Request for help in selecting web page authoring software

[HWDude]

All,

I hope this is the right place to ask this question - I had a web page developed for me by a friend and his development was based on Windows Dreamweaver.  Now that I've taken over the development, I was wondering what would be the best fit for continuing development of the web page(s)?  I've tried Komposer with some succcess, but was wondering if there was a better alternative (Komposer doesn't get everything quite right and its trial and error).  Any helpful advise would be greatly appreciated!

To open the question up a little wider, is there a better alternative running under Linux in general?  I'm not afraid of compiling and installing something that isn't in the Repo.

Thanks in advance for your help!

HWDude

[Rudge]

Depends,, do you need wysiwyg? If so, not many good options there. You are probably already using one of the best that I am aware of.

[HWDude]

Depends,, do you need wysiwyg? If so, not many good options there. You are probably already using one of the best that I am aware of.

WYSIWYG would be very helpful as it would speed things up (instead of trial and error).

HWDude

[Drayco84]

I use SeaMonkey's composer. (Brought to you by the same people that made Firefox, too!) It's a LOT less tempermental and needs less trial and error to get it to work. For me, it was worth the switch.

EDIT: However, I still feel that it's lacking in some features and lately, it seems to enjoy putting line splits in my Project Wonderful ad code, throwing off their bot. (I'd still recommend FileZilla for FTP uploading/file deletion.)

EDIT 2: However... If' you're willing to compile and install something not in the repos, Amaya might be worth a look-see... http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/BinDist.html

[HWDude]

I use SeaMonkey's composer. (Brought to you by the same people that made Firefox, too!) It's a LOT less tempermental and needs less trial and error to get it to work. For me, it was worth the switch.

EDIT: However, I still feel that it's lacking in some features and lately, it seems to enjoy putting line splits in my Project Wonderful ad code, throwing off their bot. (I'd still recommend FileZilla for FTP uploading/file deletion.)

EDIT 2: However... If' you're willing to compile and install something not in the repos, Amaya might be worth a look-see... http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/BinDist.html

Drayco84,

I'll definitely give seamonkey composer and Amaya a try.  I appreciate the input!

Thanks!


HWDude

[The Chief]

You might want to look at Quanta Plus, too - it's in the repos.

[gseaman]

I've tried all of the wysiwyg programs and html editors and for me, the most effective way to work is to find a well tested template and learn html and css and a simple text editor. A program to automate things is great until it doesn't work, which will inevitably happen, and then you have to figure out how it works anyway.

What I've seen, is that when someone uses Dreamweaver, they spend just as many hours trying to get it to do what they want as it would take to learn the code. Then, they often give up and just use the defaults, even if it is ugly. Of course there are experts who can do great things with it, but it is not easy.

Galen

[Drayco84]

By any chance, do you happen to know a site that tecahes visitors how to code in HTML, Java, and/or CSS? I'm curious because while WYSIWYG take a LOT of guesswork out of layouts and stuff, the one's I've used can't compare with the functionality or capability of knowing the code. (It takes me HOURS to figure out how to work simple scripts!)

And HWDude, if you've tried out Amaya, I'd like to hear your thoughts on it and what you needed to do to get it working. (I'm down to one partition on one PC out of two. My desktop's mobo is bricked, and my Windows install on this netbook is infected by malware, so I'm more than a little cautious about testing things out right now...)

[ElCuervo]

By any chance, do you happen to know a site that tecahes visitors how to code in HTML, Java, and/or CSS?

You may want to have a look at http://www.w3schools.com/

[gseaman]

After you've learned the basics of html, I learned a lot from studying templates like these:

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/

There are lots more, but I like this one the most.

Galen

[ff103]

I'm with Drayco84, SeaMonkey seems to render a little better than Kompozer, have you considered doing your site with WordPress? you won't even need an editor. but if you are dead set on html, you can build with wordpress and then convert it to html and edit it as you like. just some thoughts and things that I have done in the past. hope this helps.

[Rudge]

I've tried all of the wysiwyg programs and html editors and for me, the most effective way to work is to find a well tested template and learn html and css and a simple text editor. A program to automate things is great until it doesn't work, which will inevitably happen, and then you have to figure out how it works anyway.

What I've seen, is that when someone uses Dreamweaver, they spend just as many hours trying to get it to do what they want as it would take to learn the code. Then, they often give up and just use the defaults, even if it is ugly. Of course there are experts who can do great things with it, but it is not easy.

Galen

+1

If fact, if you use a wisiwyg editor for long enough, you are going to end up learning HTML by default because you have to manually fix so much stuff.

[Drayco84]

I've tried all of the wysiwyg programs and html editors and for me, the most effective way to work is to find a well tested template and learn html and css and a simple text editor. A program to automate things is great until it doesn't work, which will inevitably happen, and then you have to figure out how it works anyway.

What I've seen, is that when someone uses Dreamweaver, they spend just as many hours trying to get it to do what they want as it would take to learn the code. Then, they often give up and just use the defaults, even if it is ugly. Of course there are experts who can do great things with it, but it is not easy.

Galen

If fact, if you use a wisiwyg editor for long enough, you are going to end up learning HTML by default because you have to manually fix so much stuff.

Awwww... But it was working fine until it began insisting on splitting my Project Wonderful code... (I still have no idea why it's doing that, nor do I care at this point.) Still, for basic design work, it does speed up the process. (At least, until you start getting openly mocked for using tables...) And after you've launched a site, you can always rebuild/redesign it. (First designs are always ugly anyway.)

[nerdful1]

i was going to mention 3dschools, but someone beat me to it.

The problem I have wysiwyg or canned apps, or even raw .txt files is that your stuff always gets hijacked somehow.

If i download a html page using filezilla, to folder or my desktop, open it in text file.. when i save it by abiword, thinking i had just edited a .txt file, abiword puts its own 'stuff' in there!.
open office, windoze, even when you want to work with your html file in a text editor, it seems all these apps jump in to 'help' you make a web page.

i end up renaming my name of a html page on the website to a .txt before downloading it then put it back on the webserver as text, and renaming it there.

[gseaman]

Here is another useful site for layouts:

http://www.pmob.co.uk/

Galen