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What software do you design your website's in?


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Just curious what you all use to design and organize your site's. I use Frontpage 2003, but I feel that I am kind of growing out of it. What do most people use?

Tell me what you use and if you have one, show me your best site, thanks!

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I use Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 for my designing needs and i use ms frontpage 2003 for my coding.. sometimes notepad :blush:

i'm learning tho :D

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Coding: DWMX (but you can't rely on the WYSIWYG when doing CSS menus etc.), VS.NET 2003

Graphics: CS2

Database: SQL Server, Access

Proofing: W3C, Cynthia, Watchfire

Testing: NN4, IE (all above v4, Win and Mac), FF, Safari, Opera >= 7.5

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Code: Dreamweaver MX 2004, Visual Studio 2003, WebMatrix

Graphics: Photoshop CS2, 3D Studio Max 7.5

Database: MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server

Standard test: W3C

Browsers: Netscape 4 and above, Lynx, Konqeror, IE 5.5 and above, Firefox, Opera 7 and above

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Seems like most of the people use DreamWeaver. 

y that? whats so great about it?

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absolutly nothing, its a wysiwydg editor (no the d isnt a typo it stands for dont) the design view produces invalid code and will only show what youll get in ie... a heavily broken redering engine, so its 99% pointless.

a graphics package such as photoshop or illustrator, and a text editor with syntax highlighting, and unlimited undos like ultra edit or textpad should be the only tools needed.

the web dev toolbar for firefox also comes in very handy.

personally i use ultraedit and photoshop/illustrator depending on the requirement

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I use Micrografx Picture Publisher 8 for the design.. mostly because it does what I need at pixel level and is far less bloated than Photoshop.

I then put the peices together using Dreamweaver.. I mostly work in design view to create a static test design page with no server-side code. Just fill it full of random jibberish text to get the font detail and layout right etc.

Then I start inserting my Coldfusion code/replacing the filler text with data driven stuff.

I think it requires skill to use DWMX in design view.. and I have never had a problem after understanding the package when it comes to making the site look the same as in the browser. You just have to know how to setup DWMX.

My latest WIP is here.. www.virtuallyevolved.com

envision

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and i stand by what i say, invalid non semantic html using tables for layout. that only reders correctly in internet explorer.

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Is that directed at me?

I don't disagree with you at all.. but I am in a situation in my job where I only design for IE ... due to market share I imagine.

But whats with the 'invalid non semantic hmtl' statement? Enlighten me maybe?

The code is valid HTML as far as I'm aware.. again its down to how you use and configure DWMX. It can be configured to use CSS instead of font tags.. and <strong> instead of bold etc.

I am looking into using <div> cells more efficiently though.

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GFX: Photoshop / MSPaint

Code: Nvu / Notepad / Wordpad / PHPEdit

I used to use Frontpage but that got annoying, i tried to use dreamweaver, but thats far too complicated for me yet...

Zend Studios sounds good, might look into it a bit more :p

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Dreamweaver MX 2004, Fireworks 2004, and when I need it Photoshop CS2.

some times illl revert to Notepad when i'm at a PC w/o DW and there is a small error on a site that REALLY bugs me

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w3c set standards, the page is invalid according to the doctype that your specifing (currently it would make more sense not to specify a doctype) however the standards should be followed, they are set for a reason. (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&ur...llyevolved.com/)

html should be semantic, meaning tags describe the content within, so a paragraph tag contains a paragraph of text, list tags contain lists, tables contain tabular data (not layout). all the styling and layout of these tags should be handled in an external css file.

http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/everything.html this site provides reasons.

there is no way that any wysiwydg editor could produce good clean code.

designing for ie only is a bad idea (and illegal in the uk for discrimination reasons if you provide any kind of service), other browsers such as firefox, safari, and opera are becoming a lot more popular, so are small screen devices such as pda's and screen readers for the partially/completly blind.

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I use Eclipse with the PHPEclipse plugin. I'm suprised there aren't more people using it... the competition is tough in this area though, I suppose.

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Its the best mix that I've ever used. I started using it for Java, it was only through an accident that I found the PHP plugin for it. I tried using the Zend Studio evaluation and PHPEdit and I'm comfortable sticking with Eclipse.

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Notepad++ and Paint Shop Pro/Photoshop

I don't like design programs, I just like pure coding, it works a lot better for me.

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Have you tried a basic text editor with syntax highlighting? It makes things much nice to look at. :)

Most of them have tabs too and if your not an IE user you'll know the advantages of that too :D

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w3c set standards, the page is invalid according to the doctype that your specifing (currently it would make more sense not to specify a doctype) however the standards should be followed, they are set for a reason. (http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&ur...llyevolved.com/)

html should be semantic, meaning tags describe the content within, so a paragraph tag contains a paragraph of text, list tags contain lists, tables contain tabular data (not layout). all the styling and layout of these tags should be handled in an external css file.

http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/everything.html this site provides reasons.

there is no way that any wysiwydg editor could produce good clean code.

designing for ie only is a bad idea (and illegal in the uk for discrimination reasons if you provide any kind of service), other browsers such as firefox, safari, and opera are becoming a lot more popular, so are small screen devices such as pda's and screen readers for the partially/completly blind.

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Thats all well and good, but like most things in life.. I disagree with the rules! Being a naturally rebellious person anyway.. I choose NOT to live by the rules others give me as I am not truly free if I do so (with exception of the law).

Reading through the majority of reasons why my code is 'not valid' as stated by the w3c code checker ... well, some of them seem absurd and unreasonable. Granted if I am stating a doctype I should really adhere to it.. so, I will just remove any doctype declerations and be free to express my own document format.

I am unaware of any such law.. as are the majority of businesses as I am sure you will find. Where is this stated?

Seems like too many things are becoming 'rules' these days, when they should merely be 'recommendations' or even 'opinions' .... why should I conform to other peoples ideals? Unless I agree 100% with them I am being hypocritical anyway.

I do not understand the need for rules in anything where creativity plays a major factor.

envision

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Thats all well and good, but like most things in life.. I disagree with the rules!  Being a naturally rebellious person anyway.. I choose NOT to live by the rules others give me as I am not truly free if I do so (with exception of the law).

Well, that's your choice. They aren't rules, they're standards (and you've never been free no matter what you think, but that's beside the point) so if you decide not to follow them, that's up to you.

Reading through the majority of reasons why my code is 'not valid' as stated by the w3c code checker ... well, some of them seem absurd and unreasonable.  Granted if I am stating a doctype I should really adhere to it.. so, I will just remove any doctype declerations and be free to express my own document format.

The point of the doctype is exactly that; a particular format. If you don't have one, you can't rely on ANY browser displaying a page consistently (not that you can when there IS a doctype), but at least you can point the finger at the browser rather than being unable to discover where the error has occurred.

As to expressing your own document format, that could be argued as being XML (if you're even remotely adhering to SGML) which you can have however you want. You can have a XSL to tie into it, IE and FF will render it on the client saving you all that hassle of different types of HTML. Go for it, and good luck. The reason it isn't as popular as it should be is the legacy browsers, hence things like XHTML to ease us gently in that direction while they are still used.

I am unaware of any such law.. as are the majority of businesses as I am sure you will find.  Where is this stated?

It's the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (2002) and businesses that provide a service who don't do something about it will be censured, fined etc. until they do or remove their presence from the web. The problem being you have to check each business' site (who pays for that checking?) and issue requirements if necessary (and who pays for that as well?) which is a slow expensive process, and therefore hasn't been done. Doesn't make it any less illegal though. US has Section 508 BTW.

Seems like too many things are becoming 'rules' these days, when they should merely be 'recommendations' or even 'opinions' .... why should I conform to other peoples ideals?  Unless I agree 100% with them I am being hypocritical anyway.

I do not understand the need for rules in anything where creativity plays a major factor.

Even God (if you're a Creationist) abided by rules (that, admittedly, He made up Himself) when He created the universe (laws of physics, matter<->energy relationships etc.). Creativity couldn't be a bigger factor if you start "without form and void" :)

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