I was wondering what people have used to create templates or flash based stuff. I am just seeing if there might be any programs that I am not aware of that are good.
Thanks.:D

Have you considered the Macromedia Studio MX? Yes, it may be $800+, but if you are a student, you can pick it up for as little as $199.

Personally, when we first started out, we used MS Paint and MS Notepad. ;-) Flash back then (97) was nothing more than a term used at parties in college. :D

I havent used that, do you know anything about dreamweaver or coldfusion mx?

I dont do many sites but i use dreamweaver and i think its very good :)
I would recomend it as its simple enough for beginners but has some features for the more advanced users,
Hope that helps you,
John

dreamweaver has my vote too. Good one.

When I first started out I used:
-MS Paint, PSP (Paintshop Pro) to do the graphics part
-Anigif3, Swish to do gifs and flash-like animations
-CuteHTML to do the coding part which at the time was only copy&pasting of javascript and HTML.

Now as I design:
-MS Paint (for pixeling), PhotoImpact6, Fireworks MX, PhotoShop7, ImageReady to do graphics
-GIF Animator Pro to do GIFs and Flash MX to produce flash.
-Notepad to do coding and I program in various languages now for the web.

All products can be free if you use a file sharing program or you could simply download the trial software.

Cute Products: http://www.cuteftp.com
Adobe Products: http://www.adobe.com
Ulead Products: http://www.ulead.com
Macromedia Products: http://www.macromedia.com

Hope this helps you and points you in some sort of direction that you are looking for. :D

If you want to SELL your work or use it in a commercial environment you can't use the student versions of the Adobe software or Macromedia software.

Here's what i use:

Photoshop 6 PC ($200 legitimate off ebay)
Adobe Livemotion 2 ($90 legitimate off ebay)
Photoshop 2.5 Mac ($15 off ebay - can be upgraded to 7 for $130)

Ebay is the place to go. Make 100% sure that what you are buying is genuine and not a copy. Make sure its not academic(a lot of sellers "forget" to say its the much cheaper academic version. If you need photoshop, you can get an older version(anything below v5) for about $30, then buy the upgrade direct from Adobe and get the same $700 product for ~$160 perfectly legally.

Originally posted by t c
All products can be free if you use a file sharing program

If course you mean to download the trial from file sharing programs too, not the cracked full versions ;)

many say not to use the pirated or cracked versions, obviously this is very wrong... but is there other reasons? Can you get caught by using it on your sites? curious...

I doubt you would get caught unless asked for registration info by someone but i also doubt someone would ask for that..
But maybe someone who uses the packages as part of their profession can enlighten you a bit more ;)

I wouldnt recommend that you do it anyway as companies are cracking down on users using pirated versions

Use dreamweaver or something to get you started but please move to actually learning how to use html, xhtml, css on your own :)

Originally posted by scrcrw76
I was wondering what people have used to create templates or flash based stuff. I am just seeing if there might be any programs that I am not aware of that are good.
Thanks.:D

How much money do you want to spend?
At the top end, try Adobe's Web suite: Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive and Live Motion. Huge learning curve, though.
Or Macromedia's MX suite.
At the lower end -- $150 or less but good programs -- are:
Paint Shop Pro which has a nice combination of bitmap and vector. A good all-around program that's very user friendly and web friendly. Includes a program for making animated gifs that's easy to use.
http://www.jasc.com
Swish for Flash-type animation.
http://www.swishzone.com/index.php
Xara for web stuff. Another good, all-around program.
http://www.xara.com/products/
All of the lower end stuff have good groups/websites with tutorials and other help that are aimed at people who don't do graphics for a living. It makes it easier to learn to use them well.
Or just get Macromedia's Fireworks. It can do most of what you need.

Originally posted by wanabehost
If course you mean to download the trial from file sharing programs too, not the cracked full versions ;)

Nope, that's exactly why I said "free", and do note to yourself that I am not supporting warez nor promoting it or anything of that nature. I am simply stating the facts. You can either download the cracked version using a file sharing program or download the trial version. As you said, some companies are cracking down on pirated copies, so only take the risk if you really do not care what anyone says or does in that field.

I would tend to lean away from using Swish for flash.

Its great, but the stuff it creates is very "cookie-cutter" and after you see over 500 "flash templates" which are just a low-quality template with a swish animation that must have taken 2minutes to make, get sold quicky because they are "flash" it kinda annoys people like me who make all their flash the hard way, instead of getting swish to do it all for you and create the same results every time.

Another vote for Macromedia products. I like Dreamweaver and Flash. I use Photoshop for graphics, though -- it's just THE standard and you'll do yourself a great service by learning it.

If you don't need the brand spanking newest version you can get great deals at EBay or Half.com, pay attention to the advice from phision.com about checking to make sure what you are getting before you buy though.

I got Dreamweaver 4 from someone at Half.com for 30 bucks a few months ago. :D