Websites creation preferences?

CraftinFool · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 809 Location: New England

Just curious on what you use to create your websites. I use a combination of Dreamweaver and hand-coding. I seem to see a lot less hard-core handcoders than in the past. Where I work the breakdown seems to be mostly Dreamweaver users, followed by FrontPage users, followed by hand-coders, followed by other html editors.

sewing stars · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 112 Location: Little Rhody

I use Adobe Golive. It was kinda hard to figure out at first, but I have the swing of it now. I am sure there are features I don't use on it, though.
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lagata77 · Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 21 Location: dallas

I learned HTML by hand coding. Only once I had the hang of that and could do it on my own did I start to learn DreamWeaver. Depending primarily on DW's functionality will add tons of unnecessary code to your webpage. If you know how to do those functions before you use DW, you can limit the amount of crud dumped into your site, which equals faster loading times.

What I do LOVE about DW is the site management feature, it's wonderful to see and access all of your site's files and assets all in one handy panel.
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mishapville · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 46 Location: Providence, RI

I do mostly content management stuff at work and we build our own templating systems for HTML - for some projects the designers use Fireworks to generate designs then we hand-code them using Xmetal since our stuff has to be XML standards compliant.

For personal stuff, if I know what I am doing ahead of time I just hand code it or use BBEdit, but if I'm playing around I use Dreamweaver fully intending to go back and clean up after myself. I never do. I stopped doing personal stuff for a few years and now I have to re-learn Dreamweaver because it's completely different!

atomic · Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 74 Location: los angeles

Ditto on the hand-coding, and the fact that Dreamweaver adds so much extra unnecessary crap.

One of my pet peeves is a client I have who builds new pages in Microsoft Word. I'm constantly having to go in & clean up after him, and you wouldn't believe the nonsense and garbage in the code.

I guess the other reason I hand-code is because I find it kind of "zen." It's a really nice switch for me from right-brain creative stuff to straightforward left-brain logic.

lagata77 · Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 21 Location: dallas

trillium · Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 3 Location: Edmonton, Alberta

I use Adobe GoLive which is an amazing program. I also do lots of handcoding though. It would be difficult for me to build a page using only a program. I feel like I have to be able to understand what is going on so that I can customize it. If that makes any sense.

I can't imagine using Microsoft Word. That makes me laugh.

CraftyChicaAZ · Joined: 14 Apr 2004 Posts: 686 Location: phx, az

I wish I could do my site from the ground up with html - but i can't because i don't have the time to learn. so in the meantime, i use an easy drag and drop program at Homestead.com. i'm pretty happy with it!
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lumberjack lolita · Joined: 06 Jul 2004 Posts: 31

i use adobe golive too, with adobe illustrator, on lunarpages. golive is very easy to use though i was intimidated at first and didn't touch it for the first 6 months after i bought it. then my husband bought me "golive for dummies" and it helped me a lot.

i'm using it again right now to give my site a total make-over, hopefully completed by september. i'm changing it from a "fall" to a "winter," color-wise, plus some more dynamic design now that i'm a little more adept at the program.

udandi · Joined: 21 Apr 2004 Posts: 140

I have used dreamweaver and there are plenty of features I haven't used. I know HTML enough to clean up the pages, but I feel like I'm of the knowledge base of HTML circa 2000.

I've implemented cartkeeper (with the help of a very sweet crafty biz gal) and I'm on the verge of gouging my eyes out because you have to use either HTML or iframes for certain custom pages and I'm have loading issues when you click a link in those pages and it's just a matter of taking the time to fix them...sorry to ramble!

BumbleV · Joined: 13 Apr 2004 Posts: 64 Location: Sunny Texas

Wow, Udandi you've really done a complete site overhaul! All the new stuff looks great. The Craft Supply section really got the craft gears in my head working...and that's quite an accomplishment since I haven't had my coffee yet!

And to get back on topic, I use Dreamweaver with some coding to pretty it up. But, yeah, mostly Dreamweaver.

seamripper · Joined: 29 Apr 2004 Posts: 21

i use plain old html!...i tried using Adobe Go Live but i could never get anything to line up correctly. what is dreamweaver??
on a side note, i want to learn Flash but it seems way out of my league, like something i would need to take a class to understand...

atomic · Joined: 19 Jun 2004 Posts: 74 Location: los angeles

anati · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 122 Location: massachusetts

i handcode with html, on notebook. nice and simple:) most of what i know i learned from lissaexplains.com, plus a couple of other websites here and there.
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felt · Joined: 09 Jul 2004 Posts: 236 Location: New York City

I'm an old school BBEdit coder. I was using Dreamweaver a while back, but hated the dirty code it generated. I know Macromedia has gone a long way with it so I should get on it again. Especially with all the CSS, XML and PHP I'm starting to work with, it's just too much to hand-code.