Home Made Website ?

[soulful dog]

Joomla's good, but unless you're familiar with it and using a CMS, isn't it a bit too powerful & complicated for someone who just wants a simple website? Though Melvil's photography site is a pretty nice and simple design (as for it being slow, it just seems to be the response time that's slow, not the loading of images or anything?).

If your friend doesn't really have any knowledge of websites, I'd agree with thomas that using Wordpress is probably going to be the quickest and easiest way to get a website online. Once you buy some web hosting & a domain name, you'll need a few technical details to install and set-up Wordpress, but it's fairly easy and once it's installed, it's far easier to use than a CMS like Joomla.

 

[swee'pea99]

I wouldn't worry about search engines. Just take it as read that you're not going to show up in google, and certainly not for anything as common on the web as 'artist'.

Accept that, and that any visitors are going to come from word of mouth, and concentrate your attentions on building the best possible 'showcase' (which is not as hard as you might think) and getting a decent host.

 

[HJ]

Try using WordPress it is fairly very easy to set up and has loads of plugins to add functionality...

 

[gaz]

I've been making websites for the past 5 or 6 years. If your need any help or advice with what products to use, please contact me and i will guide you as much as i can.

Depending on the size that your mate wants, you have two mainl routes, CMS (content management system) these are updated from a web interface and are extremely easy to use and customize (joomla has the biggest user base) but something like wordpress is ideal for blogging (but it doesn't sound like thats what your mate needs)

if not that then you can write or use software (such as dreamweaver) to create the code, these can be extremely well made websites with full accessibility and usability. the only problem with these is that you need to know how to update it in HTML or have the software to update it again.

I strongly suggest the CMS route, hosting may be more expensive due to needing a database and php access. but it's worth it with the large amount of user interaction and possibilities for expansion and the ease of updating it.

Like i said if you have any questions do ask. as i make my money from making and improving websites.

 

[HJ]

I've been making websites for the past 5 or 6 years. If your need any help or advice with what products to use, please contact me and i will guide you as much as i can.

Depending on the size that your mate wants, you have two mainl routes, CMS (content management system) these are updated from a web interface and are extremely easy to use and customize (joomla has the biggest user base) but something like wordpress is ideal for blogging (but it doesn't sound like thats what your mate needs)

if not that then you can write or use software (such as dreamweaver) to create the code, these can be extremely well made websites with full accessibility and usability. the only problem with these is that you need to know how to update it in HTML or have the software to update it again.

I strongly suggest the CMS route, hosting may be more expensive due to needing a database and php access. but it's worth it with the large amount of user interaction and possibilities for expansion and the ease of updating it.

Like i said if you have any questions do ask. as i make my money from making and improving websites.

Wordpress is fine as a light weight CMS, for someone who is just starting it is far easier to use than a full blown CMS such Drupal or Joomla. Anyone suggesting dreamweaver can't be serious about web standards , if you want to deal with HTML under window, use notepad.

 

[gaz]

Wordpress is fine as a light weight CMS, for someone who is just starting it is far easier to use than a full blown CMS such Drupal or Joomla. Anyone suggesting dreamweaver can't be serious about web standards , if you want to deal with HTML under window, use notepad.

I don't agree with you on wordpress, all be it is simpler than joomla or a similar CMS, but it's only a blog at heart, and it's limited in what it can do because of that.

Clearly you know nothing about Dreamweaver, it's a very powerful web management tool. and it's code view is on par with any other software. Clearly i wasn't suggesting using the design view for making your website.

 

[HJ]

I don't agree with you on wordpress, all be it is simpler than joomla or a similar CMS, but it's only a blog at heart, and it's limited in what it can do because of that.

Clearly you know nothing about Dreamweaver, it's a very powerful web management tool. and it's code view is on par with any other software. Clearly i wasn't suggesting using the design view for making your website.

Dreamweaver is just an other version of FrontPage, serious coders use HTML-Kit or just emac, when I started developing web sites, in 1995, Dreamweaver hadn't even bee though of...

 

[gaz]

Dreamweaver is just an other version of FrontPage, serious coders use HTML-Kit or just emac, when I started developing web sites, in 1995, Dreamweaver hadn't even bee though of...

LMAO thats made my day. I honestly can't believe your comparing Dreamweaver to frontpage.

A serious coder will know that w/e they use doesn't matter. and that it's all about the quality they produce at the end of the day.

 

[HJ]

LMAO thats made my day. I honestly can't believe your comparing Dreamweaver to frontpage.

A serious coder will know that w/e they use doesn't matter. and that it's all about the quality they produce at the end of the day.

It all wysiwyg... If you can code you don't bother with things like Dreamweaver, I have seen the code it produces and it is no better that frontpage...

 

[GordyFaeEdinburgh]

Dreamweaver can certainly churn out excess crapola but it's not as bad as Frontpage. In experienced hands, perhaps the code bloat can be contained but then you've just got a fancy editor.

 

[gaz]

It all wysiwyg... If you can code you don't bother with things like Dreamweaver, I have seen the code it produces and it is no better that frontpage...

And those first 3 words prove you haven't used it properly!

It's not just a WYSIWYG editor, it can do code view, with colored tags and auto completion as well as various other handy things whilst typing by code. It also has a fantastic file manager, and great search panel.
It is a far more powerful that you think, and thats why a fair few companies use it for managment with many designers coding at the same page.

Does your HTML-Kit intigrate with TortoiseSVN? probably not.

 

[GordyFaeEdinburgh]

While I wouldn't dispute that it's a useful IDE, I can still see HJ's point: it does churn out messy code. That said, perhaps the newer versions are better. It used to be terrible.

 

[peanut]

It's not just a WYSIWYG editor, it can do code view, with colored tags and auto completion as well as various other handy things whilst typing by code. It also has a fantastic file manager, and great search panel.
It is a far more powerful that you think,

pity it doesn't do spelling lol B)

http://www.capitalwebdesigns.co.uk - Bespoke CMS Website design specilaizing in accesibilty and usability.

 

[HJ]

And those first 3 words prove you haven't used it properly!

No I don't use it, I know how to code...

 

[gaz]

pity it doesn't do spelling lol

haha, yeah thats a bummer, i'm dyslexic so my spelling is rather poor.
and as my business is built around using a CMS, we use a CMS. i don't use dreamweaver.

No I don't use it, I know how to code...

So anyone that uses only dreamweavers code view doesn't know how to code?