Ever built a web site?

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I built my real estate website using Microsoft Front Page. It's very basic but it's worked for us. We have now updated our "look" with a new logo and photo, so the time has come for me to update the website as well. I am not a programmer. My husband is and he could and would help me, but I would like to try to do as much as possible on my own. I would like to add Flash elements to the site and he will help me with that aspect.

The question is, do I stay with Microsoft Front Page or do I undertake the process of learning Dream Weaver, which may be totally out of my league. From what I understand, I do not have to write code with Dream Weaver if I don't want to. The Flash can be added to either MFP or DW, from what I understand. I have had trouble in the past with the Front Page Extensions, but it seems okay now.

The other alternative is to buy a ready made package from the vendor who services our company, but then my site will look very generic and like every other Realtor in town. Yawn.

If any of you have any experience in this field, I'd really appreciate your feedback.

I hate Front Page





and that's all I have to say about that

I'm a graphic & web designer, & I use Dreamweaver. I've never used Frontpage, but I've never heard anyone say anything good about it!

DW is pretty easy, I took a 2-day class initially to learn it. I like the way it works, & for designers who don't want to be programmers (me!), it's pretty much become the industry standard.

DW does write the code for you, but it is helpful to have some basic knowledge of html (& believe me, my knowledge is very basic!) , because you do sometimes have to go in & tweak things a bit.

Hi RGal...

I'm a self proclaimed TI (Techno Idiot) but Mr. Doggy is the technical guy, and does Web sites (along with a bunch of other technical stuff) for a living. He is familiar with both Front Page and Dream Weaver. I asked him about this for you.

He says that Dream Weaver is the more powerful tool, but Front Page is the easier tool for a beginner. So if you are just getting started, he would recommend using Front Page to start, and then branching out if you are so inclined once you master that.

Best wishes!! I admire you for taking control of your own business web site!!

DG

LOL I do everything in Frontpage. yes.. it's clunky but for the lazy person who doesn't want to learn HTML enough to create an entire site out of it.. yep.. that's me

Realtorgal...I can only second what's been echoed here as far as recommendations. FP = easier to work with because it's made with a MS interface, and therefore more recognizable and user friendly. DW is far more powerful and handles animation and additonal scripts seamlessly without having to learn a whole new language.

www.freewarehome.com offers a variety of free software. Look down the list for "tutorials" and there will be several HTML offerings if you want to know baseline HTML code so that you can tweak code when neccessary.

My main piece of advice is to be creative while not having too many bells and whistles. You can do a "google" on "building effective web pages" and you will get all the info you need on what approach you'd like to take with your type of business. Main rules of thumb are ...plenty of white (or ambientI space)..."chunking" which means grouping things in units of "5 +or- 2 "...i.e the eye focuses in and remembers 5 pieces of information plus or minus 2 pieces. Having a color pallate that communicates what you are attempting to say (articles from google will most likely have something on this), and finally to write in a "copywrite" fashion. Memorable pharsing, clever verbiage, neat and eye appealing font script ( I like Bookman Old Style and Book Antiqua precisely because they are "book printing industry fonts" that are designed to be easily read and retained.

Good luck, if you need to ask any specific questions and you wade into the web, feel free to PM me...your sk8m8...mark