Best software for a newbie

[iFan]

Does anyone know where I can buy some web design software that would suite a beginner? I'm not looking to get too deep in to coding I just want to be able to create my design in Photoshop and put it in to a web designer?

 

[Ashton]

So what stage are you at at the moment?

If you can design well in photoshop then you should learn to code, its pretty easy. Alternatively you could outsource the coding.

GUI Web design programs are terrible. Although they are getting better. You could try grinder:

http://www.medialab.com/sitegrinder3/

Thats the best out there at the moment...

 

[iFan]

If I attempt to build a website I had just designed the whole site in Photoshop and then imported it as an image in to a web desginer then place text in the areas where text should be. I looked at SG, looks pretty good but might look at Namo Web Editor first as it's cheaper than SG.

 

[retired_member32]

probably better going down the CMS route,wordpress and joomla are free to use and it's a case of trial and error with them....saying that they frustrate the pants of me and luckily had someone off these boards that helped me...

 

[seanc]

im no web designer and have never tried to be, but i find wordpress pretty flexible. no editor needed.

 

[iFan]

I actually like the design that Sedo uses on their parking page, not sure how good it would be for Google picking it up. I'm going to experiment with this domain as it only cost me 75p from GoDaddy!

Wordpress looks fantastic but I feel it might be a bit complicated to get what I want, that said for my next domain I will try it out. I popped in to in to work today and brought Xara Web Designer - it's pretty cool in the fact that it creates CSS pages just by moving images about the page and you can wrap images around text just by moving them.

 

[crabfoot]

I wouldn't bother with Namo - I have a copy I got cheap. The editor is nice, but overall the software is "buggy" and the templates are cheesy.

Coffee Cup have a good rep, but I haven't tried anything of theirs.

You should learn some code, so you know how to make minor adjustments, even if you intend to work with a design package.

 

[GreyWing]

Amateur web design is over imo, you either fall into two categories if you aren't a competent designer yourself.

1) Can't afford or the project isn't that big to employ someone top class to design it for you, in which case joomla or wordpress and use a free / buy a template is by far the best option.

or

2) You can afford to employ a designer and get them to do a decent job.

But don't go learning it anymore, it's not cost or time effective imo. Design is so diverse now, by the time you have learnt your little bit, the rest has moved on.

 

[iFan]

So do you guys design your own themes for wordpress or do you buy/get free ones?

 

[Ashton]

As a website designer for my career I design everything myself, however there is nothing wrong with rolling a theme

 

[seanc]

So do you guys design your own themes for wordpress or do you buy/get free ones?

most of them are free.. as is wordpress.

any decent host should install wordpress for you.

 

[iFan]

I've just installed Wordpress, gonna give that a shot now and found a couple of cool designs, I'll post up my site once I've done it.

 

[charlie]

As a website designer for my career I design everything myself, however there is nothing wrong with rolling a theme

food hygiene courses

= havent i seen this layout somewhere else?

 

[jj1]

I started using Microsoft Expression - I experimented with adapting their templates until I could create completely new websites that looked nothing like the original.

I've recently tried Wordpress - changing from one template to another is easy, some allow you to change certain images/colours; if you want to try changing the code, it's best to start out with a really simple template so you can work out how it all hangs together.

 

[Ashton]

= havent i seen this layout somewhere else?

I doubt it, I made it myself and have the psd? :/