Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Judy Vorfeld on October 11, 2008 at 11:53pm

Hi, Becky. Try http://www.w3schools.com/css/

Permalink Reply by Becky on October 12, 2008 at 12:31am

Thanks Judy! Cool! Great find!

Permalink Reply by Jennifer Smith on October 12, 2008 at 12:21am

I used Dreamweaver at my last real-world job, but recently I re-created mu site on WordPress and I am really happy with it. think I have found my new medium.

Permalink Reply by Becky on October 12, 2008 at 12:32am

Jennifer - did you use CSS on your wordpress site or just the templates? I love the website! Impressive! Who hosts it? Not wordpress? They don't allow ads...or has that changed?

Permalink Reply by Sheree White on October 16, 2008 at 10:14am

I love your website. Are you saying that you can use WordPress to build a website? How did you do that? I couldn't find where on the site you would go to do that. I am not yet registered with the site, maybe that is the problem. I am using the tools provided by GoDaddy to build my site and I am not very happy with the options. I don't know how to program in HTML and don't have money to spend on software since I am just starting out.

Permalink Reply by Rita Cartwright on October 17, 2008 at 4:45pm

Sheree,

WordPress software is free, and it allows you to set up different pages. These pages can resemble and serve as web pages. I hope this helps.

Permalink Reply by Sheree White on October 20, 2008 at 12:41pm

I took a lot at WebPress and saw what you are talking about. Now that's on my list to try out. I'm really trying to get my business off the ground but I keep loosing my direction and focus. There are just so many distractions.

Permalink Reply by Jason Murphy on October 12, 2008 at 8:32pm

I use dreamweaver. But I usually just use a CMS like Joomla! or WordPress and then customize templates etc...for each site.

Permalink Reply by Rita Cartwright on October 17, 2008 at 4:43pm

I use Microsoft Expression Web 2. The software stresses compliance with W3C rules. Whenever you type a code that is not in compliance, it tells you. Although that can be aggravating, it's helpful.

Permalink Reply by Crystal Curran | Executive Real Estate Virtual Assistant/Mentor on October 17, 2008 at 7:24pm

I also use MS Expression Web 2.0 and Wordpress. Love the fact Expression does CSS "on the fly" and helps with the ability to change an already existing CSS (such as in wordpress) by showing the programming in a nice left hand toolbar (as well as right hand side if you implement it) so you can keep track of what items are named or change them easily. Beats having to go back and forth between the page you are working on and your CSS ;-)

Permalink Reply by Judy Vorfeld on October 20, 2008 at 10:51pm

Hi, Gang. For years I used HomeSite, but I came across Coffee Cup software, and in time bought the entire package. Their Web editor is so similar to HomeSite (which stopped upgrades a long time ago). Here are some of the things I like about it:

1. While I prefer to design using HTML, Coffee Cup offers the option of using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) format for people who don't know HTML.

2. Coffee Cup offers regular upgrades at no additional cost, and they are great about letting customers know when there's an upgrade.

3. Their support area is superb. You can ask dumb questions and get answers.

4. It has a feature that lets you upload directly to your website, if you are knowledgeable about doing that.

5. They offer a number of free, customizable templates that are quite good. All of them have Cascading Style Sheets.

I could go on about their other fine products and their cheerful support, but this will give you an idea of why I use it.

When I create a website from scratch, I usually partner with a designer who is also a programmer. I have the designer create the site in HTML with CSS. She takes care of setting up all the links as well.

Once we have the basic layout agreed upon, then the designer turns the site template over to me, and stands by to help with any forms I may need. As I work through the site, I use her as a consultant when I need to brainstorm.

I copy all that she's done from the domain to my hard drive, then begin building the site using Coffe e Cup HTML editor.

Then it's working on the title tag, meta description and keyword tags, and content.

I encourage people offering products and services to put their contact information at the bottom of every page on the website. So much of building an effective website has to do with good communication and an understanding of where the visitor is coming from. It's all about the visitor, and connecting with that person is vital.

So, software is important, but the most important thing is to design everything in a way that makes it easy for the visitor to know that you care about his problems and you have solutions.

Permalink Reply by Darlene Victoria Gonzalez on October 21, 2008 at 9:52am

Hello fellow web designers! I use Dreamweaver and Editplus (Editplus for hardcoding HTML). I use Photoshop and Illustrator for images and designing. CuteFTP is my FTP program of choice.