Best website building software to learn.

[Dark Prodigy]

Business friend of mine gave me one her old Adobe Web Premium CS4 suites. It has Dreamweaver CS4, Flash CS4, and Photoshop CS4. Her partners are now using CS5. I don't mind that its older software but seems like a good place to learn.

I've heard much about Wordpress.. since its free... however I've seen a few sites built with wordpress and they all have the same blocky template/layout type. Want to be able to do more customized stuff.

MS Web expression I heard was gaining steam as well and not as expensive nor as complicated as Dreamweaver CS4. I've been messing around with HTML and CSS and it seems ok, not nearly as complicated as most people make it out to be.

Anyway, what say you experienced web builders... continue with CS4 or something less time consuming to learn..

 

[SUPERGT]

Personally, I've never used these types of software and wouldn't recommend them. I could see years ago when things were more static, and you could use them to update sites though instead of messing with plain code.

For design/development, I simply use Notepad. The development side is the same, and for testing/implementation/deployment purposes, things are just set up locally.

What are you looking to do; design new templates for Wordpress? You're right about HTML/CSS, it's not hard, though still at some point you'll need to touch code.

 

[PTNL]

Anyway, what say you experienced web builders... continue with CS4 or something less time consuming to learn..

From my perspective, I say we're lacking information. You've only mentioned hear-say about a couple products, but nothing about business requirements or functional goal(s) of the site. Let's start with your website's needs first, then we can recommend tools and options.

 

[Dark Prodigy]

What are you looking to do; design new templates for Wordpress?

Not at all, I was simply stating that I do not like how Wordpress coded websites look. Don't really care for templates. I would rather be able to build from the ground up.

Let's start with your website's needs first, then we can recommend tools and options.

No requirements.. no needs...no website. I just like learning and web design seems an enjoyable hobby. Well, there is one thing... I don't like templates...and I would like to be able to design whatever is in my head instead of conforming it to a template.

 

[Jesse B]

For visuals alone, HTML and CSS will get you going. One can build an entire website off of these two languages.

If you want to start getting into a little more advanced stuff, Javascript is usually the next step (from my experience anyways).

From there, there's a LOT you can do. PHP, SQL, Ruby, ASP, Ajax... you get the idea. Each one of these languages has their own applications, and you'll need to decide which you'll need as time goes on.

To re-cap, start with HTML and CSS, and then move on from there.

 

[maw]

Dreamweaver makes HTML nasty looking.

I guess you don't realize this hasn't been true since 2004.

I'm going to go in the opposite direction say a good IDE is priceless if you're developing anything beyond a few static pages or templates. Yes, knowing what the code is doing is very important, but once you do, then an IDE will go a long way in saving you hours of manual labor. I can't tell you how much time it saves when your IDE automatically lists all your CSS class names instead of you having to open several style sheets to find it yourself, or when it lists all the arguments and overloads for a method without you having to dig through your libraries to find them. Or all the site management features right at your fingertips. I could go on and on.

A good IDE will get out of the way when you don't need it, and will be there when you do.

 

[SUPERGT]

Not at all, I was simply stating that I do not like how Wordpress coded websites look. Don't really care for templates. I would rather be able to build from the ground up.




No requirements.. no needs...no website. I just like learning and web design seems an enjoyable hobby. Well, there is one thing... I don't like templates...and I would like to be able to design whatever is in my head instead of conforming it to a template.

I see. If you're interested in just learning, I'd say skip the IDE. Learn what others have stated in a very basic environment. Again, this is just personal experience as I'm self taught myself. Technically though, whatever design you integrate into a content platform (Wordpress) becomes known as a "template" as the final form is usually in a transferable, dynamic-content friendly, and scalable format. That's why I referred to any design you mentioned as creating templates.