Need help making up my mind on what web design software??

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Hello all, I got my first mac 2 weeks ago and loving it so far.

So now I need to make a decision about something! - I dabble in a bit of web design for friends and family with small businesses etc. I did a course on dreamweaver and so fairly confident on that (but no expert!!), now i have to decide if i should pay out for a dreamweaver upgrade (can't cross grade as I have old pc version) or use something like rapid weaver or Wordpress which is a lot cheaper.

Everywhere I look it seems some people love rapid weaver or wordpress,(or joomla!) and some seem to hate it, getting very confused basically and would appreciate any bodies input as to what would be best for someone who doesn't want to use anything too basic.Is Dreamweaver really the best option ? :p
 
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MacBook Pro | LED Cinema Display | iPhone 4 | iPad 2
Depends, can you code directly, or do you need a WYSIWIG editor?

I personally prefer Coda, but that requires you to be proficient at hand coding (which is the best way anyway IMHO):
Coda on the Mac App Store

Rapid Weaver and Dreamweaver give you some WYSIWIG capabilities, and Rapid Weaver was just rewritten. Of the two, Rapid Weaver is also much cheaper.

Wordpress, Joomla, ExpressionEngine, et al. are not web design software. They are content management systems. You would still need to know how to code HTML and potentially modify or write your own pages to customize one of the default themes or create a new one.
 
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thanks for your reply, Well I have done some coding but only enough to do a basic webpage nothing more fancy than that, so perhaps I am not ready yet for Coda, although it does look good. Maybe I will give rapid weaver a go first and see how I go, looking at some other sites though it does seem wordpress is becoming quite popular for producing static sites. (and its free!)
 
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RapidWeaver is a great program too look into. They have a large user community which is a plus if you run into problems at some point. I would also suggest looking into SandVox and Freeway as well. They are similar template based design apps.

My advice would be to download trial versions of all three to help determine which one you are most comfortable with.

Hope that helps. :)
 
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Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz + Mac Mini (Mid 2011)
If you decide to purchase Dreamweaver you will definitely not regret it. Ive been through all of the CS versions from CS2 and they are all well worth it. Coda is good but IMO i think Dreamweaver is the best option for you as it is very friendly
 

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