Website Design Software

[jdonhardt]

Question for those in the know:
How does Microsoft Publisher 2007 Website Design rank among other website desinging software?

My plan includes putting up a bunch of info about local business...the who, what, where, etc of these businesses. Using GoogleMaps in conjunction with this info would be pretty sweet. I envision a search funcion, a "submit your business" function, contact me function, some pictures/video perhaps, and something that goes like this:

A B C D E F G .... X Y Z

where if you click on the A you'll get a list of all the A businesses, and the same for all the letters. Possibly another level of this, for example:
clicking A gets you a list of business TYPES starting with the letter A, then clicking on one of the types further narrows the search, and so on...forgive my lack of verbage.

Also, publishing all of this would be necessary at some point, so what kinds of (if any at all) problems are there getting it uploaded and upkept?

Thanks for any help.

[Brutha]

You don't need website design software to design websites.
You need to know html/css/javascript for the client side and some framework like php, RubyOnRails or django to write the server side.

Website design software can help novices with the html/css stuff about it won't bring you far these days. You probably do best with searching a person to do the website for you.

[jdonhardt]

Originally Posted by Brutha

You don't need website design software to design websites.
You need to know html/css/javascript for the client side and some framework like php, RubyOnRails or django to write the server side.

Website design software can help novices with the html/css stuff about it won't bring you far these days. You probably do best with searching a person to do the website for you.

I dont know how to do any of that stuff (BA in Philosophy, not computers). And I will not be paying someone to make the site for me. It just so happens I already have Microsoft Publisher and I was simply wondering if anyone had anything of substance to say about it. I am going to give it a shot regardless of what people say, but I'm still curious.

[JustinPopovic]

I can't really comment about MS Publisher because I have not used it personally.

I have, however, created a similar service for the local businesses in my area. What is your goal and outcome for this website? Is it simply to provide a service to these businesses as a means of helping out? Or is there a business initiative behind it. As someone who invested a lot of time and money into a similar service, I can tell you that you have to have a unique spin and multiple plans for monetization if you want to turn this into a business.

Also, from a technical perspective, if you truly want this to be a long lasting initiative, I would highly recommend building your website with a database integration. I don't believe publisher enables this easily (if at all). So you will probably want to consider using Wordpress as your development platform. It automatically includes a database and allows you to archive the businesses by category, name, title, etc...

If you would like to see an example of my business directory, please PM me.

[uberblue]

Publisher isn't one of the better programs, but it will work for generating a basic web site. The biggest problems with it are that it is definitely consumer level software and that it generates "messy" code. Programs like Dreamweaver (which is more of a professional level program) even have specific features to clean up Publisher code. That being said, it's a starting point that will allow you to get familiar with putting together a web site. HTML is a pretty simple language, so it would probably be worth it for you to put together a page and then play around with the code some to get more familiar with it and learn how to customize things. You will be pretty limited in what you can do with it though. For the type of site you are describing, you would have to do a lot of manual entry. Integrating a database at some point will likely save you a lot of time and frustration and would probably be worth paying someone for.

[craigwanderer]

Have you looked at Joomla?

I am in the process of creating a massive, encyclopedic website using Joomla and with all the free plugins and components available it has done absolutely everything I have asked of it, including embedded video, images, galleries, PDF hosting, etc. Joomla is open source PHP software which doesn't require a knowledge of PHP to use. Like everything, it does have a learning curve, but a check of youtube as well as the joomla forums will sort you out in no time.

I use an old version of MS Frontpage for HTML design and then cut and paste the code directly into Joomla.

Visit Joomla! for more info.

[aussieNickuss]

Steer way clear of Publisher for doing anything web related. Actually, stay clear of anything Microsoft for making webpages as they're notoriously bad for producing code that doesn't play nice with all browsers and computers. Having said that, I believe the latest incarnation of Expression Web (formally known as Frontpage...although much farther advanced) is better now days.

If you're determined to visually lay out your site yourself, go with something like Dreamweaver or NVU. If you want to start with a full-blown site which will be easier to style (with themes), add content and manage all sorts of information, use a Content Management System (CMS) such as Wordpress or Joomla.

Unless you're willing to spend a long time learning the ins and outs of web development, or are willing to pay somebody to build it, then going the CMS route is the only way you be able to include a submission form.

If you already have a hosting company, or are looking around, enquire about a service/feature called Fantastico that many hosts include in their packages. This feature does all the heavy lifting when it comes to installing Wordpress (or other CMS applications). You just select what you want to use, and fantastico does all the installing and configuring. From there you can work on the important things like design (selecting themes and modifying) and playing around with structure and content.

Let me know if you'd like further info. =)

[EasyBlue]

As others have said, messy code is one concern when using software such as Publisher. I'm a web developer by trade, and just started a new website with free lessons on how to create websites by writing your own code. I start at square one so anyone can follow along and learn.

Here's a good place to start:
XHTML Lessons « Learn Web Code

[Strangemagik]

I did play with Frontpage a little bit years and years ago but you just reminded me I have Pulbisher 2007 as well. I'm working a preliminary photography business web site but eventually I think I will end up paying someone/place to make one for me down the road.

AFter my first trials with Frontpage all those years ago I basically got a HTML dictionary, something I found online, and played after that. But never did any "real" work, just playing around with personal web pages.

[CatP]

It's easy to get intimidated when someone says, "You just have to learn html, etc." There are some programs that make web design simple, but you don't need those either. I've used XsitePro (in my opinion, so much better than that product Steve endorses). But now with Wordpress and Joomla, you can just use those if you want.

You can use Wordpress to make "static" pages (as opposed to just blogs).

Good luck! =)