Which web design software?

[qandaseeker]

hi, whats the best web design software and the best photo Editing software for beginners?
i prefer Adobe since their products are highly recommeded by all. if you have experience in using any other software(s), please do state.

if you recommend Adobe. please Tell me which software and edition.

Thank you very much

[squarebear]

To be honest I use MS Paint to crop photos and write webpages in Notepad. No need to buy extra software.

Just look at the source of a webpage you like and see how they have done it, or look for tutorials on the web.

[VHG]

Many professonals use Adobe Dreamweaver for web design (used to be Macromedia Dreamweaver).

It is not cheap, and is fairly complex, but does allow you to design a web site in a WYSIWYG manner.

However, as squarebear says, it is important to understand the HTML and CSS languages if you REALLY want to get into web design.

Even the simplest web design does require a person to go in and manually change the HTML or CSS files to get exactly what they want.

[VHG]

For photo editing use Photoshop, or its junior partner Photoshop Elements.

However for a beginner they may be over the top and there are plenty of free basic photo editing packages out there.

For example Serif do a free version of PhotoPlus that may be good enough.

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

As VHG suggests, Photoshop (which,of course, is from Adobe) is king of the photo-editing programs. However I wouldn't recommend using it unless you're prepared to buy at least one really good book to teach you the basics. I've used Photoshop for several years (and I've got several books about it) but I've still got a lot to learn! (I use Photoshop 6. Photoshop CS is probably the nearest current equivalent but it's certainly not cheap. Photoshop Elements is more basic but will fulfil most people's needs).

The nearest free alternative to Photoshop is GIMP. Once again, it takes quite a while to get used to using it (and I'd regard it as essential to download the documentation as well as the program) but it might be worth considering:
http://www.gimp.org/

VHG has already provided a link to Serif's website, where you can download the excellent PhotoPlus SE for free. Alternatively, you can get the full 'bells and whistles' version (PhotoPlus 9 for just �9.99).

It's harder to recommend web design software since there are basically three different approaches. Firstly, you can learn HTML coding and use any text editor (such as Notepad) to produce your pages. 'Purists' often recommend that technique but others prefer to use software that handles all of the HTML coding for you. Such software is divided into programs where you start from a blank page and others where you're provided with templates to adapt to your own purposes. (Obviously some programs will let you do both).

[Buenchico]

Adobe Dreamweaver is the (very expensive) program behind many professional websites but, like Photoshop, you really need to spend quite a bit of time studying how to use it before you can get the best from it. (You really need a good book or, better, a college course to accompany the program).

For a simple website, with no more than 10 pages, based upon templates, Serif's WebPlus SE is a very good program. (Especially as it's free!). Once again, Serif offer their 'bells and whistles' version, WebPlus 10, for �9.99. (Use VHG's link, above).

Regular visitors to these pages will know that I'm not a great fan of Microsoft products but I do quite like FrontPage, which offers a choice between using templates or starting from a completely blank page. (It's the program I've used for most of the websites I've created). It's now been replaced by Web Expressions, which I've not used, but I understand that it's reasonably similar.

Chris

[ChuckFickens]

What nobody has mentioned yet....

Do you have any design talent?

The best web design software in the world would not make me able to make a truely good looking website, in the same way the best piano in the world will never make me a concert pianist.

[VHG]

>Do you have any design talent?

Funnily enough I have just covered that very topic in this persons other question about web design in Technology.

I agree that you can have the best "tools" in the world, but if you dont know how to use them the end result will be very poor.

[beso]

I back everything others have said regarding web page design. It is a good idea to get some exposure to the underlying code to understand the principles of HTML etc.

This gives you a chance to test the water so to speak before paying out a lot of money on Dreamweaver. Also you need to be able to troubleshoot the code when Dreamweaver doesn't quite give the results you expect.

Although you can edit the code in Notepad there are text editors designed specially for this purpose. They colour the code valid statements and help with formatting.

I use a free editor called Araneae.

I use GIMP for image editing. It is reasonably powerful and getting better all the time as developers make contributions to its Open Source code.

It is a good idea to learn GIMP to get a handle on the processes involved. Also even if you have Photoshop at home you may find yourself in a position where you are asked to do some work but the employer can't justify the expense of Photoshop. You can always just download GIMP anywhere you need it.

Same with the HTML editing. A request to make a small alteration on their site can be completed in the text editor. No way they will buy you Dreamweaver.

However you need to realise the initial learning curve in any advanced image editor including Photoshop is quite steep. Once you get the hang of it you should be able to operate most image editors reasonly proficiently without prior experience.

Same with website design. Most inital attempts result in poor design that requires starting again after gaining some experience.

Also be aware that advanced websites such as online shopping and sites like AB use databases. To work with this you need a lot more skills and a much deeper understanding. Beginners should not even contemplate this kind of site. Poor design can result in your site being attacked by hackers,

[qandaseeker]

hi, Ive searched the web and found the site:

www.webstarts.com

do you think its a good company?

cheers

[akilo55]

Dreamweaver is out of date. I agree that PhotoShop is very good (I have used it for years). For really great web designing nothing beats Visual Vision -- 1Site or EasyWeb Editor -- it generates the html for you. You can insert html if you wish (e.g., for paypal buttons) or flash. It takes Java inserts easily. I was lucky to find it. It is produced in Italy. I have only used a very small portion of what they make available with it.

[hannahjay]

If your using joomla then use jce or tinymice hope this helps http://projoomla.info

[Roland]

Dreamweaver is the best but make sure you use the code view from the start!

[robin58]

Several tools available and you can have a simple search and get them. for reference you can visit http://www.serif.com/AllProducts/Software/WebDesign/

Try Webplus X6 and it is much easy to use.

for more information please visit http://www.hireawiz.com/local-services/arizona-web-design