What should I download to build my own website

i do make most of my code by hand but i do use dreamwaver sometimes it make my life easer

but if you want a free WSIWYG the yes NVU

until you get good and then you may want to get dreamwaver but the best thing you can do is learn to code in notepad i just use things like Dramwaver and NVU to see some of my divs in a coding view so i can tell what it going to look like before i look in a Browser

but be a smart coder and code by hand you will end up making better code

 

The code it produces looks worse than a landfill the size of Manhattan which makes the sites inaccessible to those with disabilities, those who prefer to navigate sites via the keyboard (AutisticCuckoo over at SitePoint is one of the keyboard navigation users), and also is NOT search engine friendly for various reasons (inability to use proper markup, keyword stuffing, and so on).

In other words, don't waste your money on it.

 

You just saved me 200 dollars dude,thx alot man.

I just started W3 school and it's not as hard as I thought it was.I'm probably going to write all the codes in a notebook and take it with me everywhere I go and hopefully I could start making my own websites by next week.

Thx for the help and support people

 

Well, I wouldn't trust W3School's CSS section. Instead, you might want to look at The Ultimate CSS Reference [link: reference.sitepoint.com]

 

I prefer notepad++ ... Yeah it takes a bit longer, but to me it is worth it if you need to fix any validation problems. Plus if you are trying to styles something like a forum, you will want to not use Dreamweaver or so because it tends to close all the open html tags if you do not know how to set it not to.

 

Dreamweaver is good, but I don't even use the WYSIWYG. Hand coding is the way to go for website design.

It feels good to use notepad but it doesn't have highlighting, good formating, decent tabbing and stuff which is why I like Dreamweaver.

Plus it's got FTP, XML support, CSS formating, live data support, site manager, testing server stuff, the new SPRY framework(which I'm not too fond of but i know many people are), and basically everything you would want while designing a website. And ofcourse great sync with other CS apps.

It's kind of like the all-in-one-one-stop-shop-never-leave-the-program-hub. If that's what you're into but again ... it isn't free so it helps you none

There are good free programs like CoffeeCup, Aptana, NVu, AceHTML(never heard of it but read it on this thread), and others which im not aware of

Good luck and remember that many great applications were done with the smallest and most common tools

 

I'm using a free program called Web Dwarf, I like it because you can drag and drop graphics and such. Very good for someone like me who basically knows nothing.
I just did a Page 2 for my website but I don't know how to upload the file or anything. LOL

 

Dreamweaver is what I use, only because I'm not a code guru. I can tweak code as needed, but I use DW more for the ease of managing the site rather than the WYSIWYG capabilities (which aren't accurate all the time). I build alot of PHP/ASP sites with backend client administration and find WebAssist extensions save a ton of time. There is some overlap with ADDT though.

 

There's been some good suggestions, but I'll wade in anyway.

You need a good text editor. There's a bunch of free ones out there for the taking. My preference is Emacs for its absolute power, but a lot of people fight shy of it for the same reason.

Work through some tutorials. Add htmldog.com to your list.

Get GIMP. It's not as powerful as PhotoShop, but you won't need the print oriented stuff, anyway. GIMP is built from the ground up for web graphics.

Get Inkscape. It's a free vector graphics application; think Illustrator.

You'll need to set up a local web server. Get Apache, PHP5 and MySQL. If you're on Windows, Google wamp (windows/apache/mysql/php). All are free. You'll need the PHP and MySQL for nearly all CMS apps.

You absolutely do not need wysiwyg html generators, eg. Dreamweaver.

cheers,

gary

 

but that's not all Dreamweaver is
if you look at all the features of Dreamweaver, the wysiwyg is only a fraction of the strengths of dreamweaver

think xml, javascript, site management, testing, live data connection ...

 

forgot to mention ..

the great community and tutorials which grew for dreamweave over the years. Dreamweaver has grown to be partially synonymous to web design. So while a tutorial may consist of just basic HTML stuff. It will be called a "dreamweaver tutorial" rather than just an "html tutorial"

 

Which someone who knows how to write code by hand (such as myself) will tell you is bloated to the point of it being a miracle that it even works in the first place. As for testing, that's what IE 6, IE 7, Firefox, Opera, and Safari are for.

Which can be covered for far less than the $400 asking price of Dreamweaver right here.

 

Dan - I'm not saying dreamweaver is the ideal option. It's far from it. I'm a coder also, a programmer at heart. But for someone who wants to learn "How to build a website" it probably is best not to shove some HTML, PHP, MySQL, CSS, JS in their face and go here .. learn! hehe That's what I'm saying is that for someone new to this, dreamweaver(or free and open source alternatives as i discussed earlier in this thread) is optimal.
btw dude I live in naperville! =P

 

I cut my teeth on Dreamweaver MX. I hated it. Once I was exposed to a book that showed me how to properly write HTML and CSS in bite sized chunks (that also had pictures of the results and code examples as well) I took off like a rocket. I still hate JavaScript though (don't use it) and am currently cutting my teeth on PHP and MySQL via WordPress (I've created my own WordPress master theme template that literally cuts out all the crap - it's currently in beta testing right now).

Heh. I'm a mile south of the casino myself.

 

Definitely dreamweaver... but alas it is not free.

 

Wow good point brought up, why haven't we dicussed CMS's like Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and BANS and stuff

They definitely don't take programming experience if you don't want them too
And they do usually dominate as the website system of choice

 

Well, the thing with those particular systems is that they have multiple people working on them - which invariablly leads to bloated code. And in my case, I don't have the time to manually update my sites' content, so I'm relying on WordPress as a CMS to handle it for me until I'm comfortable enough with PHP and MySQL to literally write my own custom-content management system (which I'll then be able to sell), which as you're well aware of, is NOT an easy feat or a task for the timid/inexperienced developer/programmer.

 

For people who like to hand code their pages, I would recommend the free tool CSE HTML Validator Lite.

http://www.htmlvalidator.com/lite/

 

XML is just a markup language; no need for an expensive application.

DW's javascript is abysmal. There is just no excuse for its crudity. There are plenty of javascript repositories just brimming with intelligently written code, or one can learn to use some of the excellent libraries such as jQuery.

Good site management depends on a well architected site plan. Combine that with a mirror site on the development server, and it becomes trivial to maintain site synchronization. Page control depends on the same things plus sane usage of included common bits, and back end controls for dynamic content management.

I have no idea what you mean by a 'live data connection' in this context.

cheers,

gary

 

He might mean the ftp thing-- I read a thread on SitePoint where true hand-coders were using Dreambeaver to speed up stuff they'd rather not do by hand-- stuff they well knew HOW to do but they liked the "extras" that the programme came with.

I'm glad I never started with a WYSIWYG cause I'm a visual person and I woulda never broken out of it.

Dan, have you tried out that Simply Javascript book? I'm kinda sorta thinking I should learn JS (as much as I want to puke every time I see it on a website) and I saw the name bandied about... but as you're struggling with JS still... should I get it? I have zero code experience, just a husband who writes in Perl who rants about "elegance" and "beauty" etc... and is it written for someone coming from web design?