Website Design

[Rich]

Well if you drop the box for dreamweaver from a great height and it hits someone it will do damage

[SystemQ]

Dreamweaver is def. the best. Page mill is quite good for some bits.

Most professioanl designers, (like myself), use Various programmes as many have features that others do not. Except Frontpage, I don't know of any pro. company using it.

You get what you pay for. Thats why Dreamweaver costs

[Rich]

WHAT?

I was just trying to say that dreamweaver in the wrong hands could be messy

Creating a web page is easy with all the programmes and information available, but putting together a webpage because you can doesn't mean that it will be of any use.

I suppose it depends on what you want a website for, for me I want to attract customers with them and to do that I covered the following but only after years of research and playing;

Graphic design: it needs to look reasonably professional.

Usability: it needs to be easy to use and follow.

Accessibility: it needs to be the same in most browsers and quick to load.

Familiarity: there are set rules for web pages that people expect, certain places for the links, certain actions when something is clicked etc.

Search engine friendly: Search engines need to be able to index your site properly to make sure the pages you have created are meaningful.

Search engine ranking: the site should have a good chance of getting on the first page of search engine results for your specified keywords.

So like I say, if you just want a web page that you can refer people to then it doesn't really matter, if you want your website to generate sales leads then its a completely different story.

[Brian c]

Dreamweaver is a tool. Just like a knife, you can make the most exquisite food, or kill someone.

Gotta be quote of the day

[norman]

I use frontpage, but my sites are ****.

[The Trautbec]

I was just trying to say that dreamweaver in the wrong hands could be messy

Exactly right, Keep it simple.

[TSS]

Dreamweaver and a brother who is better at webdesign than me...

[Alpat Systems]

Another vote here for Dreamweaver........

We did some IT work for a design company recently including supplying copies of Adobe Creative Suite 3. Dreamweaver is bundled in with this, but the rest of the software.....InDesign, PhotoShop etc is just fantastic (especially if you know how to use it!)

[nikko]

Just when I think I've got xml & css sorted, I discover visual web developer.

Oh well, back to sleepless nights again!

[tinnitus]

Dreamweaver all the way. i done a HND in multimedia and web design and we used dreamweaver. you have to use a host of other programs and plug-ins if you want to get something professional though. things like colour psychology, graphic design and layout are best not left to guesswork. i got my HND about 5 years ago and cannot remember much about it but dreamweaver do a lot of tutorial books that come with Cd's full of pages ready to tweak.