Website Design

[arkanoid]

I am currently a website designer, I was just wondering what programs are really good for making the website pages, ive had a look at "InDesigns" is that any good.... ive herd you make the website on the program and then it will export the images ect for you.

I did this on "Fireworks (macromedia)" and the text comes out as an image, but supposdly photoshop CS doesnt do this??? im a bit confused now =S

[texanpenguin]

Firstly, no offence I'd steer clear of calling yourself a "website designer" without a working understanding of how to design a web-site. It is a misrepresentation of your own ability (even if you're a phenomenal conceptual designer), which could land you in some hot water with clients.

Secondly, the tools you choose to make a web-site with are many and varied. You can make a text-based (or strictly layout based) web-site purely in a text-editing tool such as TextEdit or SubEthaEdit. I use a program called "Tag" for this purpose, since it fills in some of the code as you go.
If you need images, you can make them in Photoshop (or any other photo manipulation tool, such as The GIMP).

Photoshop is bundled with a program explicitly designed for producing images for the web, called "ImageReady". Consult the program's manual for instructions on using the software (if you're familiar with Photoshop, it shouldn't be any sweat at all).

Many people who are not comfortable with coding sites by hand use tools such as Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive. Personally, I hate both of these programs since they encourage the designer to develop web-pages to archaic standards (though they can be used effectively if you so desire).


InDesign is a print layout program designed to compete with QuarkXPress. It is not designed to do web layouts (though, I hear, it *can* be used for this purpose. I don't use InDesign personally).

Fireworks is a tool designed to compete (in a round-about way) with Photoshop and Illustrator. It is good for developing web images too.



I would suggest purchasing a web-design book from any good book store and going through the process of designing and producing web-pages. It's rewarding, but not simple (if done properly).

[mdnky]

The first question is, do you know HTML and do you know CSS? If not, then you need to learn both first. A good starting point is Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman (might as well learn the proper way the first time around...makes it easier in the long run). Eric Meyer has some good books on CSS which are worth looking into, as do Dave Shea and Dan Cederholm.

If you're familiar with HTML, then text editor programs like BBedit and SKEdit are your best bets. You can use Dreamweaver in code-view mode, but it's slow and sometimes buggy, not to mention the waste of resources from all the extra "junk" built-into the program that hand-coders don't need. Personally, I feel GoLive is a total waste of time...though I haven't tried the latest (CS2) version of it, I doubt anything has changed much. Best bet is to stay away from it.

Graphics can be handled with Photoshop or Fireworks. Grab yourself a copy of Transmit 3 (or another FTP app) for transfers. A folder full of various browsers is also a good tool to keep handy.

[Robn Kester]

I like Nvu alot for my smaller jobs and cleanups but use Dreamweaver for most my work and BBEdit for coding.

[arkanoid]

lol, firstly I wouldent "steer clear of calling yourself a "website designer" because Ive being doing it for 5 years, Ive just used Macromdedia suite and I was just wondering really what tools of the trade you lot use. I know HTML and ASP so I would hardly call my self a newb, but you can think watever you want. I agree that fireworks isnt as good for exporting html files and slices (well it sucks). But I know not alot of programs work on MACS so I was just wondering what was out there at the momment.

Anyway thanks for your input (if I can get these windows shares sorted out) =)

I no why you probably thought I was a newb my first post makes the impression lol =)

[Robn Kester]

For the most part anything you can get on Windows is probably available for the Mac... like Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Dreamweaver, GoLive, etc. Some of the smaller shareware/free tools aren't cross platform but most likely there is an equiv of that for each platform.

But, like any kind of design, one program just isnt enough to do everything. Like I said above, I use Nvu (free, nice) and Dreamweaver. But I also use BBEdit for text editing, Transmit for uploading files, Photoshop Elements for cleaning up and editing graphics, Fireworks for spot compression, Flash for interactive elements as needed, and more. There are so many little tools that are invaluable as well that one needs to just play around and see what work for you.

I have been doing design for a long time (early 90s? wow im old), and I am always learning new stuff. Like I learned some PHP and MySQL finally in the last year to do a database site. It's one of the things I love about web design over print design, there is always something new to learn, new ways to design, new styles to pick up, tricks and secrets, etc.

And with the internet, you can pick up ideas, and exchange outlooks all with the magic of forums like these and who knows what you might come up with as a result.

Afterall... Everyone has their own methods but we all get to the same place eventually.

[arkanoid]

btw - is a .sit file a MAC file? I know .dmg is but is .sit diffrent or what.

thx

[Robn Kester]

It is a Stuffit archive. Used to be the most common file compression used on Macs, like a zip but for the Mac basically. But can also be decompressed under Windows with the Stuffit Expander (free).