I need What You See is What You Get web publishing software. I don’t code HTML, and don’t have the inclination to learn. In the past, I have used Microsoft Frontpage, which worked fine for my minimal needs (my needs being posting a personal website on my university server containing contact info, info about my research and links to published papers, and course syllabi).
Frontpage is no longer being sold. I’m told (but am willing to be corrected) that Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression Web are aimed more at professional web developers, and would be too complicated for someone with my simple needs. Please help, Dopers!
I have been trying out KompoZer, it is open source, so free. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it is not too bad. And it is either WYSIWYG or you can work directly with the HTML if you know it. It has some glitches (not even to version 1 yet), and I don’t know if it is actually still getting worked on, but there is an active forum where people still answer questions and help out new comers.
I have been using it to update old pages to better code and write some new stuff for my last trip. Once I figured out how some things were done, it has been very nice. The only real problem I have with it is it won’t let me do some things in the Source tab when I am using it. I need to switch to the WYSIWYG tab to do quite a few things. This won’t be a problem if you are not doing any hand coding.
If you get yourself a good Dreamweaver book, or even if you’re willing to patiently read some of the (extensive) documentation that comes with the software, there’s no reason why you can’t use it for what you need. Particularly if you’re just making a small, static site, Dreamweaver is pretty easy to use if you take it slowly.
The main thing you should ask yourself regarding Dreamweaver, though, is whether you’re going to be using it enough to justify forking out the rather heavy asking price. Buying Dreamweaver on the Adobe site right now costs $399. I’m not sure if you can get it cheaper elsewhere.
If you want to give it a try to work out whether it’s worth the price, you can download a free trial at the Adobe website.
ETA: I should add that, even though you’ve said that you don’t have the inclination to learn HTML, it can be handy to know the code in order to troubleshoot problems in WYSIWYG programs like Dreamweaver.
I’m a Web designer by profession, and I used Expression Web for something for a client. I would not say it is geared towards pros at all.
I think you can get a free trial of it. Have you tried it? You can also get a free trial of Dreamweaver. Won’t hurt to try them out and see what you think. If you like either you can probably get them at a special student price at your university bookstore.
My last experience with Dreamweaver left a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed to push Flash very heavily…and I prefer to create web pages that are actually, you know, made out of HTML.
Not sounding good for DreamWeaver. Our university has some partnership that allows faculty to buy software at a discount, but it’s not a very deep discount, so stuff like DreamWeaver is still, IIRC, >$200.
I don’t want to learn HTML because I have so little use for it. Once my website is set up, it will only need minor updates 3-4 times per year. It’s a fairly static website.
Have you thought about skipping the coding entirely and using a content management system like Joomla, or even tweak a simple blogging system like Wordpress to better fit your needs?
That is as simple as simplicity gets
The installation is simple, the management is simple as well, and getting content in is as easy as typing into a text box. Plus, they usually have hundreds of templates available for free, and hundreds more available for a few bucks. Also, you can always tweak them to better fit your vision. I’m used to dreamweaver and have used it both professionally and for personal projects, but even for my hobby website I simply use wordpress: www.shadowwick.com.
You can create an about page, and post about/update info on your research.
Did it start dropping Flash animations into your pages against your will? Did it start giving you pop-up boxes that said, “Are you sure you don’t want a nice Flash menu instead of that HTML/CSS abomination?”
I’ve never used a single piece of Flash when using Dreamweaver, and i’ve certainly never felt pressured by the program to use Flash. I guess i just don’t understand what you’re saying.
I think this is a good suggestion. It seems that a CMS is often the best way to go nowdays for people who want a reasonably professional-looking website, but who can’t hand code and don’t have access to a program like Dreamweaver.
I know that mangetout also uses a CMS for his website, and i think it looks good.
I looked at Download.com’s review KompoZer and it looks good. Do they by any chance have templates, or do you have to set up every aspect of the page yourself?
The content management systems look good, too. I like the idea of the flexibility that a full-fledged HTML editor would give me, but realistically I’m not sure I need it. Especially if it costs a couple of hundred bucks.
I have not seen any templates, certainly none included with the program. There may be some on the forum I linked to, but I have not bothered looking. I use it to work on old pages, tweak some things on stuff on pages another program creates for my pictures, or I create stuff from scratch, so templates are of limited use to me.
There are lots of free web publishing tools out there. I have heard good things about SeaMonkey (Mozilla’s web suite). I have also heard that Trellian WebPage is a decent “drag and drop” type web publishing tool.
I haven’t used either of these, so I can’t say for sure if they will meet your needs.
Google Page Creator (WYSIWYG, free) is a good choice for creating basic pages, though there are a limited number of templates.
If none of the templates are appealing to you, you might check out some of the free templates on Open Source Web Design. Some are quite good and come with full CSS. It is generally easy to just open the template in an HTML editor (I recommend HTML-Kit) and replace text and visual elements with your own. Most good editors have the option of syntax highlighting, so it is fairly easy to pick out the stuff you need to change and what to leave alone. Just to be clear, the OSWD templates (or other templates you find online probably won’t work with Google Page Creator.
