LAdies and Gentleman, What is the best web design software? And by best I mean capablilites, usablility, etc.

Dreamweaver is the most feature rich. It's not cheap, but it is worth the money.

Depends on your level of knowledge on the software.
Dreamweaver is not easy to use if you have no prior experience.

NVU is a free software. It gets the job done well.

http://www.nvu.com

Dreamweaver is a great software and it makes web design a lot easier. There is a steep learning curve for the program.

When it comes to web design, a software like Dreamweaver can't take you very far if you are not familiar with html, css, javascript, etc. If you are familiar with with these languages, the choice of software isn't too important.

Another vote for Dreamweaver from me.

I do all my web design in either:

http://www.textpad.com/
or
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

my vote goes to DreamWeaver

Dreamweaver for me - it does all you want and more, although I am a fan of handcoding - although I often using Dreamweaver in code view due to the helpful colours and numbers etc

Another Dreamweaver vote here. Once you get the hang of it it's a pleasure to work with.

For the beginning, I'd rather look for the best tutorials and resources... ;)

no one likes to use TextPad/Notepad++??? :(

Go with a Content management system like MDPro - http://www.maxdev.com. It has a discussion forum that will plug right into the site, VERY easy to update, a links section and way too many other options to go into here.

I used GoLive back in the day but soon discovered that Dreamweaver did it much cleaner. The jump from Dreamweaver 3 to MX 2004 threw me off with all the changes and the CSS code it put in the pages.

Dreamweaver if you must, but like Kev said, use a CMS if you haven't done any design before, or you could find a template and edit it on dreamweaver.

Some people like myself are not hardcore coders, so a CMS works for me. If a person does not speak fluent HTML or PHP then a CMS is the only way to go. All this advice is being given and not a SINGLE person has asked "CDE010, how good are you at writting code?" Most people that have taken a college or high school class in web development will use the program they learned on at school. Before advice is given we really should stop and ask a few questions.

1. Is this site going to be for home of business?

2. Do you want a photogallery?

3. Do you want a discussion board?

4. Do you want a shopping cart?

5. How well can you code CDE010 - Can you write HTML or PHP?

6. How much traffic do you really expect?

7. Do you want memberships or mailing list?

8. Do you want restricted areas for members only?

Before a person buys a car or truck they need to know what they will be doing with it, can we agree on that?? Same thing with a website, what do you want to do with it and how good of a driver are you??

Your right, also, there is another option that I did not say before, if your host offers a site builder you can use that, they are dead easy to use :)

1. Is this site going to be for home of business?

2. Do you want a photogallery?

3. Do you want a discussion board?

4. Do you want a shopping cart?

5. How well can you code CDE010 - Can you write HTML or PHP?

6. How much traffic do you really expect?

7. Do you want memberships or mailing list?

8. Do you want restricted areas for members only?


Great Point ~kev~ !!

Here are the answers:

1. home...Eventually may become a "business"
2. No not really.
3. a discussion board would be nice
4. don't need a shopping cart
5. my knowledge of html & php is dismal...total beginner
6. I expect lots of traffic Eventually
7. I want memberships and mailing list
8. I want restricted areas for members only

Is Dreamweaver still my best option?

No, use a CMS. Also, find a host that offers Fantastic De Luxe or another script installer and someone that is willing to help you out with setting up the site if you need it ;)

Actually it would be useful to know what your site is going to be about :)

I think Notepad is a good way to start, just to learn the basics about HTML and all that. But once you realise it's too hard to do more advanced stuff, purchase Dreamweaver.

I use vim (http://www.vim.org/).

IMO you can't "design" a website in dreamweaver ;)

Are you going to make it HTML or something clever like CSS/PHP etc. I generally make a mock up website in photoshop then slice it and CSS-ify it in dreamweaver, but there are a lot of free tools like dreamweaver if you are going to use only code.

Thread moved to Web Design and Content.

NVU is a free software. It gets the job done well.

http://www.nvu.comI agree. It does an excellent job for a free software. :)

I generally make a mock up website in photoshopGIMP.org provides a free "replacement" for photoshop. It's pretty good.

no one likes to use TextPad/Notepad++??? :(

Vim (http://www.vim.org/), now with extra vim!

No, use a CMS. Also, find a host that offers Fantastic De Luxe or another script installer and someone that is willing to help you out with setting up the site if you need it ;)

+1 on all of that.

Find a host that offers fantistico (Fantastic De Luxe), get some help from tech support to create a database and get Postnuke, MDPro or PHPnuke installed. Go to that content management systems (CMS) website and go through the forums. Play around with each CMS for a couple of days. Dragon fly is a good CMS but it runs off of pure PHP and is a pain to edit the theme, while the postnuke and MDPro use an HTML theme that can be EASILY edited to change the colors.

The theme is the look and colors of the site. To really get you started, go to this page - http://www.opensourcecms.com and click on the Portals (cms) tree on the left hand side. My very first choice is MDPro, you can log into the admin panel and read reviews of each CMS.

erk, I'm sorry to say this. Please dont scold me for this.

I'm not that good in design. I just do basic thing. Still honing my skills. Although I made my first website using dreamwevaer, I think I like frontpage the best.

Simple, easy to use. :)

Erk, dont flame me. I know a lot of people are anti-Microsoft :)

I'd say Dreamweaver

Guys is dreamweaver going to let him plug in a discussion board? Read his comments, he knows very little about coding, is dreamweaver going to let him have mailing list and memberships?? He would like restricted areas to members only, is dreamweaver going to do all that??

nope, Its still a CMS job :)

Since OP asked for Web Design software, I doubt anyone will use notepad to design something.

I'd say Macromedia Studio 8, amazing package, amazing compatibility and communication between components.

Perhaps not but they might use vim ;)

I like
1. Dreamweaver
2.Frontpage

1. photoshop
2. dreamveawer
3. image ready

4. wamp (local server for php) ^ php

Definetly dreaweaver. It allows to check browser compatibility and always shows hint on wrong coding or which is not browserc ompatible.

Great Point ~kev~ !!

Here are the answers:

1. home...Eventually may become a "business"
2. No not really.
3. a discussion board would be nice
4. don't need a shopping cart
5. my knowledge of html & php is dismal...total beginner
6. I expect lots of traffic Eventually
7. I want memberships and mailing list
8. I want restricted areas for members only


Is Dreamweaver still my best option?

for design yes I would say Dreamweaver, but if want a discussion board mailing list and member only area you will a cms (content managment system) There plenty of really good content managment systems, My preference is for Joomla

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Pali
http://www.dgain.com

Dreamweaver is the best to me.

However, there is a cheaper alternative call Namo Webeditor. Tried the trial... seems pretty good to me too.

i use dreamweaver and flash ONLY
oh and photoshop ofcourse

In my opinion Dreamweaver is too bloated, I prefer Notepad++
Notepad++ is free and open source

erk, I'm sorry to say this. Please dont scold me for this.

I'm not that good in design. I just do basic thing. Still honing my skills. Although I made my first website using dreamwevaer, I think I like frontpage the best.

Simple, easy to use. :)

Erk, dont flame me. I know a lot of people are anti-Microsoft :)
I agree with you. I hate dreamweaver, i just don't like the way it handles. I prefer FP2003. I Usually use tables, and the way it handles them is superb.

dreamweaver is the best ive seen. It has great features although you cant go past good old notepad :P

I use dreamweaver for quick layouts, but if I am writing pure php scripts, I use Textpad..

I use predominently Dreamweaver, although I still manually configure chuncks in notepade to include within the Dreamweaver generated code.

I've recently been doing a lot of work with Joomla, so if CMS stsyems count then that gets my vote.

Dreamweaver and Fireworks all the way!

Dreamweaver, FLash and Photoshop all 3 under the one trademark:) everybody now knows what it is:)
for php i prefer ZEND

I normally choose Dreamweaver. I used to do the coding through the WYSIWYG Interface, but lately I switched to absolute positioning with CSS 100%. Therefore, I choose dreamweaver to code, I rarely ever would use the WYSIWYG editor. I just choose dreamweaver bc, you can easily preview it and if theres something real small you forget how to code, just switch and do it visually.

I used to use frontpage, but I would say 9 out of 10 people say it has bad coding techniques like tried making your code sloppy and such.

Another application which is good is Adobe GoLive, dont think it was mentioned. I LOVE its CSS editor, it might take awhile to get used to though.

photoshop (slice here and there) -> dreamweaver
thats work best for me

Dreamweaver for me too, though if you want a good CMS I like MAMBO

No one likes Frontpage? ;)

I learned to design web pages in Dreamweaver. Took me a month to learn it.

I'll throw in a vote for NetObjects Fusion if you want to design your own site and don't want to go the CMS route. It is very easy to learn and powerful for basic sites. I built my first site with it and (5 years later!), I still get lots of business from that site, so I haven't changed it much.

Sure, it has limitations. I'm not crazy about the built in photogallery feature. That has been eclipsed by various open source galleries like JAlbum, Menalto, etc. NetObjects Fusion is up to version 9, but I would recommend version 7.5. Seems to be the most stable. Great support via newsgroups as well. You can probably find 7.5 for sale somewhere on the web. 9 is a little buggy because they tried to do too much.

I don't think it matters which software is 'best,' it's how you use it that matters the most. For instance, if you know Dreamweaver and a bit of Frontpage you'd obviously pick Dreamweaver because you wouldn't know Frontpage's full capability (using these as an example).

Unless you are an expert in both softwares can you determine which one works better for an individual. One may have something the other won't, and so on. Thus you'd have pros and cons on rival softwares.

As a newbie, I started off with notepad for basic HTML, and then moved into Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver was pretty nice, but no WYSIWYG can beat an experienced coder who knows what he's doing (and types fast) using a simple text editor like Topstyle Lite (for xhtml/css layouts) and ConTEXT (for php).

No one likes Frontpage? ;)

I like FrontPage... but then, I've used it since 1998 or maybe before that.... I also have a Dreamweaver installed, but never use it. I tried it, but decided FP could do everything I needed. Of course, I don't code that much (PHP, etc) use only html. I have business sites so I code for those on 56k; no heavy graphics.

I had two teachers in college tell me I did not build my sites in FP... no, you don't have to use the templates (those were horrible and gave FP a black eye... well, on top of the code you would have to remove until FP2003 was released).

MS web expression is due for release next year (maybe sooner). I downloaded the beta and already used it to redo one of my sites. Some FP fanbois claim it is on par with Dreamweaver... I don't know if that is true, I doubt it. http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/web_designer/default.mspx

MS claims: "Microsoft® Expression® Web Designer gives you all the tools you'll need to produce high-quality, standards-based Web sites the way you want them. Take advantage of the best of dynamic Web site design, enabling you to design, develop, and maintain exceptional standards-based Web sites."

We will see. Also see what happens with dreamweaver now that adobe has it...

I use fireworks for my graphics (what limited work that I do with graphics...).

Photoshop and Dreamweaver is all I need to make a website.

DreamWeaver has my vote, as well. I taught myself to use it, so I would have to say I didn't find the learning curve all that high.

But, as said before me, if you're wanting things like message boards, etc, a CMS like Joomla is a super way to go.

I like Dreamweaver 8, it has excellent features.

Dreamweaver is the most feature rich. It's not cheap, but it is worth the money.

I own it and it is worth

Here is another vote for NAMO Web Editor.
It is my choice because it allows me to work at the html level as well as the wysiwyg level. Using the split screen mode, I can see the effects of my (attempted) changes on the fly. I do agree that there are many things that I could probably do better wwith Dreamweaver, etc. But, I'm too lazy to learn those...

100% No doubt my vote is for dreamweaver. Great program, though sometimes frontpage is pretty good.

there isnt really the "best" website design software..it entirely depends on what your looking for and your personal tastes. a lot of people use Dreamweaver as it seems to bet he industrial standard..but some others use other software that meet their comfortability.

i am also give my vote to Dreamweaver but recently i had an experience regarding UNICODE when i open my web page with UNICODE content the content change and display ASCII characters but Frontpage is doing WYSIWYG

I'll go for Dreamweaver. True, the learning curve is steep but for a long term investment it's second to none (not cheap though).

I use dreamweaver, along with TextPad, Fireworks, and Photoshop.

Fireworks seems to be a lot more user friendly when using slices and things of that nature.

i use notepad++ for webdesign, it has everything i want. dreamweaver produces bloated code for me

Dreamweaver!

Web page maker! It's so easy to use! you just drag and drop! & it does everything html/javascript/css etc ..just design and select publish from the menu.. loads right onto my FTP site.

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Web Page Maker is an easy-to-use web page design tool that allows you to create and upload a professional web page in minutes without having to know HTML. Simply add text, images, photos, animation, navigation bar, flash, buttons, logos, and more onto web page and move them freely. It offers several pre-designed templates, so you can create a new web page from them.
Version 2.3 added the ability to convert text to image. Added the ability to insert WordArt. Added the ability to simple JavaScript protect a page. Added the ability to get rid of the box around flash content, so that flash content plays as expected.


Try it!

http://www.download.com/Web-Page-Maker/3000-2048_4-10573446.html?tag=lst-0-1

and the winner is TopStyle Pro :smokin: :)

I do all my website coding in text editor, PHP designer is pretty good

the best one i know ,to do anything in the simple place is dreamweaver .
here your dream can come into reality

Dreamweaver 8 + Photoshop + Image Ready

FrontPage 2003 + Fireworks + Top Style Pro + FTP Voyager :)

Dreamweaver is good!

No one likes Frontpage? ;)

I learned to design web pages in Dreamweaver. Took me a month to learn it.

I agree.

Unless you are building a pretty large site or are a pro, DW is NOT a good choice. FrontPage is much better for that.

Personally I hate the DW user interface.

But actually the best of all that I have tried so far is the new Microsoft beta for Expressions Web Designer. Tons better than DW for working with CSS.

best are Adobe PS and Macromedia DW

Notepad makes a damn good editor :)

heh, notepad da best =)

I use Dreamweaver and no doubt prefer it to any other I've tried, but the main point of my posting is in reply to all the suggestions to use a CMS. The problem with the CMS solution is that you're pretty much at the creator's mercy when it comes to SEO. Sure, you may have to actually put some effort into building from scratch, but smartly applied, that effort will pay off big time in the long run.

There are tons of great tutorials on the web to get started:

http://www.w3.org/

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/

http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/learning

http://www.w3schools.com/

http://toolkit.crispen.org/

Just learn the basic structure of HTML and fill in the detail from there.

<html>

<head>
<head/>

<body>
Content
</body>

</html>

Sure, that's a little simplified, but not much at all. Opening tags, the stuff in between and then closing tags. Pretty easy stuff to get started with and build from.

One or two books for your bathroom sessions, get someone else to drive while you read, read before bed, soak it in repetitively reading the same chapters over several times, all the while tinkering with test documents and before long at all you'll be getting somewhere serious!

The biggest suggestion I can give is to NOT be too prone to follow design trends... let everything come from two things... your own vision, and how Lynx (text only browser that sees pretty much how Google sees) sees your page.

There will HAVE to be compromises between appearance and function... don't be affraid to make the smartest choice for your needs, whichever way that sways the balance, but the bottom line is that if you can't get found on the web there is very little point to being there, and with the population density getting more crowded by the second you may need to do things that everybody and his brothers dog with a CMS isn't doing.

Dreamweaver 8 + Photoshop + Image Ready

I second that :)

Dreamweaver is the best choice