Website builder

HI


we have a website which is dated now & rather crap , so rather than pay for another one i would like to build one using some kind of software package.


Oh should say its for a gite business so photos / images etc more imortant than lots of text so not sure about wordpress.


Have played around with WEEBLY which is ok and easy to use - but it doesnt offer enough customisation etc.


i looked at drupal which seems very techy and joomla and now feel dizzy !


any ideas ?



Steve



Unless you have specifi equirements of are a lrge organisation the wordPress is more than adequate especially with the new themes such as 'X' and Stacks which give multiple designs for each site - trouble is there is too much choice. However, I think it is the graphics, typefaces and photography that make some sites stand out.

Hi Steve

I have just set up a website for my B&B which I will be opening shortly. I looked at Joomla and Druple but decided on WordPress. Free for the basic package which is more than enough for loads of graphics. It took me less than 2 days to have up and running. I did decide to use OVH to host but you can do all this through WordPres I understand. As with any new package there were. Few things to get my head around but I am no expert and I think my site looks good. Best of luck!

The cool thing about Dreamweaver is the massive amount of video tutorials available out there.

Grabbing any number or free website designs/Templates off of the web and playing/fiddling/changing them costs nothing and in most cases, mostly involves altering the artwork which you should be able to figure out because of your Photoshop experience.

Can anybody tell me if Photoshop Elements can produce a website like the full version of Photoshop?
(You can save a layered image as HTML and it'll do all the code for you)

I know that kind of site is not ideal (sites generated by Photoshop that is) but they are easy to do AND they work which can be a fun place to start.

I drew this site many many years ago using Photoshop and then modified it using GoLive although anything would have worked.

Yes I know.... It is pretty horrible by today's standards but hey... It was 2007

andrasparks.com

I had never heard of PERCH, so I had to google it http://grabaperch.com/

I've now done a couple of test sites with Wordpress, and I think I will stick to it.
It's free, and my hosting provider has it with "one click' install. I can, if needed, spend the money on themes and addons.

Hi Karen,

You are right about the lack of coding experience...I did try an online tutorial for this and started the basics....but that was a couple of years ago now, so I'd have to go right back to the beginning.

I will have a look at Adobe Muse (as well as Dreamweaver)....

Have you come across 'PERCH' ?

Thanks,

Hilary

Hi Carl,

No, I haven't ever considered it as I assumed that it would be far too complicated. Any IT that I have learned has been through the odd inset day as a teacher....& or on the job, mostly using word. In a bid to restore & save photos for family history (as well as my own images), I graduated to the inexpensive Photoshop elements....and can use all the really basic stuff to sharpen up images, 'dodge out' imperfections, etc., but I've never got to grips with using layers (haven't really set enough time aside),or got round to anything more complicated....

I will take a look at Dreamweaver...as you think it is possible....perhaps making another site for something else ?

For my artwork site, as I have explained, I want to retain it's 'look' and really don't want to start from scratch.....an unrestored house & garden and daily painting will keep me very busy for the foreseeable future, that why 'PERCH' seems to be a good option ....Have you come across this at all ?

Steve, have a look at Squarespace.com. I have a friend who sells on there using a template with some of her own tweeks and I am currently updating a gallery site for a client using it. Good luck, Karen x

Hilary, you know what you want design-wise but seem to lack the html/coding experience. Have you considered using Adobe Muse as a more design-driven website builder. Its all a bout dragging and dropping the elements you need; menus, galleries, payment options etc, and importing images etc from your existing site. From what I recall, you don't have to buy the whole application just pay for the months on a subscription basis. Hope you have success in your venture! Karen x

Have you ever considered downloading a trial version of Dreamweaver and just 'Having a go'?

You have nothing to loose and everything to gain by trying it and no, you do not need to learn all that HTML stuff. (although you will pick it up as you go along)

Hello,

I am in a similar sitution to Steve & Krister....I do have an existing website which I designed, but didn't build.

I am an Art & Design professional (in the Fine Art sense, Graduate, Post grad teaching and intermittently, producing my own stuff), so with only Photoshop Elements under my belt and working alongside my much more 'techie nephew', I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like, so we worked on the basic design & got it so far.

We then encountered some problems and it was passed onto 'a friend of the family' who was at Uni, studying for a degree in computing. Having no website experience or HTML use, I subsequently paid him from time to time, quite generous (I think), amounts, to upload further images to the site.

However, I can no longer afford this way of doing things and my webhosting manager, has suggested some of the solutions mentioned here, Joomla, I think, ......

The existing design is really just an archive of past work, with a lot more images to load. I want to extend it to enable me to sell current work (& reproductions of work), in conjunction with other sites that I use (such as Ebay & Etsy), so I really have to get this sorted out asap.

The problem for me is that I like my design, don't want to start from scratch, so I am looking for something that has the ability to 'read' and work with what I have so far and then be able to replicate that format.....so that I am then able to continue to use it without having to learn html etc....I have come across something called 'PERCH'....that isn't free but is supposed to be able to do this......I would be very interested to know whether anyone in the forum has had experience of 'PERCH'.........?

Thanking you in anticipation....

Hilary (Dordogne)

Hi, I recently used Squarespace.com to build a website for a client who needed it to be more of a gallery. It was very cost efficient and very easy for me to add conent and make it look good. K

I was forced to start using Dreamweaver about 3 years ago and at the time thought is was the work of Satan.

3 years on I quite like it and it is of course a very powerful bit of software.

The moral of the story here is 'Stick with it'.

The latest Wordpress templates are all you need for an off-the shelf solution and offer business specific themes that include room booking and commerce facilities with page builder facilities. Try www.themeforest.net for ideas. You have to pay but well worth it. I'm redesigning our site at the moment so if you want any help with design, graphics, etc. feel free to contact me.

With regard to Adobe Muse, this is ideal if you have a decent internet connection.

1 Like

What did you end up using?

Dreamweaver I think is very good for those with little experience or webdesign.

Hi Steve

Sorry for the delay in my reply Christmas & New Year got in the way. What is it specifically you want to know. The procedure use is as follows:

  1. Install Joomla (10 mins)
  2. Create Template (2 hours)
  3. Upload Template (5 mins)
  4. Create Categories (1 hour with a little planing)
  5. Assign Categories to Menu Items (1 hour)
  6. Create Article (from 10 mins to 2 hours per article)

I hope that helps, what is it you have problems with

Kind Regards

David

really liked your website David , would you mind sharing a little more about your Joomla knowledge / time involved etc so i can try and understand whether my PC skills and lack of patience with this kind of thing are up to the job or not !

Thanks for the other replies and suggestions guys.

Steve

Where did your photo go David?

I have a website for our farm here in France which I have built using Joomla which can be seen on my page. it has a lot of bells and whistles on it with SEO and Social Media. I am fully conversant with most Open Source Content Management Systems so if you want any help just ask. Personally I would recommend Joomla or Word Press.

I think Wordpress can be adapted to most uses. But you must install it on your own domain name so that you can use all the useful plugins ... like the SEO plugin and the Multi-language plugin, both essential for gite marketing.

If you have your own hosting package with the cpanel facility it is a one-click step to install WP using fantastico. People like website-hosting-france give you a cpanel/fantastico package with all their (very cheap) hosting programmes.

Photographs are very easy to integrate into the Wordpress page: either insert into the text wherever you want or add a slide show at the end of the text by simply putting in the code [gallery]