you're new at this. That's okay. For starters, you could try something like iWeb or Compozer, but once you start to get comfortable, these programs really waste more time than they save. I give this very same advice to everyone, but it's the truth. You get websites with hundreds of megabytes or even gigabytes more stuff then they need.

Let me know if I'm way to technical. Hopefully this is stuff you can understand and I haven't bored you needlessly:)
 

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