About me:23, ultimate Frisbee Player with Broken Leg, from Brighton via Exeter Uni, now in london. Drive a S...
Member since:16.05.2001
Reviews:17
Members who trust:5
Review rated by 15 Ciao members on average: very helpful
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Want to design a website? There's 2 ways I can think of doing it...
1. Learn HTML. (yawn) 2. Cheat!
Admitedly, coding HTML manually should introduce less bugs, and a lot of people swear it's the only way to do it properly... but it's tortously long winded, -both to learn, and to actually do. So instead you use a bit of software to do all the code for you...
A multitude of things now save files in HTML format. (You can do it in Word (huck, spit) and the results are at best random. Don't do it!!) The industry standard bit of software for HTML authoring is Macromedia Dreamweaver, which is an extremely powerful bit of kit. However having tried both Dreamweaver and it's main rival GoLive, I plumped for GoLive...
Both are available for a free 30day trial -go to their sites and download. Both provide a nice interactive environment, similar to desk-top-publishing where you can cut and paste, drag and drop, and similarly fun past-times, BUT GoLive definitely has the edge on intuative-ity (is that a word?) It is extremely user friendly, easy to install, easy to use; a blonde Essex bit of software!(?) (hate mail coming my way.. -sorry!)
Dreamweaver does have a better help portion, with some superb walk through tutorials, but it needs these because it's got some pretty counter-intuative interfaces.
For anyone thats used Adobe Photoshop (which incidentally is a MUST for anyone playing with graphics, also free 30 day trial), the working environment is very similar. Also, you can go on from GoLive to Adobe Livemotion (their Flash Authoring software) reasonably easily -but thats another op....
Features:
-GoLive interacts with other Adobe products seamlessly (as you'd expect) as well as supporting plugins for almost anything you may want. -You can enter and edit code manually and error check it. -There's a pile of complex functions nust beneath the surface that you can dig out and play with once you get more confident. -Has a project management system that allows you to create a 'family tree' style breakdown of your site. -FTP software (which unfortunately isn't completely bug free) but quite simple to use... -It's cheaper than Dreamweaver! -Link checks -Floating Boxes -DON'T USE THEM!
One of the features in GoLive is Floating Boxes (a bit of DHTML coding). They seem a really good idea as you can place them anywhere on a page, get them to move around, show and hide them etc... Very cool BUT it's a bit pot-luck as to whether your browser will display them properly! Netscape 6 doesn't seem to support the code at all. Very dull...
I picked up GoLive within a few days of playing, and now use it daily. In conclusion: You can try it for free and the sun is shining. I'm off to lunch.
Nice stuff, would like a bit more on how you found it to use and any pitfalls it has. An exmaple of work produced with it would go a long way. However I still liked it. Cheers (_8-(|)
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11.02.2003 15:25
Nice stuff, would like a bit more on how you found it to use and any pitfalls it has. An exmaple of work produced with it would go a long way. However I still liked it. Cheers (_8-(|)
21.06.2001 15:35
The only problem is my 30 day trial is now up and I can't afford the £400 I need to buy Dreamweaver!
21.06.2001 14:26
Informative and useful review, thanks.