Best Web Designing Tool

Answer is still the same. Pencil and paper. It's easier than Dreamweaver, faster, works everywhere, understood by all, quicker to make changes and multiple renditions and cheap.

 

FrontPage?! That hasn't been available for years!

 

Thats what I use, works well whether its coldfusion, html, php, css. Allows you to preview in IE and FF, for any potential browser issues. Love it.

 

Notepad is my personal choice although i do also use photoshop.

 

I would have to agree with the majority here, as i use illustrator, photoshop and dreamweaver the most for website design. (illustrator for creating vector artwork/logos which i import to photoshop)

 

I hate doing design work in Linux while there hasn't a good enough tool for doing this.
I hate doing programming work in Windows while the programming environment is not so good as Linux.
Then I may give max os for a try.

By the way, anyone has great design tool in Linux to recommend?

 

Photoshop+Notepad

 

For Coding -

Best Paid Option :

Adobe Dreamweaver is the best way to go if you have hundreds of dollars to throw away, or are willing to participate in illegal activities to acquire it, but i dont recommend using it unless you have html experience, and unless you dont plan on downloading it.

Best Free Options :

Alot of professional web developers are switching to Notepad++(google it) as a substitute for the regular notepad because it offers syntax highlighting. (it's open source and completely free) Check it out at http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net

Another really good (free) editor is Aptana Studio. It's probably the single best editor out there. If u cant afford dreamweaver download aptana. It has syntax highlighting, supports php, html, javascript, jquery, all the jquery plugins, and many many more other languages. It also auto closes tags, auto-indents, and has a web based previewer which u can use to view the code as it'd be seen on firefox or internet explorer which saves alot of time. Definitely worth the download. Check it out at http://aptana.com/

For Designing -

Best Paid Option :

The best paid option for designing is absolutely Adobe Photoshop. It's the professional standard. There is nothing better. Its pretty costly (running around $600 - $800) it has a wealth of tutorials (im talking hundreds of thousands) so once purchased you can learn it completely free of charge.

Best Free Option :

Gimp. It has been compared to photoshop by alot of people and some actually prefer it. I personally prefer photoshop, but if i couldnt afford photoshop id definitely be using Gimp. It has somewhat the same layout as photoshop and can do many of the things photoshop can do free of charge. Check it out at http://gimp.org/

 

Gah, look at all the people making complete trash websites advocating Dreamweaver and Photoshop... The latter being the LAST TOOL you should use, the former being something that the only thing you can learn from is how NOT to design a website.

Go get yourself a plain text editor - notepad, notepad++, editplus, crimson editor, etc, etc, LEARN HTML and CSS properly, and forget everything else that has been given for advice so far in this thread.

Most 'tools' are sleazeball shortcuts that just make MORE work in terms of cleaning up the total messes they create than just writing it bare in the first damned place. But then people will take any sleazeball half-assed shortcut they can get to avoid putting in work now, who cares how much work it makes later or how badly it shtups the client right up the tuckus later on. AAAH NO!!! YOU MEAN WEB DEVELOPMENT IS ACTUALLY WORK?!?!?

 

Dreamweaver, Fireworks or Photoshop.

 

This is "deathshadows" website classicbattletech.com

Of course he wouldn't be an advocate of graphical websites. He bought his at the dollar store.

This is the site he brags about creating a logo/skin for http://www.housemarik.net/

Compare his sites to the big players. Ebay, Yahoo, Aol, Google, Amazon, and any other site you love going to...

... Then ask yourself why you ever listened to him.

 

Yes, lets' point out sites that were written over four years ago and have not been updated to any of the techniques I'm talking about, and in fact have many of the same things wrong with them I'm railing against because I too was led down that same garden path. NOR is that actually my website, that's a client's website who has been updating the content and in many cases breaking the layout by not following rules I laid down when I made it.

RECENT work:
http://www.smallblogsnetwork.com/
Not spectacular for graphics, but that's it's exactly what the client wanted and came to me with for a concept... Powered by my custom CMS under the hood.

http://www.publishorperish.net/
Same CMS, theme by me. Check it images off, css off, and look at the code.

Work in progress, the fourth iteration of classicbattletech.com
http://battletech.hopto.org/site_designs/CBT4/template.html

Which uses semantic markup, switchy type layout changing the number of columns on screen width, dynamic font sizes, image replacement techniques all of which are catered to target as many users as possible.

Oh, and as to the appearance/graphics of classicbattletech.com - most of the borders are there to mimic the clients PRINT PRODUCTS.

....and of course the new template for my own battletech page which is also on the back burner because paying clients come first:
http://battletech.hopto.org/site_designs/ds_btsite/

Or... ah, what the hell, it's not ready for the public since it needs more 'oomph' (and working back-end code for the news pages), but I'll share it now.

http://www.ewiusb.com/index.php

(you access without the index.php you'll get the place-holder)

... or just have a look through the recodes I've done for various people on this and other forums - other peoples designs, layouts or problems 'cleaned up' by me.
http://www.cutcodedown.com/for_others/

I've got several dozen websites ALL of which need to be updated to use the techniques I've advocated for my paying clients - my own personal pages have been slipping for years because I've had better things to WORK on.

Like the thousand dollar a pop clients that pay my bills.

BTW, care to share any of your work? If you want to dance...

 

Theres a difference in between design, and coding. You're a coder ( a very good one at that ) that cant design for shit. Im a designer ( a very good one at that ) that cant code very well. Im sure we both make enough to pay the bills plus more. But take both our skills and put them towards a well coded website with an amazing User Interface Design and that website would top any website either of us create. So in my mind; Yes. Design is a very important part of many websites, but without valuable coding it goes nowhere. So it would be a great idea to code using notepad. By the time you've learned to code a website using notepad you'll be an amazing coder but the business you get will be nothing compared to the guy that can design a attractive UI and code it just as good as you. So yeah. its not necessary to learn to design, you can make money without knowledge of it, and good money at that. But if you wanna be one of the best web DESIGNERS you must know how to design. So the people referring him to photoshop aren't wrong in that regard. He will eventually need to know how to design, and for designing photoshop is the best of the best. It is possible to make images for less money. But show me a website thats visually stunning that hasnt had something photoshopped and i'll change my mind.

 

I partly agree - but to me design is more than just the pretty pictures you hang on it, it's about layout, navigation and graphics that degrade well for people who don't want them, accessable font metrics and colors (which people who start in photoshop and the lions share of people doing psd to {x}html /FAIL. at miserably)

A website is about content the user wants to get at, NOT the goofy flash in the pan graphics that may make the user go "Hey that looks neat" but five minutes later they've determined there's either nothing of value on the page or it isn't accessable to them, so they go BACK to some other website.

Seriously, look at some of the biggest successes - would you call eBay, Google or Amazon 'masterful designs'? I sure wouldn't.

Hell, googles code is bad (inlined CSS? Inlined scripting? I swear I could put the whitespace back in their markup and STILL reduce their bandwidth 40%) and you have to admit their uber simplistic graphics certainly clash with what most of your people designing sites in photoshop would advocate.... BUT THEY'VE GOT THE CONTENT.

Excepting that if you are designing the LAYOUT it is instantly made of /FAIL/ - for making the pretty graphics you hang ON the layout, I agree wholeheartedly it's a great tool (though I would then append Paint Shop Pro just so you have something that actually saves OPTIMIZED images)

Though that's just Photoshop - Dreamweaver - GAH. That overpriced pile of /FAIL/ is, as I have said many times on many forums including this one, is a blight upon the internet that for experienced developers is nothing more than a sleazeball shortcut, and for nubes is little more than corporate predation upon their ignorance. I have RARELY seen a website DESIGNED in dreamweaver that's worth a damn, and by the time you do know how you actually create a website PROPERLY using dreamweaver in just code view, you've turned a $300-$600 program into a glorified text editor.

Photoshop does belong in the toolbox, but it goes on the bottom because it should be used LAST. Dreamweaver belongs in the attic forgotten behind the christmas tree until the next person that moves in finds it, goes "what the **** is this crap" and throw it away for you.

... and to that end I've rarely seen a website DESIGNED in photoshop that's worth a damn either in terms of accessability, layout or functionality - especially with the lions share of them being crappy fixed widths with crappy undersized fixed metric fonts mixed with color contrasts below accessability minimums so low you can't read anything. Hell, you'd think being art {sexual preference slur avoided} types would at least have an understanding of colorspace.

Though at the end of the day both the coder and the designer need to remember that people do NOT visit websites for the goofy graphics OR the underlying code. They visit sites for the CONTENT, so accessability and ease of access go to the top of the list which is where semantic markup and separation of presentation from content begin to shine - since the fanciest graphics in the world and the most l33t coding trickery still cannot polish a turd - See the rubbish flashtards churn out when they crap out an all flash website. There's a reason it's called Flash and not substance.

 

Photoshop for Gfx Dreamweaver all the way for html

 

Dreamweaver is best ever tool for designer either beginner or experienced

 

Dreamweaver is best for designing web sites ... But you should have a good vision and should have skill to put ur vision on the website

 

I lyk your way of designing ... Yeah nothing beats it . You should alwaz create a rought idea of your web site on a piece of paper that will help you a lot

 

pen and paper and notepad++

 

Hello webmasters,

I used photoshop for designing and dreamweaver for developing websites.

Thanks,

WS