What programs do you use for Web Design?

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Drake2007

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Leostar said:
Target webhost? The service provider? Currently on Heztner. Thanks will post thread with a bit of a story as well. :)
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As in what Server OS they are currently using, Linux or Microsoft based.

FarligOpptreden said:
Seeing as the anti-Microsoft brigade has already swamped this topic, I'll make some alternative suggestions:
- Microsoft Visual Web Developer (Free Download for static or dynamic pages)
- Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition (Free Download for hosting your data)
- The GIMP (Open Source for photo editing and graphic design)
- Blender (Open Source for 3D modeling and rendering)
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Was trying to stick to Linux host-specific tools so as not to confuse the OP seeing as s/he's using WAMP to develop. Good tools anyway.
 
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CrazYmonkeY159

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I am soon to aquire Adobe CS4 mainly for design amongst other things

Is Dreamworks worth learning?
 
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Murdoc

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The way i see it , and i can very well be wrong, is that dreamweaver is a convient way to generate/edit html
So if you want something to create static pages without too much effort use dreamweaver. Also dreamweaver ties in nicely with illustrator/flash/PS

However if you wish to develope ur skills beyond static pages i would start with the building blocks and learn HTML and CSS which is what im focusing on. And it looks like a long road

http://www.jansenint.com/
Another site standard im aiming for...

Its makes me wonder if the rotating things are done with flash/actionscript or Jscript or even any of those..?
 
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CrazYmonkeY159

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Murdoc said:
Whys that?, whats wrong with having a site build entirely with flash?
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I have a sneaky feeling that it may have something to do with SA's relatively low broadband speeds.

maybe its also u need a pre-installed plugin to view the page. and not everyone has it.

dont know maybe theres a more explosive reason
 
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FarligOpptreden

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CrazYmonkeY159 said:
I have a sneaky feeling that it may have something to do with SA's relatively low broadband speeds.

maybe its also u need a pre-installed plugin to view the page. and not everyone has it.

dont know maybe theres a more explosive reason
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Not only that, but S-E-O. ;)
 
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vatso

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The current trend and focus in web design is a move back to content, usability and speed, with a touch of professional looking graphics design. For the moment, Flash does not seem to have a foothold in mainstream web-design anymore. With the demand and aim for cleaner, faster and more effective code in future developments of PHP / HTML / CSS I think we may see some interesting developments in web-design tools in the future--namely web-content management systems.

I used to do Dreamweaver in the early days, but the sloppy code and tables always bugged me. From Notepad++ I switched to WeBuilder 2010 which is not free but the most excellent non-WYSIWYG editor out there IMO.
 
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froot

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Leostar said:
Any one using Adobe dreamweaver?? What do you think of it as I am thinking of using it. I did a training course on it.
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I use it when I code in Windows, but I spend more time in the code-section than the design section. It's only when I want to do a quick design that I actually use it.
What I have against Dreamweaver, as almost mentioned, is the bloated code it generates.... so much nonsense where you can actually do the same thing in 10x less space - huge difference in processing time.
 
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fionab

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I use photoshop then into dreamweaver and also flash all CS4, great for quick work.
 
Pixual

Pixual

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Drake2007 said:
I guess it has its place in so far as getting a static website up quickly but IMO it's bloated software that creates bloated html. Friggin tables all over the place makes it really difficult to add dynamic stuff to it.
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You're using it wrong.

Dreamweaver is an excellent program and can be used by beginners and experts alike. I use CS3 version.

As a learning tool it is invaluable because you get to see exactly what happens when you change a line of code in the preview. It has built in references for PHP, XHTML, CSS and many other languages. Also, once you set it up to use FTP you can set up your computer to send and get files from your server with a single shortcut key. I use F6 to put files and Alt+F6 to get files from the server. Can't be easier.

It also helps you understand objects and how other technologies intertwine with your basic HTML. These days I hardly use the GUI as I am mainly building themes for CMS like WordPress, so what I do is download all the scripts from the installed CMS and then edit them in Dreamweaver using the text editor.

The DW template system also works really well on sites with lots of static HTML pages.
 
Gatecrasher

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My web site is hosted on a Linux platform. The bulk of the programming is in PHP, with Javascript, Ajax, CSS and MySQL.

I use the Xajax library for Ajax calls because it allows you to code your ajax content in PHP and keeps client-side javascript to a minimum.

I use Dev-PHP as my IDE, and HeidiSQL as my database interface.

I use Firefox with Firebug for debugging.

Everything is open source.

I've used all sort of rapid development IDEs, page building stuff, and CMS stuff like Joomla and Drupal, but I always hit a wall as soon as I want to do something more complex and so I always come back to basics. Maybe I'm a control freak, or maybe I prefer to spend more of my time coding rather than googling how to get things done.
 
semiautomatix

semiautomatix

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Gatecrasher said:
My web site is hosted on a Linux platform. The bulk of the programming is in PHP, with Javascript, Ajax, CSS and MySQL.

I use the Xajax library for Ajax calls because it allows you to code your ajax content in PHP and keeps client-side javascript to a minimum.

I use Dev-PHP as my IDE, and HeidiSQL as my database interface.

I use Firefox with Firebug for debugging.

Everything is open source.

I've used all sort of rapid development IDEs, page building stuff, and CMS stuff like Joomla and Drupal, but I always hit a wall as soon as I want to do something more complex and so I always come back to basics. Maybe I'm a control freak, or maybe I prefer to spend more of my time coding rather than googling how to get things done.
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Hope you at least test in IE. Fsck, that browser pisses me off to no end! :mad:
 
czc

czc

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Murdoc said:
Im in the same boat as the OP
Ive been designing for 7 years and want to change over to web development/design
Ive been playing around with Dreamweaver for sometime but eventually got frustrated because of the static table blocks of boring.

I then taught myself flash thinking it would open up the door to interactive design but it too left me knowing how to draw a block and add a fill and move it on a time line....
So im pretty confused as to what i want to learn , simply because everything i learn, i seem to struggle to apply into a really job/professional work.

Here is my 1st site ,i bought the template
www.murdoc.co.za
Its incomplete

Ultimatly i wish to know how to make the previewer pan like that or any thing that isnt so fking static maybe something that revolves pics as you mouse over.

Am i correct in starting with HTML-CSS then javascript sort of path to develope something like this:confused:
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Maybe look into a spellchecker as well. Then it will seem like you pay more attention (not attension) to detail.
 
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