Opinions of Web Authoring Tools

[Homesurfer]

My assumption with this thread is that BeachGal is a real estate agent who does not want to hire a web site developer, butwants a tool to create and manager her own web site -- and (most important) still have time to sell real estate.

[beachgal]

Hi Terry,

Yes, I am a Realtor. I created both of my sites and in between selling real estate, I try to manage them. I use a WYSIWYG called Namo WebEditor and have been using it for a few years now. I created my very first site years ago on Frontpage, which was just a site for my family. When I moved from the UK to the US I brought an older version of Namo and played with that, then at the beginning of this year I brought the most recent version of Namo.

I was interested to see what other people use to create their sites because when I brought Frontpage all those years ago, it was one of the few WYSIWYG's about. Since then there have been numerous programs come on the market. I use Namo because it's so easy to use but there are things about it that I dont like as well. I'm always going to use a WYSIWIG because I dont have the time or the patience to sit and learn HTML, although I did buy a book over the weekend about CSS. I'm just trying to weigh up if all the WYSIWYG's are much the same, and if so I'll stick with what I know. Or if there is something new out there thats worth taking a look at.

I would love to be able to produce sites using just notepad and a few other toys, but I'm realistic enough to know that aint gonna happen. So input on other WYSIWYG's would be great.

[rick_dallas]

Hey Beachgal,

Let me offer up a suggestion. Learn HTML and don't use a WYSIWYG editor.

Let me explain. Two months ago, I was sitting where you're sitting. Wanted to manage my website but didn't want to learn HTML. I too started with Frontpage. Then went with a company that used templates. Expensive mistake but I learned. The only way to get what you want is to build it yourself.

Now, I couldn't spell HTML at the time. But I bought a book and figured I'd dig in and see if I could figure any of it out. Bottom line. It took me a week to create my first web page using native HTML. But then, it only took me an hour to create the next page. The next page, 15 minutes. Now I can add a page in literally no time at all. Am I an expert? No. Far from it. But I have learned to create a functional website in much less time than I ever thought possible. And I've learned the value of creating and saving sections of code that I use over and over so that I can copy and paste them to get a page created quickly.

Now I'm struggling with PHP and forms. Trying to learn yet another language but I'm going to try and "cheat" a little if I can. I'm trying to find a form and PHP files that I can modify to work for me. I'm getting close.

So as a friendly suggestion, use notepad for your editor. Turn on wordwrap so you can see all the code in your window. Use your browser to open the file after you create it so you can see how it looks. I have found this process to work pretty good and I've learned a ton in a very short time.

I am a full time realtor and loan officer so most of this was done late at night.

Give it a whirl. You might be pleasantly surprised. And it's very satisfying to have something you've created yourself.

If you're interested, the book I bought was HTML by Paul Whitehead and James Russell. It also includes CSS and XHTML. It's a read this, do that type book. The only complaint I have is that they need to use larger print in some areas! Obviously there are tons of websites out there too but I found this book to be very beneificial.

Best of luck to you.

[REW Tristan]

Let me offer up a suggestion. Learn HTML and don't use a WYSIWYG editor.

Having said that... I use Dreamweaver in full script mode (I dont use any sort of wysiwigger options) just so I can see the syntax highlighting and of course because it allows me to edit files directly on my ftp server somewhere. None of this saving to my computer, uploading to my server only to see that our version of php differ..grr.

When I'm in linux I use Konqueror, which is a webrowser supporting the fish:// protocal.. I may be going above some peoples heads here but its really cool. Basically allows me to view the files of the webserver just like I would if it were on my computer. Yes much like ftp except its secure (FISH = FIles over sSH) and also because it allows me to edit them with ANY program I want, so I use Kate which is an open source text editor that comes with KDE (which is a window manager)

Hope that provides some more tips on top of what already seems like a good list.