Templates or web design software?

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1

I am trying to design a site, and am wondering if there is any good software out there.
I have used dreamweaver but not at all impressed.
it has to have good on page optimisation, but must look stylish too.

Are there any good template sites that dont look cheesy?

or can anyone recommend any software other than
Kompozer, dreamweaver, frontpage, or flash?

thanks

2

Templates and tools like Dreamweaver are quite different things. You can use any code editor to design a web page, so it doesn’t really matter which you use. (It’s like worrying about which brand of hammer you use to knock in nails.) There are lots of nice code editors out there, like Coda for Mac.

In terms of templates, there is a wealth of free and purchasable templates online. I prefer not to use them, because they put the cart before the horse in terms of design supporting content rather than the other way around.

3

those software are meant to be used by people with enough knowledge on the field.
you probably better off using the templates, unless you wanna learn the design and development.

4

ralph, can you name a few nice code editors apart from the one for the mac?
also, do you think dream weaver is any good or not for on page seo or not?

5

There are lots, like Komodo IDE, [URL=“http://www.ultraedit.com/”]UltraEdit, [URL=“http://www.sublimetext.com/2”]Sublime Text 2, [URL=“http://www.aptana.org/”]Aptana Studio, [URL=“http://netbeans.org/”]NetBeans, [URL=“http://www.coffeecup.com/free-editor/”]CoffeeCup, [URL=“http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html”]Bluefish, [URL=“http://www.w3.org/Amaya/Amaya.html”]Amaya, [URL=“http://www.ultraedit.com/products/uestudio.html”]UEStudio, [URL=“http://www.e-texteditor.com/”]E Text Editor, [URL=“http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/web_overview.aspx”]ExpressionWeb, [URL=“http://www.blumentals.net/webuilder/”]Webuilder, [URL=“http://www.topstyle4.com/”]TopStyle, [URL=“http://www.irt.org/software/sw012/index.htm”]HomeSite, [URL=“http://www.nusphere.com/”]PhpED, [URL=“http://www.textpad.com”]TextPad, [URL=“http://www.editplus.com/”]EditPlus, [url=“http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html”]NotePad2, [URL=“http://www.gammadyne.com/docpad.htm”]DocPad, [URL=“http://notepad-plus-plus.org/”]Notepad++, [URL=“http://www.crimsoneditor.com/”]Crimson Editor, [URL=“http://www.notetab.com/versions.php”]NoteTab, [URL=“http://kompozer.net/”]KompoZer, [URL=“http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/”]EMacs, [URL=“http://www.vim.org/”]Vim, [URL=“http://intype.info/home/index.php”]Intype, [URL=“http://www.pspad.com/”]PSPad, [URL=“http://www.codelobster.com/”]CodeLobster, [URL=“http://www.contexteditor.org/”]ConTEXT, [URL=“http://macromates.com/”]TextMate, [URL=“http://www.panic.com/coda/”]Coda, [URL=“http://macrabbit.com/espresso/”]Espresso, [URL=“http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/”]Web Storm, [URL=“http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/”]BBEdit, [URL=“http://tacosw.com/”]Taco, [URL=“http://www.tex-edit.com/”]Tex-Edit Plus, [URL=“http://www.optima-system.com/pagespinner/”]PageSpinner, [URL=“http://aquamacs.org/”]Aquamacs, [URL=“http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/”]Text-wrangler, [URL=“http://kompozer.net/”]KompoZer, [URL=“http://creatext.sourceforge.net/download.html”]Crea:text, [URL=“http://code.google.com/p/macvim/”]macVim, [URL=“http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/33751/fraise”]Fraise

I’m afraid that’s all I can think of off the top of my head, though.

[edit]There’s actually a new one on the horizon that looks interesting:

do you think dream weaver is any good or not for on page seo or not?

Dreamweaver is a great code editor, but it also has a WYSIWYG mode which should be avoided. But, being a code editor, it has nothing to do with SEO. SEO is all about the content you put on the page and the code structures you use, which are independent of the code editor you use.

6

Thanks Ralph, thats really helpful. I want to design a site, and i can make a good
looking one using flash but am concerned about the SEO. Its only a simple site and
I will only have links on it and pictures and content, so will the seo freindly code structure
be hard for that?
Can i get tips from anywhere?

Thanks

7

No, that’s very straightforward. But avoiding flash for this si a good move.

In terms of tips, it depends on what you need. I’d say the first thing to do is work out the site layout you need, based on the content. Then if you need tips on how to go about the layout, post pack here with some more questions. :slight_smile:

8

If you design with Photoshop you’ll know you get PSD files. SiteGrinder is a good program that converts the PSD into an HTML or Wordpress format without the coding hassles.