Software

[John Mallo]

Hello, I am new to the site and am looking for some advice about web design
software. I want to find software that isn't too expensive and will allow
me to make and manage a custom website without being too technical to
understand. I want a home page and will use 4 links. I am also looking for
advice on places to house my website. Thanks in advance. John

 

[MAURH]

John,

Your post is a little open ended and probably produces more questions than
answers. Are you saying that you don't have MSFT Publisher already installed
on your computer? Are you looking for a web building programme or details on
how to build and design a website? Do you want to build a small, static
website, or do you want to include other functions like forms etc?....

Provide some more information and I'm sure someone will be able to help.

Maureen

 

[Spike]

As far as a hosting service I choose GoDaddy for Cost, Easy to use and good
support staff

I think that you will get a few comments in this area

Spike

 

[DavidF]

As Maureen suggests, you question is pretty open ended. Here are a few comments:

Of course we who use Publisher to produce our webs feel it would be adequate for your needs. I generally say that if you already own Publisher and are using it to produce your print publications, and that all you need is a relatively simple, small and static website then it can be a good choice. I would not go out an buy it to build webs.

For your needs you could use the MSFT office live webs. They are template driven and more limited but the price is right. http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/en-us/

Depending on who you use to host your site, most have similar web building software available to use for free. Once again the templates don't lend themselves for customization, but the price is right and for simple webs and a web presence, could be a good choice. Spike likes GoDaddy for hosting, but I use it only for domain registration and prefer Webhost4life.com for hosting. You might check out the web building module in both.

If you are going to buy software and want something similar to Publisher you should consider Serif WebPlus. It is reasonably priced and gets good comments about ease of use.

The industry is trying to move to standards compliant webs with MSFT replacing FrontPage with Web Expression, and IE8. You will have a much bigger learning curve and need to learn some HTML and CSS coding, but you won't face the limitations of using Publisher. Another well known standards compliant program is Dreamweaver. These might be overkill for what you are planning.

Right now MSFT SharePoint Designer is a free download. It was introduced along with Web Expression, and though it's primary focus is not a code editor it functions much as Web Expression 1 from what I have been told. In fact it has been said that you can import a Publisher web...but I haven't tried it. This might be worth at least testing given that MSFT decided to make it free for this version.

Lots of choices available to you both in the program you choose to use to build your site and where to host it. Spend a lot of time planning the site and the goals, and then choose the software. Here is a link provided by Maureen several years ago that I have found helpful in thinking about how to build a website: http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/ Spend some time exploring what that author has to say.

And on a more humorous bent, but helpful in learning how to avoid a lot of common mistakes: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

If you want to read more about Publisher here is a link to Pub 2007:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/FX100649111033.aspx?CTT=96&Origin=CL100632931033
And one from a retired mvp: http://msmvps.com/blogs/dbartosik/pages/80566.aspx

DavidF

 

[MAURH]

Thanks guys. I'm just shooting off on holiday..(vacation?), so knew I would run out of time to answer this posters questions....but I guessed you would look after him )

Maureen


As Maureen suggests, you question is pretty open ended. Here are a few comments:

Of course we who use Publisher to produce our webs feel it would be adequate for your needs. I generally say that if you already own Publisher and are using it to produce your print publications, and that all you need is a relatively simple, small and static website then it can be a good choice. I would not go out an buy it to build webs.

For your needs you could use the MSFT office live webs. They are template driven and more limited but the price is right. http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/en-us/

Depending on who you use to host your site, most have similar web building software available to use for free. Once again the templates don't lend themselves for customization, but the price is right and for simple webs and a web presence, could be a good choice. Spike likes GoDaddy for hosting, but I use it only for domain registration and prefer Webhost4life.com for hosting. You might check out the web building module in both.

If you are going to buy software and want something similar to Publisher you should consider Serif WebPlus. It is reasonably priced and gets good comments about ease of use.

The industry is trying to move to standards compliant webs with MSFT replacing FrontPage with Web Expression, and IE8. You will have a much bigger learning curve and need to learn some HTML and CSS coding, but you won't face the limitations of using Publisher. Another well known standards compliant program is Dreamweaver. These might be overkill for what you are planning.

Right now MSFT SharePoint Designer is a free download. It was introduced along with Web Expression, and though it's primary focus is not a code editor it functions much as Web Expression 1 from what I have been told. In fact it has been said that you can import a Publisher web...but I haven't tried it. This might be worth at least testing given that MSFT decided to make it free for this version.

Lots of choices available to you both in the program you choose to use to build your site and where to host it. Spend a lot of time planning the site and the goals, and then choose the software. Here is a link provided by Maureen several years ago that I have found helpful in thinking about how to build a website: http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/ Spend some time exploring what that author has to say.

And on a more humorous bent, but helpful in learning how to avoid a lot of common mistakes: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

If you want to read more about Publisher here is a link to Pub 2007:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/FX100649111033.aspx?CTT=96&Origin=CL100632931033
And one from a retired mvp: http://msmvps.com/blogs/dbartosik/pages/80566.aspx

DavidF