# Website design software?



## yellowtruck75 (Jan 1, 2010)

Today I registered my first domain name (lostcreekwoodworking.com) and now the hard part starts, designing a website. I want to design a site that is user friendly and helps me display my work. What tools have everyone used to help design and publish their websites? I have zero website design experience.

Thanks


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

Only if you have a Mac. Apple's iWeb software is inexpensive, and EXTREMELY easy to use and does most of the things that anyone needs. And of course it integrates with all of your other Mac software like iPhoto and iMovie so it pulls all that stuff in easily. But you you've gotta be using a Mac for it.


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## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

I use Microsoft FrontPage 2003. I know that it is an older program, but for my limited needs, it works well.

http://www.horizontalheavens.com/


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## TMcG (Mar 9, 2010)

I would second the iWeb recommendation though it does have the minor requirement of needing a Mac, but it sure is functional and useful.

If you bought your domain from Go Daddy, they have a website builder

Otherwise there's folk like Intuit or one of the template sites, Template Monster is one

Lots of reading would be my strongest recommendation.


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## remi1023 (Sep 18, 2010)

I used GO DADDY… was able to make a pretty nice site I think and it didnt take a very long time maybe a total of 15 hours… Good luck! www.tmfcustomcarpentry.com


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

I used webzpro.com. It has a site builder and is fairly easy to use. Our web site is www.topqualitycabinets.net.


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## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

Something to consider-If you use Go Daddy's or 1and1, etc. domain's web-building tools, you will lose any website created with "their" tools/software if/when you ever want to change your web hosting service provider. Plus, by owning your "own" web development software, you are not limited by your hosting contract as far as numbers of pages allowed, etc.


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## khays (Aug 16, 2009)

Well you can either have MAC or PC, doesn't matter which you design the site in if you do it yourself. Heck, just fire up notepad and create it from there. I actually used Notepad2 for several years because my former company would not purchase any web building software. You do have more control if you code it instead of wysiwyg.

I enjoy using css a lot when creating websites. Make sure it's user friendly, fast to load, layed out logicaly. Either way you go, if you can create your own then upload it to your domain hosting service it would be better. It would also benefit you if you know how html, css, ajax, flash, javascript so you can go behind the scenes and edit and fine tune. That may be getting into something you're not familiar with, not sure.

Good luck


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## mwaldtha (Feb 28, 2010)

I'm actually going to suggest something a little different. Instead of trying to design and build a website from scratch (unless that is just something you want to try) I recommend looking into using a content management system like Textpattern, WordPress, or any of the many many others. Personally, I use Textpattern. Most content management systems will have templates available so you can just pick one you like, install it, and be on your way. That way you can simply focus on adding content to your site and not worry about coding anything. They also usually have helpful user forums where you can ask questions and get help if you get stuck. Oh, and maybe best of all, most content management systems are free! Of course, if you want to learn about HTML, CSS, JavaScript and all the rest then definitely go for it but that's my 2 cents.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

If you have no experience you're going to be in for a learning curve
anyway - I suggest you go with a Content Management System 
(like Marc says). Wordpress is common and well documented.

I've built a lot of websites and while Wordpress isn't right for
every situation, it is a great place to start learning.

I haven't used TextPattern but I'm sure it's good.


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## Puzzleman (May 4, 2010)

Are you going to be selling on your website or just displaying? If selling, I would recommend setting up with Volusion or 3dCart. Both can set you up with a e-commerce site for a reasonable price.


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## longgone (May 5, 2009)

Iuse Xara web designer and it works great..


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## swirt (Apr 6, 2010)

I'll second or third Marc's recommendation of going with WordPress.org. It is not just for blogs anymore. It will run on most hosts without being a proprietary thing you can't take with you if change hosts as HorizontalMike cautions.


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

If you want to get the website up and running you can look at joomla and wordpress (you can have a blog going in a few minutes); they are both good content management systems. However, if you want to learn more about the nuts and bolts and build your own from scratch then an excellent beginners tutorial about XHTML and CSS is HTMLDOG's Tutorial. You can also use the free turorials on W3schools

If you want to go further and just about as deep as you want, there is no better place to learn about internet technology than Lynda.com. It is a pay site but you can join by the month. You can join for a month quit for two, join back etc. It's around $30/month. The turtorials are first class and are video based. They have literally hundreds and hundreds of tutorials about any sort of internet technology that you might want to learn. They also teach digital photography, many major programs, video editing, and a host of other things. I highly recommend it.

You can download an html editor such as notetab++ or html-kit for free.

An inexpensive one is CoffeeCup Whatever you decide to do I wish you the best of luck with your web site.


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