Web Page Software ??
 

Anyone know of some easy to use software for building webpages on a Windows platform.
Some freeware would be great.

Thanks

I use Via Page from a company called Via Grafix(about $50) But as a forewarning, it is billed on a credit card as VIAGRAFIX. I took alot of ribbing about ordering viagra on the company credit card.

As a related question. Does anybody have any positive advice on how to get listed with search engines once you have got a website. Every body shys away from me like I have a disease. Any advice in thright direction would be appreciated. My site is www.profitprinter.com.

Microsoft WORD is really easy to use for web page building!

Regarding getting listed - you can submit your site for indexing to all of the major engines for free, and they also have 'priority' listing services for varying amounts of cash. I've never paid to be listed. It's well known that for commerical entities, how high you appear in the searches is usually related to how much you pay. Getting ranked in the search engines is a corrupt, ugly business, further complicated keyword spamming and by the fact that many of the hits you do get are geographically irrelevant, ie if I search for "chroming services" I might get one in Bullfart, Idaho.

Word sucks for creating web pages. It's OK if you want a 'hello world' web page, but if you try to create your own HTML in word, it munges it, ie < becomes &lt; etc.

I prefer Macromedia Dreamweaver 4. You can download a 30 day free copy from http://www.macromedia.com Might as well try out Fireworks too... The only problem is that once you figure out how to really use the software, the 30 days are up.SmileWavy

For a simple web page, no frames or anything, just text and images with a few links, It is hard to beat Mozilla . Mozilla is essentially the open source version of Netscape 6, and comes with a HTML writing tool. The latest version for various operating systems can be found here.

The best part is, it ain't from Redmond.

Tom

There are so many packages available, ranging from pure html editors to visual page editors, to site-building sw.

I use whatever highly-rated freeware html code editor is around when I need to edit elemntary code, like for eBay pages. For sites, I use FrontPage because it comes with Office Pro, and it is brain-dead easy to use. That being said, I'd like to switch to Dreamweaver when I get some time to learn something new.

I recommend you go to either http://www.tucows.com or http://www.zdnet.com and search/try/experiment with the many free to low-cost packages available to find out what floats your boat.

Don

Here's a comparison of some of my favorites;

<a href="http://www.cnet.com/software/1,10708,0-3227860-1223-0,00.html?id=3851104&id=5600609&id=8263920&id=1606 441&">Web Authoring</a>

Currently I am using Frontpage 2002(Both of my current home sites were done with Frontpage 2002) for the same reason as Don P. is(it was free with the software package I use). It is very easy to use but tends to be a bit too tied to MS for my taste, and many features only work with MS feature enabled web hosts(most aren't so enabled). If I were going to buy one it would be Namo(from JASC software(I really like how JASC PS Pro works!!). I have used both Mozilla and Word in the past and feel that they are very poor choices except for the simplest sites.

I would avoid FrontPage like the plague. Not only is it MS-centric, it can also corrupt your site in a heartbeat, causing hours of agony rebuilding by hand. Word is pretty heinous when it comes to web pages. The garbage code generated is amazing. If you have *real simple* needs and don't have anything else, I guess it's OK, but would you use a set of vise grips to adjust your valves? Right tool for the right job.

I live in the Mac world, but I know a few windoze-versions. Can't comment on cheap ones, but I can on good ones. If you are more focused on page layout, Dreamweaver is a great choice. If you have serious site management concerns, GoLive is better imho.

But remember real developers use a text editor http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/yltype.gif . Luckily I'm not much of a real developer anymore, so I move between GoLive and BBEdit when I need to muck around...

I use coffee cup editor available at coffeecup.com Like it a lot, and they have a free trial version. Nothing fancy but a good clean interface.

It doesn't generate pages but makes editing of them much easier.

I use adobe page mill 3.0

Its non current , but VERY easy to use ( i figured it out ) and basically is WYSIWYG, drag and drop. Simpler than Frontpage in my books!

Look for a copy on ebay...here is one:

click for ebay link

...and you get photodelux too. It was originally bundled with a digital camera I think.

Netscape Composer -- Free and easy WYSIWYG.

I'm no expert but I find MS Publisher real quick and easy (basic).

My school kids (10-12 years) use this, Word and Frontpage.

Cheers

Mark

Looks like you have some good responses here and plenty of choices. This question is like asking what is better, a MAC or a PC? The responses will often be knee jerk answers based on what one knows or uses.

As in the PC vs. MAC question, there is more to it than just which is better. What sort of site are you going to put together? If you were to go with a product like FrontPage 2002, does your ISP have the FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions loaded? If not, you can still use FrontPage, but some of the features won't work. If you are setting up some pages for family and friends to view, many of the freebies will work just fine. Or, are you trying to set up an e-commerce site?

Just my $.02

JrDavid68

I came across a really neat program called FirstPage. I use Visual Interdev, which is expensive! if i didnt have all the freebies from MSDN i would use FirstPage, its free and will do what ever you need. www.evrsoft.com is the link.

This is good ------ more replies than I expected.
Found this other website thought I would share.

www.download.com

Lots of software lots of Free stuff.....
Thanks for all the input:)

Just found this thread. Can you upload web pages created in Word, using Word, or do you need another program to upload? I can't see if you can or can't.

Thanks. BTW, this is just fun stuff, nothing business related or security sensitive. I just own my domain name and wanted to play.

dreamweaver rocks, but is not a true WYSIWYG. Most hosting companies, like Yahoo, or GoDaddy now have their own software to make pages with, very easy to do, but cant do as much as a pro software like DW.

I highly recommend Adobe Contribute. It is a stripped down version of DreamWeaver. It's lacks the steep price and learning curve of DreamWeaver but is short on advanced features. I think it is $149. Like anything else you get what you pay for in $ and effort!

Vi or Emacs... :)

Seriously, it is really hard to beat Dreamweaver for pro-grade work, but NVu (AKA Netscape Composer or Mozilla Composer) does a great job too.

Hey
download 'NVU' its a freeware sorta dreamweaver clone that works quite decently.

As far as 'getting listed with the search engines go'...feel free to PM me. I have 5 yrs experience with search engine marketing, and am the marketing director for a catalog/e-tail biz. I know my $hit and keep up to date...it's going to overwhelm you at first...

Thanks guys, I'll check godaddy since that's who I'm registered with. I'll also check out some of the free ones.