Members wheresgrant3 Posted September 3, 2004 Members Share Posted September 3, 2004 A few years back I designed my own web site for my old band that is now defunkt. I started in November of 99' with no programming knowledge and quickly built a site that was one of the most popular locally. Like building a house with no previous carpentry experience I just built page after page, learning as I went along. This site is so comprehensive and (as a result of {censored}ty coding) complex that it would take me months to change all of the links and directories if I had to move it... so I don't, it sits, like a shrine with an occasional visitor. Where's Grant? That is my only experience in site design. Somehow, I got roped into building a site for a friend who owns a bar. I decided to finally crack open a copy of Dreamweaver MX I bought two years ago, and use an editor this time to create frames and tables (instead of stealing code and modifing it til it works). My problem is that I have spent two weeks trying to create frames in Dreamweaver an have gotten nowhere. Like Photoshop, there is no simple tools to cut, paste and add flair, is there? I'm becoming frustrated real quick, and I just want a plug and play solution. I feel like pulling my hair out. Those who have built their own site or commercially for others.... what do you use? Frontpage? Dreamweaver? It seems like it is more cumbersome and harder to create damn .dwt files than it is to just write the stinkin' code in Notepad! I just want to create an attractive, functional layout and fill the gaps with the copy text the bar has supplied me. So far I have not been able to do that. Ugh:( HELP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sysera Posted September 3, 2004 Members Share Posted September 3, 2004 I'm a text only guy myself, but if I were to recommend a graphical program for HTML, I'd use Adobe GoLive. -Sys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Yoozer Posted September 3, 2004 Members Share Posted September 3, 2004 If you have a clue what HTML tags actually do, Allaire HomeSite might be something for you. Its text replacement and folding (you can select portions of your code and 'collaps' them) is awesome. and use an editor this time to create frames and tables Gaah! You shouldn't use tables! You should use DIV's! Seriously, you're missing out on a whole design paradigm here. Tables are teh suck for design. Sure, they're easy to center, but they're not meant to cram a GUI in. www.w3schools.com/css www.alistapart.com and www.csszengarden.com too. You'll see why that rules . what do you use? Frontpage? It reeks. Worse than a dead elephant who was swallowed by a whale who beached recently but expanded due to natural gases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Keyz316 Posted September 3, 2004 Members Share Posted September 3, 2004 Hm personally I code mostly by hand.... though I've used Dreamweaver MX and found it really quite easy to use. That I know of, it's definitely the best WYSIWYG editor out there (could be wrong... as I said, I code by hand). I do know that the coding side of Dreamweaver is beyond excellent, since Macromedia acquired Homesite (a very powerful code editor, which I "do" use) and integrated it into Dreamweaver. Perhaps you're just approaching it from the wrong perspective or something. Have you read the manual? Tried following some of the many tutorials out there on the web? Macromedia also has an extensive free help center on their website. Worst case, pick up a book on Dreamweaver for like $15 or so at your local bookstore and you'll be set... they usually come with the works (tutorials, video examples, in-depth explainations, etc). http://www.macromedia.com/support/dreamweaver/ http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=dreamweaver+mx+tutorials (with just a quick glance, it seems there's an unending supply of help on these sites... you just need to take a deep breath, sit back, and read some of it) If you need some graphic design tutorials (graphics are at least 50% of the equation in a good site design, I'd say), you can check out my site: www.absolutecross.com ... or find some more help at my forum: www.tutorialforums.com Anyhow....... pleeeeease don't use frames. Frames are a serious no-no in web design these days (well since the mid-90s or something heh). No one likes them, they cause all kinds of trouble with navigation, bookmarking, getting "stuck" in frames, make search engines hate your site, and downright look tacky unless you do a seriously professional job of implementing them (which 99.9% of everyone never does). Trust me, frames are not a good idea. Also I noticed you have sound come up by default on your current site - also something I would advise against (and if you do put sound, make sure it starts off quietly and that there are highly visable controls to let the user turn the sound off). The sudden unexpected blast of sound from a visitor's speakers at 2am is often the only guarantee you need that they'll be spending all of 2.384 seconds at your site and won't ever be back. Frontpage---- I wouldn't touch Frontpage with a.... eh.... jeeze well I just wouldn't touch it, never mind the 10 foot pole Hope this helps Peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members keanu reeves Posted September 3, 2004 Members Share Posted September 3, 2004 how in the hell is dreamweaver difficult? really. it doesnt get much simpler. just explore the program like you would any other. right click here see what happens. see which combination of menu bars work best for you. READ THE HELP FILE... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted September 3, 2004 Author Members Share Posted September 3, 2004 Originally posted by flukewurm how in the hell is dreamweaver difficult? really. it doesnt get much simpler. just explore the program like you would any other. right click here see what happens. see which combination of menu bars work best for you. READ THE HELP FILE... Welll I guess it's the old adage.... after learning something the hardway it's sometimes harder to do something the easy way. Saying that Dreamweaver is simple is like saying Photoshop is the easiest program on the market for doing a simple image crop. It might be the best.... but it certainly isn't the simplest. (which we all know is bull{censored}, unless you are an elitist ). Dreamweaver is not as intuaitive as would have hoped for. I will pick up a book, and I have scrolled through the help menu a few times, however I don't have 30 hours to set aside to try to learn the basics of program for this project. I was hoping for something simple that could take care of some design features, while I spent most of my time hand coding the what I wanted. Last nite after struggling with setting up a frame design with the look I wanted I, I tried desperately to try to save "all" as a frame set without success. Moreover, I was using Dreamweaver to construct indiviudual pages.... I would handle the layout myself. Bad idea I guess since it would save each page as a templete without allowing me to individually edit each page. I take it from all of your responses that DW is a great program and tool for web design and I should stick with it in the long run. In the meantime I need to get a site up by this afternoon so my experiment with DW is over for now. I just don't have the time to learn as I create. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tucktronix Posted September 3, 2004 Members Share Posted September 3, 2004 Originally posted by flukewurm how in the hell is dreamweaver difficult? really. it doesnt get much simpler. just explore the program like you would any other. right click here see what happens. see which combination of menu bars work best for you. READ THE HELP FILE... Dreamweaver does have a bit of a steep learning curve. I have it myself. Right now, I just don't have the time to really sit down and learn it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.