Hi - web design programs

[[KAoS]]

Hi, I'm new here so hello all ;)

I have many interests from programming, 3d art design to creating music. Ive decided to incorporate all these ideas and start designing websites, first for friends and then maybe with a view to doing it proffesionally (eh? spelling).

I have started buying the software I will need, so far I have:

Dreamweaver
photoshop
paintshop
fruityloops (in case I want background music)
Bryce 5

Is there anything I should else I should consider buying?

one of my main rules to site creation is to keep a site content rich and clearly laid out, Is this what people are still after from a website or is everyone turning to flash now?

Also, is this site make in just flash: http://www.3rdillusion.com/fullframe.html

I like the site, but its not exactly the easiest to navigate.

Anyway thx for any help, I hope to be able to help some of you soon.

Edit> Heres a link to my current website, as you can see I have a lot to learn. http://kaos-uk.vze.com

[filburt1]

The two I use most frequently are DW and Photoshop, I think you've got the basics already covered :)

[nsr81]

geee you must be a rich man :ichatwink

As filburt said you have the basic stuff you need. I use DW MX, PS 7.0 and TopStyle.

[energizze]

a HTML book and notepad will do just as good as DW.

[filburt1]

Kiss complex table layouts goodbye then. Clicking around to move cells around is sure easier than scrolling around in Notepad (which doesn't autoindent, BTW).

[[KAoS]]

I started learning HTML but I find DW so much easier to build layouts. I never found time to go back and carry on learning. I always view the source in DW though, just to see how it does things.

Ive just got Bryce and I like its ps7 export feature, I'm thinking I could do some funky 3D art for my pages. I'm gonna go play with it now....

And read the DW manual..... it goes on forever.

Good to know that Ive got what I need, thx guys

[energizze]

DW is easy i'm not saying it's not.


But anything you can do in DW you can do in hand written HTML.


I personal am not that keen on wysiwyg web design programs, but that is only my personal preferance.

[nsr81]

I don't use WYSIWYG capabilities of dreamwear. I mostly do my code by hand but DW is a big help if I need to code stuff like large tables, I use DW to generate the code. it creates exactly the same code I would write by hand. Plus the fact that I do not have enough time to hand code everything.

The only thing I don't understand is most people who claim to "hand code" everything bash DW for having WYSIWYG parts, nobody looks at the source editor and other parts.

[HanZnSolo]

I agree with energizze. I don't use wysiwyg editors either. There's something about digging my hands in the code itself that I really like. I think you'd be wise to learn it for yourself from scratch first, before going with the wizzywig apps like DW and Frontpage.

Again, anything you can do in one of those you can do in regular old notepad...of course, I use something called Firstpage 2000 (http://www.evrsoft.com) instead of notepad cos it's got some cool features like syntax highlighting and all that jazz.

I have to agree with nsr81, though. Although I personally haven't used dreamweaver, I definitely can see how it could save you TONS of time when you're working with big tables! I'm no expert by any means, but I'm learning okay, and I think it's definitely wise to know how to do it all from scratch...