Software for web design

[Rydra]

I'll start off by saying, I'm not a web designer.... I have fiddled and diddled with them before, and I have enough knowledge of computers to work out how most sites work eventually.

 

But I do not know any proper coding language, or web design language.

 

I have been tasked with revamping/designing my school's website, and they want some dynamic banners that cycle images, video/photo galleries, and a generally clean and tidy look.... All of which are, frankly, beyond the abilities of Frontpage 2003, which I currently have.

 

Since anything I do will take some minor re-education, anyone recommend a web design software package that doesn't require me to spend the next 2 years learning a new coding language to do what I want, some decent template options, and not requiring a doctorate in astrophysics to operate it?

 

I have worked with frontpage mostly for simple HTML based editing, have played with Dreamweaver 4-6 years ago, but nothing more than playing, and when I did they were still Macromedia!

Otherwise, I'm a blank slate on this!

[rush_tech]

Have you had a look at Joomla?

[Hightower]

Konquerer is some free stuff similar to Dreamweaver, but not sure if it does what you want. Why not just google for some scripts that do what you want (i.e. image header/banner rotator) - most scripts will give you good indication on how to implement it into your site.

[Sirbendy]

this:

 

Madeley Academy > Home

 

Is ours, based on DotNetNuke...and I'd suggest not going to DNN as a platform. I find it very buggy. Just my opinion though, I tend to do all content for it in Dreamweaver and port it in.

 

Myself and the missus (webdev) use Wordpress, which is simple to set up and very customisable and extensible indeed. Joomla/Mambo I have used before in small amounts..but didn't have the time to play with it.

[mtdmitchell]

Joomla a must for schools !

 

see

 

http://www.stedcamp.bham.sch.uk/

[Rydra]

Have you had a look at Joomla?

 

I haven't looked at Joomla before, though i've heard of it. I thought it was Moodle-ish, focusing more on forums, quizzes and 'interaction'. We already have a VLE/MLE thingy.

 

I'll download Joomla and have a play with it, some of the example sites look pretty good, and some are close to what I'm after as well.

[TechMonkey]

Notepad Or if you really want to splash out, TextPad.

 

But for a school site go for a CMS, and Joomla is a good start. Work out what functions you want and then look around. Another one that is meant to be very good is Concrete5.

[Sirbendy]

Notepad Or if you really want to splash out, TextPad.

 

But for a school site go for a CMS, and Joomla is a good start. Work out what functions you want and then look around. Another one that is meant to be very good is Concrete5.

 

NOOOO! Notepad++ with extensions! Be fair..

[3s-gtech]

Joomla is not akin to Moodle - it's a CMS rather than a VLE. It's also very easy to setup, and you get good results with a bit of effort. Plus, there's a huge number of plugins available, for things like Flash video display, banners, images etc etc.

[Rydra]

NOOOO! Notepad++ with extensions! Be fair..

 

Been there, done that

 

That was my first introduction to PHP using that.... I know just enough to know I have no idea what to do with it

[Sirbendy]

Heh.

 

I merely tinker..the missus is a self-taught (now pro) webdev,and I pick up bits here and there (she's a PHP soul)..but I find PHP/Javascript/HTML/Cscript etc etc etc all quite..familiar.

 

I blame learning Turbo Pascal and Borland C++ - everything else seems to be along those lines.

[SneakyBeaky]

I use Dreamweaver for my sites. But if you want others to be able to post to the site easily then you really need a CMS.

Depends how big the site is going to be. I have experimented with Xara Webdesigner. Good templates for small sites.

Web Design Software by Xara: Xara Web Designer

[Cools]

i had Joomla as the school site.. and it was hacked 5 times.. So i built my own..

Edward Peake C of E (vc) Middle School

 

using Dreamweaver CS5

[gibbo_ap]

I'll start off by saying, I'm not a web designer.... I have fiddled and diddled with them before,

 

oh have you now.

 

lol but joomla has my vote and notepad++

[Rydra]

So my main aim here was to get away from frontpage where I have to code practically everything, as any feature built in is generally bloated, doesn't do what you want and 10 years out of date.

 

Having played with Joomla all day, I have to say I'm just as frustrated at the complete lack of template customisation you can get.

 

If i want to go and download someone else's completed skin it seems fine. But what I want, is a simple way of editing the top banner to what I want, the background colours, the menu styles.... As it stands, I'm farting about with 8 .css files with absolutely no labels on what stupid code language sections do what.

 

tbh, I'd rather go back to frontpage at this time, as this is proving to be a waste of time and effort. Once this sort of thing is done, i daresay that adding new documents, news, updates is easy enough with the article systems, and i can teach the secretaries to use it.

 

But if it's going to take me a month just to input a banner and a menu style and system that doesn't look like a 4 year old drooled on the keyboard while a monkey pressed keys with it's nose, then I'll be going back to frontpage!

 

Anyone found a better way of messing with style sheets than working through dozens of .css files and trying to interpret lines of code?

[Pete10141748]

The IT co-ordinator runs the school website here (one less job for me to do, huzzah! lol) and uses Wordpress

St. Matthew's Primary School

 

Doesn't seem to difficult at all to set up.

[3s-gtech]

As for changing banners etc - I tend to just try a template I like the look of, right-click on any images I want to change for banners etc, alter them in Fireworks, then save them back using FTP. I can then edit the css around the images if needed - but rarely need to do that.

[rush_tech]

FireBug

is a good tool for editing pictures and css of websites