# Please recommend a website design program

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 9, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261 "2003-11-09T18:05:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/1 "2003-11-09T18:05:12Z")

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I’m trying to build just a simple personal website: Text, a few graphic images, and a link to some mp3 files. I’ve checked out a few tutorials on HTML so I could understand what these programs were doing but now I’m looking for a WYSIWYG program. I know the big names are Dreamweaver, Go Live, and Frontpage. I checked out Dreamweaver and it’s way over my head. I haven’t looked at the others yet. I have read some reviews that say Frontpage is easy to use but produces horrible code. Is that something a nonprofessional really needs to consider? I know these programs have site management features but I don’t know if they are helpful for websites that only have a couple pages.  
Ideally the program would have an intuitive interface but be powerful should I ever decide to delve deeper. Money isn’t really an object so I don’t necessarily need some freeware program that gets points for being the underdog. I don’t mind overkill as long as it’s easy to use. Thanks.

One last question: When creating a web page what do people use as a standard resolution? Do these programs write the code so that the formatting will be maintained whatever the screen resolution of the viewer is?

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**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/2 "2003-11-09T18:13:38Z")

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For a simple, personal webpage there is no good reason for not using notepad or a similar text editor to put together your html page. Knowing what you are doing (at least the basics) will make it easier to use a wysiwyg program later should you choose to do so, and will also let you tweak the less than optimal code they create, and fix the stuff that you just can’t get to work in your wys.

[www.webmonkey.com](http://www.webmonkey.com) has really simple tutorials. It shouldn’t take you more than a half an hour of learnin’ before you can throw together a simple page like you described.

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**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/3 "2003-11-09T19:27:01Z")

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The program I used before I got Dreamweaver:

[Arachnophilia 4.0](http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index_old.html)

I’m currently using Dreamweaver 4.0 and find it’s very powerful, intuitive, and fun to use.

But Arachnophilia is WYSIWYG as well, and for freeware, it’s pretty cool.

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**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2003, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/4 "2003-11-09T21:35:19Z")

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Does anyone know of any good forums about webpage development where I can direct programming questions (rather than inundate the SD)?

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/5 "2003-11-09T21:43:40Z")

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I second Iteki’s recommendation. Don’t use _any_ website design programs, just a text editor and some good documentation on HTML. (I like Elizabeth Castro’s books, personally.)

Because:

1. it pays to understand how HTML actually works, even if you do end up using a program eventually.
2. Most website design programs seem to concentrate more on pretty pictures at the expense of useful information. That’s just the reverse of what Tim B-L had in mind when creating web browsing.

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**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2003, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/6 "2003-11-09T22:00:19Z")

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Well I’ve gone through a bunch of tutorials, I thought I could learn the rest by doing it in the program then looking at the code.

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**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/7 "2003-11-10T02:39:18Z")

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Look.

```auto

<html>
<head>
<title>Your Title Here</title>
</head>

<body>

<h1>Welcome to my webpage, blah blah blah</h1>
<h2>Some more text</h2>
<h3>Some more text</h3>

<!-- these above are headings of varying sizes, down to H6 -- experiment. -->

<img src="filename.jpg">
<!-- where "filename.jpg" exists in the same folder as this HTML document does -->

<br>
<!-- this is a line break -->

<a href="soundfile.mp3">The name of your sound file</a>
<!-- where the soundfile exists in the same folder as this HTML document -->

</body>
</html>

```

There’s your template for your first page. Try it out and start tweaking it. It’s a lot more fun than FrontPage.

Disclaimer: if any serious web people have any quibbles with my HTML, don’t call me, I’ll call you.

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**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/8 "2003-11-10T02:45:46Z")

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The other good thing about using Notepad is that programs like FrontPage insert a lot of crap into your code that you don’t really need.

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**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/9 "2003-11-10T02:59:36Z")

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I’ve done all that basic stuff. I probably could make the simple website at this point. I guess I was looking to toy around with more difficult ideas and check them against the code.

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**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/10 "2003-11-10T03:02:03Z")

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Oh. Well, in that case, I recommend you check out “HTML in a nutshell” published by O’Reilly. Or the webmonkey tutorials mentioned previously, and I’d add [htmlgoodies.com](http://htmlgoodies.com).

What do you want to do in a web design program that you don’t know how to code? Interactive pages, scripting stuff?

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**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/11 "2003-11-10T03:27:18Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> There’s your template for your first page.

You’re at least missing the DOCTYPE statement, and you still need to specify the language of the webpage.

😛

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/12 "2003-11-10T03:32:29Z")

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As mentioned by **Rico** , Arachnophilia is an excellent program.

Yo also might want to consider another freeware program, [1st Page 2000](http://www.evrsoft.com/), as well.

Whichever route you choose, learning basic HTML code will never hurt you and always help.

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**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/13 "2003-11-10T03:49:45Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by masonite \*  
> \*\*Oh. Well, in that case, I recommend you check out “HTML in a nutshell” published by O’Reilly. Or the webmonkey tutorials mentioned previously, and I’d add [htmlgoodies.com](http://htmlgoodies.com).
> 
> What do you want to do in a web design program that you don’t know how to code? Interactive pages, scripting stuff? \*\*

Yea, I checked out those webmonkey tutorials, thanks. I think htmlgoodies is where I read the For Beginner’s tutorials. I really don’t know how to do anything that isn’t in a really basic tutorial. Don’t know frames, tables, etc…

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**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/14 "2003-11-10T04:01:24Z")

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Do NOT do frames. Do NOT use tables for layouts - use CSS instead.  
**Duckster** ,

Arachnophilia is a good program, but it definitely is not WYSIWYG

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**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/15 "2003-11-10T04:06:02Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Urban Ranger \*  
> \*\* use CSS instead.

That’s another thing I know little about (except what it stands for). Seems like an awful lot of coding with ascii symbols I’m not accustomed to reaching for on the keyboard. Best leave it to expensive software. 😃

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**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/16 "2003-11-10T05:05:54Z")

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CSS is actually very simple.

This is an [excellent website to show off CSS](http://www.csszengarden.com/)

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**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/17 "2003-11-10T09:05:45Z")

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I found the [Web Style Guide](http://www.webstyleguide.com/) very good and clear. While it does explain the technical side of the matter, it focuses on how to get a pleasing, clear presentation, and going into the frames vs CSS matter, too. Just look at their examples and try some copy-paste with your own modifications to get started.

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**Author:** ![ChuckForbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@ChuckForbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChuckForbin)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/18 "2003-11-10T13:47:47Z")

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I think some of you are doing him a disservice by telling him to use Notepad and learn HTML.

Reminds me of the old days when there was always the crowd that said you can everything to ever need to do with Assembler.

Maybe you can, but it’s stupid. He would be better off with some sort of WYSISYG program to get started, to get his main page and some links to his photos and MP3’s.  
My $0.02

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/19 "2003-11-10T15:50:14Z")

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If I’m just beginning to learn, is there any reason not to learn XHTML over HTML?

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**Author:** ![Belrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed655f/32.png) [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-website-design-program/212261/20 "2003-11-10T21:29:15Z")

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Whatever happended to Front Page Express. Perfect for cranking out a quick HTML page and was free with Winders. Is it hidden on some subdir on the CD anywhere?

MS Word can also save things in HTML. It’s ineffecient as heck ans the code looks like crap but it’s usable and easy to do.

-B

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