website building software offline.

anyone know any good software for building websites?
im looking for one for my business, and im not very smart with programming,
something that has to do with flash and is easy to do or learn. before i resort to buying something like dreamweaver, which is very expensive, and is my last resort.

 

Well on the opposite side, you have NVU which is similar in its capabilities (granted not nearly as full-featured as the $400 Dreamweaver) but is free and open-source. It's pretty good so it's worth giving it a try.

~ Brett

 

I made my website in Dreamweaver. As evidenced by yours truly, it requires zero previous knowledge.

Also: they give a 30 day trial period. Which is cool.

 

I use Dreamweaver 8 and sometimes GoLive CS2. I would recommend Dreamweaver.

 

Dreamweaver is the way to go. It is easy to use.

 

DreamWeaver is great and I use it religiously but it is not the best for newbies. I would give that honor over to FrontPage which I believe is usually free with MS Office.

 

Yeah, Frontpage is easy to use but I like Dreamweaver more because it has more features.

JC

 

Yes it has in my opinion better advance features and even more important is that does not create needless directories and can work with ASP/ASP.NET. But again, it does have a bit of a learning curve.

 

dreamweaver is good but still does not render some CSS correctly... but if you're into .NET, you can download the VS 2005 Express... i dont recommend frontpage

or you can try microsoft expression (beta) for the meantime

 

Try Antenna Web Design Studio. I used it for years to create simple/novice websites. Doesn't take to long to master. Perfect for neebies

http://www.stormdance.net/

 

website for business and you have no programming skills?

pay someone to do it for you. you don't want your business website looking like some 12 year old made it.

a website for your business is one of the faces of your company and not investing properly in it is a terrible business decision.

hint #1 that you should pay someone to do it for you is that you want to incorporate flash into the design because flash is just, how do i explain it... well, annoying and unprofessional.

 

Amen

~ Brett

 

I agree drumfu some web sites do over use Flash. Last I looked flash was on the top 10 annoyences of web sites list.

 

I've used both NVU and FrontPage and like both of them. You can also create, good basic webpages in Word and PowerPoint. Some web hosting companies also offer software/programs to design and build your site. GoDaddy is one.

In addition to the suggestion to avoid Flash, I'd also recommend:

Fonts that are easy to read and large enough to read.

Stay away from garish contrasting colors (bright red on bright green, for example).

No automatic audio. Opening a webpage and getting the 1812 Overture at full blast is not pleasant.

Keep it simple - don't make the visitor do a lot of clicking around. Or, provide an easy-to-navigate sitemap.

Since this is your business website, you want to attract people and give them a pleasant experience - not one that's annoying or will crash their browser.

Good luck with your business.

 

The best website building software is notepad, notepad2, or notepad++.

 

c'mon, be a real geek and use vi Notepad is for pansies

And to give you a hint about what sanpabloguy is talking about: look at sites on MySpace and GeoCities, and do the exact opposite.

If you aren't a web designer, hire someone that's done it before. Find some sites you like, and get a designer to make one like that. Depending on what your business is and how complex the site is required to be, I can do that for you for a pretty good price. pm me in the forums here and we can discuss it some more if you're interested.