Whats your web design tool of choice?

buddy

What do you use, do you use a number of tools, do you think some suck ass etc!

Can a MOD efit the poll to allow multiple choice!

Terminator

Dreamweaver - html, asp, php
Notepad - cgi, simple scripts
Photoshop - jpgs, gifs
Image Ready - banners

Worst product I ever used was Frontpage by a mile.

Acidflash

Dreamweaver and Visual Inter Dev

Enygma

I use Allaire Homesite for HTML and JSP editing.
Photoshop for graphics.
Emacs for Java, Perl, PHP etc.
XMLWriter for XML and all that stuff (Xalan for XSL transformation)
Resin as a servlet container.
MySQL as database.

Baz_

I use a program called 1st page 2000, which is a completely free but brilliant tool. Basically you hand code, but it lets you preview the page and also has lots of documentation. Its nice so it is. available at download.com

buddy

Frontpage 2000
HTML when needed.
Flash
PSP.

Lots of votes for Dreamweaver - does anyone find an advantage with Frontpage extensions or is Dreamweaver just as good!

Enygma

does anyone find an advantage with Frontpage extensions or is Dreamweaver just as good!

y'know sometimes I think Dreamweaver is almost if not as good as Frontpage.

but seriously....

you're kidding right

buddy

Originally posted by Enygma


y'know sometimes I think Dreamweaver is almost if not as good as Frontpage.

but seriously....

you're kidding right

Pretends to be stoopid - what?

Bard

Dreamweaver is ahead of the rest of the field by far - the cream of the crop as far as professional web design and development is concerned. It's extensible with free downloadable add-ons for everything from WML to ColdFusion. A good text editor will always be necessary, and DW has a pretty decent one built in. Version 4 is packed with features including an excellent new table layout view and the entire O'Reilly HTML reference manual.

Frontpage, by comparison, is muck.

PiE

Fireworks & Dreamweaver are teh bomb.

mneylon

I'd have to agree with Bard. Though I'd go one step further... keep away from Frontpage unless you absolutely must use it. Like most Microsoft products it uses a lot of proprietary code that won't work properly on other browsers.

Dreamweaver is an excellent all rounder, though EditPlus rocks when it comes to editing anything .... HTML, PHP, XML, Perl etc...

buddy

Does Dreamweaver require server support - a la Frontpage extensions and if so, are they widely supported!

PiE

No it doesnt.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

In no particular order...

**Notepad / Editpad
**Dreamweaver v.4
**Xara X v.2
**Flash v.5
**Paintshop Pro v.7
**Top Style CSS Editor v.2

I agree with Baz re: 1st Page. Its made by www.Evrsoft.com- they have been promising v.3 for about a year now but nothing as of yet-
Its what I started out with and its honestly the best freeware html (quasi wysiwig) editor out there. Go download, just in case its ever withdrawn from the likes of CNET etc.

Frontpage is pants- of the big Y-front variety:D

2040

at the moment i use notepad + psp. Allaire Homesite was excellent but i lost it it when i formatted.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

BTW
Niall is that Wap extension available on the Dreamweaver exhange? If so whats it like?
That would be handy- ATM i use Coffee Cup WML editor

BTW[2]...
I dont like Fireworks- tis a bit messy for me:)
JUst though I'd let you all know

amp

Hmmm good poll. I use Dreamweaver to make my crappy websites cos it's got that layer thing which is cool.

(btw I got this moderator gig here by saying "I like to master on the web hehehehe";) )

azezil

Dreamweaver cause its handy to use, but can be annoying at time so i go back to the html quite often.
Fireworks - cause i got it for nothing
And Flash 5, although i don't know how to use that yet, i'll figure it out eventually

MarkMI6

I usw DW for everything HTML related and Paint Shop Pro for everything image related. You have those two packages and you've got a good looking website, once you know how to use them (: Unless you're making a site that will be updated regulary then you odn't need to mess around with PHP or the like.

Dave

Notepad for html
Photoshop for graphics

Irish_Ranger_IR

I use what ever I get my hands on...

Bard

Originally posted by 80project
BTW
Niall is that Wap extension available on the Dreamweaver exhange? If so whats it like?
That would be handy- ATM i use Coffee Cup WML editor

It's called the "Nokia WML Studio" ... if you go to http://exchange.macromedia.com/ , click "Dreamweaver" and then log in. Enter "Nokia" in the search box you'll find it there. (You must have logged in to download it).

I haven't used it much, but it seemed fairly complete and well put together.

More info on WML Studio is available at http://www.wapsdk.com/wmlstudio/

buddy

Sounds handy - is it worth developing for WAP!

Bard

Whether it's actually worth developing for WAP or not, I couldn't tell you...

When I proposed making the IrelandOFFLine site available on WAP the concensus was pretty much that it would be a waste of time and effort.

The main WAP project I've worked on professionally was for SPAR - a site which allowed you order sandwiches through WAP. They paid for it but never publicised it or used it.

So... eh... I dunno... *shrug*

buddy

Does'nt sound too promissing - I wonder what the world of 3G Mobiles will do for it or other such technology!

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Buddy it has very useful application for local networking- such as warehousing and inventory management among others.

As Niall said the marketing was up its arse and the fact that most of the sites available were quite poor affected its uptake- Also the minimal marketing it did recieve lauded it has "the internet" on your phone which is misleading due to the technology constraints.

Useful to know how to develop wapsites though:)

[BTW....I'll have a look on the DW Exchange Niall:) thx]

buddy

Thx 80project.

From a general population point of view though would anyone expect someone to go to the trouble of typing their url on a WAP phone and if you did what content would you need to bring them there considering the expense.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Your right- Users would not use it for simply browsing
As I said its more functional than entertainment or even dynamic content related- ie news- alerts

Stuff like cinema bookings could be handy but overall I wouldn't spend to much time on developing a site due to the technolgical restraints at the user end. Where its used in industry like warehousing they have specialist handheld applications that allow for easier viewing etc.- AFAIK Toys 'R US utilise it in their mega maga warehouse somewhere in the MidWest, USA

buddy

Thx 80, once again, I wonder if 3G will give us a lot more to play with!

amp

(Btw the only things mods can edit on the poll are the nominees and the votes. So we can't convert it to a muliptle choice.)

PiE

Useless.

buddy

Originally posted by PiE
Useless.

??

davros

Notepad for editing HTML? How about getting yerselves a real text editor?

I thoroughly recommend UltraEdit. It's as good as emacs but you don't need 11 fingers. It has regular expression searching, split views, column editing, spell checking, syntax highlighting and every other feature you ever wished for in an editor.

It is also easy to use and very snappy. I use it for everything.

buddy

Ce mhead? How much? Looks like you have to purchase!

Baz_

I just downloaded trial version there, according to that you get a thirty day trial, but according to the website youre supposed to get a 45 day trial (go figure).

The full pricing is here: http://www.ultraedit.com/registration/index.html it seems a tad expensive considering I already have notepad and most windows machines ship with word which has an in-built spellchecker, again go figure. I reckon the 17.50 price point, thats set for upgrading previous owners would be good enough for them, especially considering that the greatest text editor in the world (VI) comes absolutely free, along with an absolutely free OS (linux). So again go figure.

davros

Originally posted by Baz_
it seems a tad expensive considering I already have notepad and most windows machines ship with word which has an in-built spellchecker, again go figure. I reckon the 17.50 price point, thats set for upgrading previous owners would be good enough for them, especially considering that the greatest text editor in the world (VI) comes absolutely free, along with an absolutely free OS (linux). So again go figure.

OK, if you are running Linux then all bets are off since UltraEdit is only for Windows.

Speaking for myself, I consider $35 money very well spent in this case. It's a quality piece of software and my productivity has doubled since I began using it about four years ago.

I disagree that Notepad and Word can remotely compete in terms of power and functionality but you have 30 days (or 45) free trial so you can decide for yourself. I'll be interested to hear anyone's opinion.

Baz_

ah yes but theres a wealth of other FREE editors out there, most of which will have a specialty, i.e. the 1st page 2000 app I mentioned, absolutely free. This means that the "suite" of tools it gives you are geared towards the web and it has some nice documentation too.

Now if you are a command line programmer (for c or java or whatever) I dont think the addition of a spellchecker over notepad would make much difference, but granted after working with visual c++ for a few years the benefits of colour coded keywords are not lost on me (I am of course assuming UltraEdit has that ability).

All in all there are a number of reasons to pay for a flexible editor, but I think there are more than enough free tools out there to not bother.

Baz_

P.S. Never forget what the wisemen say: "you get what you paid for"

P.P.S. I happen to be a student so thats why I dont pay.

buddy

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