What is the best program to use for building your site?

[Pixel-N-Ink]

I've tried using Sitebuilder but i'm having problems. (its glitching and kinda crappy) Does anyone know of a program i could download to make it easier:D?
Thanks!!
Ashley
pixel-n-ink.com

[sjlplat]

Are you looking to buy software or do you want something for free? Generally the most powerful editors are going to cost some money, but there are a handful of basic editors.

The most powerful editors are Adobe Dreamweaver (http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/) and Microsoft Expression Web (http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Overview.aspx?key=web). Both of them must be purchased.

The two most popular free editors are NVU (http://www.nvu.com/) and Coffeecup (http://www.coffeecup.com/).

[Falcon1986]

At the coding level I like Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/). There are also the similar Notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html), Programmer's Notepad (http://www.pnotepad.org/), PSPad (http://www.pspad.com/) and MetaPad (http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/). Aptana (http://www.aptana.com/) is geared towards more advanced web development situations.

As for free WYSIWYG editors, I definitely agree with NVU, but there are also Kompozer (http://www.kompozer.net/) and openWYSIWYG (http://www.openwebware.com/). The Seamonkey (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/) suite of applications includes Composer for simple HTML editing.

Other notable applications worth mentioning include:

HTML Kit (http://www.htmlkit.com/)

Amaya (http://www.w3.org/Amaya/)

Trellian WebPage (http://www.trellian.com/webpage/)

[sjlplat]

At the coding level I like Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/).

This is what I use for all my web development. I have both Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Expression Web at my disposal, but I can't seem to walk away from Notepad++. It offers a level of control that you simply can't get from a WYSIWYG editor.

[jkinz]

I agree with the above posts. a WYSIWYG editor is limited, and in general writes code with a lot of overhead (aka long load times, un-needed scripts and coding, etc). The best way to really develop a website is to get into the coding. Learn HTML and CSS they are pretty simple but powerful when it comes to designing a really nice looking website.

You may also want to look into using a CMS (Content Management System) as they help you deploy a website pretty fast. Almost all of the CMS out there offer the ability to custom code a template. Of course this requires a little more skill, but if you're willing to put in the time and effort, I think it is totally worth it. Personally I use Joomla because of its many plugins and great support. They also have a dedicated security team to issues emergency patches in the event a major security hole is found. This is a huge thing for me since I run a business off of Joomla.

Just my 2 cents.

[Ealasaid]

I've always worked with Html-kit, it's very easy to use.
Use a CMS it's a very good idea too, but still you should learn some html and css, to customize it and not depending so much of pre-made templates.

[MattWiss]

what about Concrete5? That is under the Simple Scripts area and it is free...

[mdl3r1]

what about Concrete5? That is under the Simple Scripts area and it is free...

Yeah, what about concrete5? anyone? I have been using it for just a few days and luv it and my site is up and running...on their trial server...so I'll be moving it here to HM...