Newer Mac User Needs Web Design Help...

I'm relatively new to the Mac world, and recently decided that my website is in sore need of updating. After doing some limited research I made the mistake of shelling out $100 for Freeway 4 Express, which has done precisely ZERO of the things I want to do. It doesn't edit preexisting HTML pages, forcing me to recreate more than 75 website pages before I can even start working on the UPDATED material. It has the worst documentation I have ever seen, since both the help files AND the manual on the CDRom are not for the Express version (in case you missed it, I didn't buy the PRO version, I bought EXPRESS, why in the name of GAWD would they ship it with the help files for PRO?!?)

The final straw came when I realized that even the functions that it does have don't work properly. Formatting font, for example. No matter what style you select, bold, italics, centered, underlined, what you get for the output is a left justified lucinda or tahoma in basic black. In checking the source code, Freeway 4 Express is not outputting the right codes. (I really hate being ignored by my software. If I click on "center," just bloody well CENTER, will you?)

It has taken me nine days to "sort of" redo from scratch just thirteen of the nearly eighty pages I need to revamp just to get back to square one so I can BEGIN the update.

I am a football coach and author who works full time at another job, so I don't have time to learn HTML. I need an idiot-proof web editor that features a WORKING WYSIWYG interface where what I type shows up on the blasted page with the formatting I select in the program. I can FTP, so in-software publishing is unnecessary.

Everything I can find is hovering at the $300 range, which is out of my market at the moment, even though after much complaining Softpress has offered to refund my purchase price. (Good people. Horrible Software.)

I tried NVU, but it's extremely buggy, and also featured some design issues. Tables, for example, rarely behaved the same way with two mouse clicks. I salute the NVU developers, but I can't rely on it and don't have time to do everything over and over to get it right.

I would really appreciate any advice anyone could give on a reliable, functional WYSIWYG web editor for the Mac that is in the $100-$150 price range. I'd especially prefer one that will allow me to import existing HTML, so I'm not re-re-re-re-revamping the blasted site again.

If it helps to see the current site, the URL is www.FBforYouth.com. I have changed the basic formatting and color scheme, but it should be fairly obvious what I'm trying to do with the site and the sorts of tools that I need.

Thanks for replies in advance.

~D.

Hmm, i went to view your site, but it crashed Firefox. Interesting...

quicksilver said:

Hmm, i went to view your site, but it crashed Firefox. Interesting...

Click to expand...

It did? When I was on the PC, even with the erratic performance on that box o' grief I never had that problem.

I'm sorry about that. There's nothing worse than causing computer problems for someone that is trying to help you fix your computer problems.

There IS a popup window on the site from the main page. Turning off popup windows in the browser might help.

Again, I'm sorry about that.

~D.

While you're re-working your page, here are a few hints you might find helpful. They are by no means meant to insult your skills as a writer and coach, and please do not feel insulted.

Lose the frames. Instead, use header _and_ footers for your navigation. Frames essentially prevent your site from being found (Googlebot etc ignores frames and will not index anything). That would be the main reason, but there are usability issues with frames as well.

Table of contents shows dark blue lettering on black. Kinda hard to read.

I'd also lose the animations, scrolling text, and that box about the missing kids, as well as the counter and possibly the ancient Web award, but unlike the two others above, that's just my preference and doesn't really hurt your Web pages.

Other than that, it's a great Web page. You've obviously put a lot of work into it and you know what you're talking about. To save /myself/ lots of work, I usually work out the layout complete with table of contents top and bottom, background, font settings, language settings, keywords and the like and then save that one as blank.html Only have to fill in the relevant content later, when I need to re-do a page or expand the site.

As mentioned above, I'm rather lazy and once I set up a page, I want to be able to make changes as quick and simple as possible. Yup, on the PC I used Frontpage as WYSIWYG editor, from Frontpage Express all the way through FP2003. Still got that installed on a spare Windows PC. Just as long as one doesn't fall into any of its traps, cleans up the code manually, and tests the pages in a variety of browsers (at least IE, FFx and Safari) it is not too bad.
In fact, I'm still looking for a program to replace it here on the Mac. iWeb is joke, Dreamweaver abhorrently complex yet too basic, NVU is about as usable as the Netscape Editor of yore, and I have no idea what iWork Pages is supposed to be. So far, I can still make minimal changes to text, but I need to update some images sometime soon...

iWeb might be a joke to some people that are more expirenced with web building, but, I wouldn't shouting out Front Page too loud! iWeb is perfect for the Dad, Soccer Mom, full time student, etc!

Coach, even though I'm not a big fan of them, you might want to look into a Content Management Style Site... Most webhosting companies offer several types of them, and usually for free, PHPNUKE, Post-Nuke, Xoops, mambo.. etc.

They are easy to setup, some are easy to edit the style and all you need to do is type to update a page.

If your host does not offer anysuch thing, feel free to email me, I'll send you over some good links.

For the mac, have a look at RapidWeaver. IMO, it is the BEST WYSIWYG editor on the entire planet. For a mere $35, you can have a program that comes loaded with design and content management features that seamlessly intergrates with iLife apps. And you can then download themes, among other plug-ins and modules, the enhance the program. Also, the company as a forum that is extremely active and helpful. Have a look.

http://www.realmacsoftware.com/

I'd agree with DJLee; with the one hesitation of not being sure how well it will import existing pages.

My website is however being built up from scratch with it http://www.lilserenity.com

It's about £20 which is dead cheap, and considering they are also Brighton based like me, I was more than happy to support them :flower:

Vicky