application for website building?

Dear Forum members - I have tried a few easy freebies and of course, one gets what one pays for. My findings so far are that Yahoo have a site builder programme but only allow publication via their hosting setup. Blue Voda are the same. WebDwarf are reasonably flexible and one can publish using ftp but the application is absolute PANTS when it comes to link buttons to other pages on one's website. The reason I have tried these is that I am no programmer and do not write/read HTML or other programming language.

Can anyone recommend a site building software application which is simple to use, will allow me to add links, buttons to other pages, links to other websites and short vids and pictures. It must also be flexible enought to allow uploading via FTP please.

Thanks for your time.

Rraa
bobergsiamese
breeder of pedigree siamese cats in Buckinghamshire, UK.

You can try FirstPage, which is a free web development application by Evrsoft. It supports FTP and a lot of the same functionality as Dreamweaver. Not entirely sure how great the WYSIWYG is on the latest version, but previously it was pretty good.

I initially used Pagebreeze:- http://www.pagebreeze.com/ - when I started my website to build some pages. Then I started learning some HTML and changed things to suit what I wanted.
It has a graphical interface to work with and you can switch to the code page to see the code after you create the page.

Hi Rraa,not long ago I was in your very same predicament. I wanted a website but did not know much about putting one together. I have found that most if not all Automatic website builder apps are complete junk, and don't help you learn the most important thing, HOW TO BUILD A WEBSITE ! I would recommend that you check out wordpress . That is what I use for my site.

Go to the wordpress site and read, read, read! Check over all the different "themes" that are available. It is also possible to find some one to help you with the initial set up of your site, which is what I have done. The advantage in going this route is that you actually begin to learn how easy it really is to set up and modify your site just the way you want it. There are a lot of trustworthy people in the BC chat room and a few that may be willing to help you get off on the right foot.

The important thing to keep in mind is that once you grasp the basics, website design, set-up and management is quite easy. That's the one thing that all of these "website builder" program writers don't want you to know. Best of luck, and you can find me in the BC chat room if you have any questions.

I have also used Wordpress in the past, very nice tool... Little tricky for newbies to set up, but once you know how it's a breeze.

I have recently come across Coffee Cup HTML editor, I am using the free version which doesn't let you design in visual mode, but the paid one will, from what i can see already (only used it for an hour) i am most likely going to buy the full program. Also has nice add-ons such as form builder, live chat etc...

Let me know if you need any help setting either one up. Brad

Thank you guys for all of your suggestions. I shall definitely consider all of these and am going to go and have a little play around/read up etc.

Thanks to Interestingly Ave in US for your suggestion of First Page which you say is similar to Dreamweaver. I do like Dreamweaver because it works in both WYSIWYG and you can see the code if you like.

Thanks to Wildchild2 in Queensland for your suggestion of Pagebreeze - this is a new one for me but then again, most of them will be as I am a complete beginner.

Thanks to justplaindave and KamakaZ for your suggestions of Wordpress and for your kind offer of assistance/advice. I see that KamakaZ, you also suggested Coffee Cup.

I shall come back in a little while to let you know how this is going and let you have a peep at my rudimentary efforts to produce a webbie of my own.

I did go and have a little lookie on your webbie justplaindave and liked what I see - though my work pc didn't allow me to see all the pictures so probably didn't do it justice. I need to have another look when I'm at home.

Just wondering how you went/are going with it all?

Hi KamakaZ - thanks for your kind interest.

I am having a struggle with the hosting now.

For some reason I have NEVER seen my uploaded site in spite of having tried a number of times and havnig waited a couple of days between different attempts.

I have never yet got a satisfactory reply from the hosting company, 123-reg.co.uk, who keep telling me that the first page HAS to be called "index.html" (which it is) and and that it must be the FIRST page in the directory (which it is) rather than 'hidden' inside a folder - and this is where I am puzzled because I don't know the first thing about how to hide anything in a folder at the server end.

Instead of giving me a call back, they email duplicate emails - yes, two emails exactly the same saying exactly the same thiing, referring me to the help page on their website etc etc etc.

I have been around the circle a number of times and am now getting dizzy.

How many times or how long would you say its normal to keep trying to upload your website before you give up and try another web-host?

Can I ask for my money back? I have been registered with them for nearly a month now and of course, they wanted a year's money in advance plus a setup fee - the cheeky so and sos.

Sorry this was such a long one.

Rraa , I don't know if they are the best, but I have been using GoDaddy for my site. So far I am happy with them and have no complaints. They will take care of your Domain name and have some nice hosting options that are very affordable. If any one here has any better ideas for Rraa, please post.

And yes if they have no support for the "new guy" then I would ditch them if I could, or find someone who could set the stuff up for you. GoDaddy is very good for a "web idiot" like me because you can call them and they will help you out. I would try to call your current host and ask for help. If they will not give it then, well this is just my opinion, but I would demand my money back and go some where more user friendly. After all if you cant use their service, and they are unwilling to help, then that means they are taking your money for no services rendered !!!! NOT COOL!!!!!!

Edited by justplaindave, 02 March 2009 - 01:03 PM.

I would look at changing/getting your money back, that they are doing just isn't right, your should provide a good service and support.

For the time being, if you are interested in trying to get your site to work, let me know how you manage your site, via Cpanel or just upload the files? Also are you coding the pages yourself or using something like wordpress?

Maybe post your index.html file here (between [ code] [ /code] tags)

Hope to hear from you soon,

KamakaZ

Thanks for your continuing interest and willingness to help both KamakaZ and justplaindave.

I have been playing with something called WebPage Maker and it does mostly what I need - seeing as I am a beginner and all the cool stuff will have to come once I have climbed a bit of a learning curve. I am not currently writing code but getting used to the sight of it. At the moment my links are not working and here is the index.html pages code.

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled</title>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="generator" content="Web Page Maker">

<style type="text/css">
/*----------Text Styles----------*/
.ws6 {font-size: 8px;}
.ws7 {font-size: 9.3px;}
.ws8 {font-size: 11px;}
.ws9 {font-size: 12px;}
.ws10 {font-size: 13px;}
.ws11 {font-size: 15px;}
.ws12 {font-size: 16px;}
.ws14 {font-size: 19px;}
.ws16 {font-size: 21px;}
.ws18 {font-size: 24px;}
.ws20 {font-size: 27px;}
.ws22 {font-size: 29px;}
.ws24 {font-size: 32px;}
.ws26 {font-size: 35px;}
.ws28 {font-size: 37px;}
.ws36 {font-size: 48px;}
.ws48 {font-size: 64px;}
.ws72 {font-size: 96px;}
.wpmd {font-size: 13px;font-family: 'Arial';font-style: normal;font-weight: normal;}
/*----------Para Styles----------*/
DIV,UL,OL /* Left */
{
 margin-top: 0px;
 margin-bottom: 0px;
}
</style>


<script language="JavaScript1.4" type="text/javascript">
<!--
function jsPlay(soundobj) {
 var thissound= eval("document."+soundobj);
 try {
	 thissound.Play();
 }
 catch (e) {
	 thissound.DoPlay();
 }
}
//-->
</script>

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
function MM_swapImgRestore() {
  var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc;
}

function MM_preloadImages() {
  var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array();
	var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++)
	if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}}
}

function MM_findObj(n, d) {
  var p,i,x;  if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) {
	d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);}
  if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n];
  for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document);
  if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x;
}

function MM_swapImage() {
  var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3)
   if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];}
}

//-->
</script>

</head>

<body>

<div id="nav10d" style="position:absolute; left:41px; top:150px; z-index:0"><a onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('nav10','','images/nav157611400a.gif',1)" href="#"><img name="nav10" onLoad="MM_preloadImages('images/nav157611400a.gif')" alt="" border=0 src="images/nav157611400i.gif"></a></div>
<div id="nav11d" style="position:absolute; left:41px; top:181px; z-index:0"><a onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('nav11','','images/nav157611401a.gif',1)" href="#"><img name="nav11" onLoad="MM_preloadImages('images/nav157611401a.gif')" alt="" border=0 src="images/nav157611401i.gif"></a></div>
<div id="nav12d" style="position:absolute; left:41px; top:212px; z-index:0"><a onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('nav12','','images/nav157611402a.gif',1)" href="#"><img name="nav12" onLoad="MM_preloadImages('images/nav157611402a.gif')" alt="" border=0 src="images/nav157611402i.gif"></a></div>
<div id="nav13d" style="position:absolute; left:41px; top:243px; z-index:0"><a onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('nav13','','images/nav157611403a.gif',1)" href="#"><img name="nav13" onLoad="MM_preloadImages('images/nav157611403a.gif')" alt="" border=0 src="images/nav157611403i.gif"></a></div>
<div id="nav14d" style="position:absolute; left:41px; top:274px; z-index:0"><a onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage('nav14','','images/nav157611404a.gif',1)" href="#"><img name="nav14" onLoad="MM_preloadImages('images/nav157611404a.gif')" alt="" border=0 src="images/nav157611404i.gif"></a></div>

<div id="text1" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:34px; top:28px; width:1170px; height:95px; z-index:1; background-color:#2C584B">
<div class="wpmd">
<div align=center><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Vivaldi" class="ws48"><B> Boberg Siamese</B></font></div>
</div></div>

<div id="text2" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:252px; top:149px; width:385px; height:705px; z-index:2">
<div class="wpmd">
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12">Welcome to Boberg Siamese!&nbsp; We (the cats and I) have been offline for a little while because I wanted to try to build my own site and my queens were having a rest.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12"><BR></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12">Boberg Siamese are in Buckinghamshire.&nbsp; My plan is to allow about a litter each year.&nbsp; They are both registered with both GCCF and TICA.&nbsp;&nbsp; My aim is to try to improve the standard of health of the Siamese breed if possible by allowing my queens to only mate with studs who are&nbsp; whose attributes complements or improves upon my queens' qualities.&nbsp; </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12"><BR></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12">Boberg Siamese kittens will be registered with TICA or if you have a preference for a GCCF registration, please let me know and I shall be happy to do this.&nbsp; All the babies from my queens are pets ie they would be registered on the "Inactive" register if with GCCF or TICA.&nbsp; They are weaned, fully treated against worms, litter trained and of course, vaccinated.&nbsp; The kittens leave my home to join yours in full robust health at the age of at least 13 weeks. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12"><BR></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12">A family who acquires a kitten from Boberg Siamese will also get a full diet sheet, vaccination and registration papers together with the pedigree certificate plus a few extras to help the kitten settle into its new home.&nbsp; </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12"><BR></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12">I shall keep this page for news items - for example, this is the page where you will see if either of my two queens are pregnant or not.&nbsp;&nbsp; My girls are beginning to feel a bit frisky again now that winter is coming to a close, so I think very soon, one or both of them might be taking a honeymoon.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12"><BR></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12">I hope you will like these pages and visit again soon as the images and news will change - especially the Home, Queens, Kittens and Links pages.&nbsp; </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12"><BR></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12"><BR></font></div>
</div></div>

<div id="image1" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:670px; top:146px; width:535px; height:323px; z-index:3"><img src="images/e-Zoe-4-kittens.jpg" alt="" title="" border=0 width=535 height=323></div>

<div id="text3" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:753px; top:482px; width:412px; height:34px; z-index:4">
<div class="wpmd">
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12">My first queen, Zoe with her babies in summer 2001</font></div>
</div></div>

<div id="image2" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:34px; top:325px; width:187px; height:234px; z-index:5"><img src="images/00b.JPG" alt="" title="" border=0 width=187 height=234></div>

<div id="image3" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:33px; top:569px; width:187px; height:196px; z-index:6"><img src="images/00a.JPG" alt="" title="" border=0 width=187 height=196></div>

<div id="image4" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:670px; top:530px; width:537px; height:350px; z-index:7"><img src="images/e-Suk-Kik-Kits.JPG" alt="" title="" border=0 width=537 height=350></div>

<div id="text4" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:747px; top:903px; width:374px; height:33px; z-index:8">
<div class="wpmd">
<div><font face="Arial" class="ws12">Kiki (left) and Suki (right) with their autumn 2007 litters. </font></div>
</div></div>

<div id="image5" style="position:absolute; overflow:hidden; left:31px; top:780px; width:193px; height:149px; z-index:9"><img src="images/P1010768.JPG" alt="" title="" border=0 width=193 height=149></div>

</body>
</html>

No idea what the reference to 'sound obj' is because I had no idea of putting sounds/music etc in there. Perhaps its just an option.

Anyway. Hope you find this mildly entertaining - if not actually boring. Generally, WebPage Maker allows me to simply press buttons/icons, copy and paste then FTP it up to the host server. I got this code by viewing source, copying and pasting it.

From looking at it, there appears to be an option to include music (which I don't really need for this kind of sight). Eventually it would be nice to have drop down menus, mini video clips of kittens running about and playing, thumbnail images which expand when you click on it etc but that is yet to come. For now, I just want some basic pages. Its an interesting and absorbing sideline to my hobby.

Thanks again for your encouragement and moral support. Very much appreciated.

so how are you trying to view the file, do you have a domain name and DNS set up? Also maybe post a link to the website, so we can try to view it.

I think there is a lot of bloat code in there and would, personally, re-write the code.

You said that your links aren't being displayed, i noticed these are pictures that change when hovered over, is this correct? If so, you should have a folder on your server called images, with these files in them.

Hello again KamakaZ - thanks for viewing this code. I suspected a lot of it was unnecessary twaddle. Here is the link to my website. I suspect that some of the links are rather shaky. You are right, I do have a folder with all the pictures inside on the server.

My site: Boberg Siamese

I have a domain name of BobergSiamese.co.uk and another very similar one, BobergSiamese.com. DNS has been set up via the hosting service.

The pictures shouldn't change materially - perhaps, they are thumbnails which expand when you put the curser over them - is that what you mean?

The only reason I got my pages uploaded (sort of) was by viewing various Bleeping Computer answers and your support - for which I am very grateful.

Thanks once again - just wish I could repay you in some way.

PhpDesigner or DreamWeaver