Working on a Forum/Site...

[Radenight]

Hey all,

I managed to snag a BRAND NEW FULL RETAIL copy of Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 for $175 CAD. So, now I have to watch some of the tutorial videos that are on the included Tutorial DVD as I've not used Dreamweaver before.. Should be interesting..

The point of this thread is I would like to hear any suggestions/tips/input from anyone who has used Dreamweaver before.. Or anyone else that may have some advice when it comes to site building.. As a general outline, my plan is to make a site with a forum that will be a place for people in my hometown and the 3 surrounding cities to come together and discuss gaming (both console and PC), PC's in general, events (LAN parties, Tournaments, etc), etc.. I value any and all input that you can provide..

I am quite familiar/comfortable with the whole site building process in general but like I said, I haven't used Dreamweaver before..

I thank you all in advance for any advice you can give me..

*I guess I should note that it's just Dreamweaver.. It's not one of the Suite packs that has Dreamweaver in it.. *

 

[RAK]

"I am quite familiar/comfortable with the whole site building process in general "

Then maybe you will find Dreamweaver's huge list of options to your liking. I operate three very modest sites. Only for interest, I have tried various site builder programs. Dreamweaver, for my requirements, was totally over the top. Every experiment has left me returning to Microsoft's Share Point designer (The successor to the old Frontpage). It has everything I need and feels, to me, more intutitive

 

[Mike]

Hello Radenight,

Have you looked into content management systems (CMS), like Joomla? You could then base your site around a pre-existing (usually free and XHTML validated) theme and theme graphics around your town. By using a third-party open source CMS, you put the risk of having to develop massive amount of PHP out of the picture. I would recommend this, especially if you anticipate it to be a highly used site where people may want to create accounts. The only problem would be integrating the CMS into the forum software, and actually making the branding of the site look good, as well as of course, creating content for the non-forum area. I have used Dreamweaver before, but creating a very Web 2.0 site is difficult these days. You will need to do a lot of scripting to get functionality that is already out there. Just my two cents. It will be good to have for customizations if you go the open source CMS/commercial forum route.

 

[cybercore]

Link Removed

 

[stueycaster]

Every experiment has left me returning to Microsoft's Share Point designer (The successor to the old Frontpage). It has everything I need and feels, to me, more intutitive

Can this be used for general web page design or is it only for share point. Could I use it for a website on my ISP's website server?

 

[Radenight]

Thank you all very much for the input.. It has been very informative and helpful... Now to begin brainstorming..

 

[Radenight]

Hello Radenight,

Have you looked into content management systems (CMS), like Joomla? You could then base your site around a pre-existing (usually free and XHTML validated) theme and theme graphics around your town. By using a third-party open source CMS, you put the risk of having to develop massive amount of PHP out of the picture. I would recommend this, especially if you anticipate it to be a highly used site where people may want to create accounts. The only problem would be integrating the CMS into the forum software, and actually making the branding of the site look good, as well as of course, creating content for the non-forum area. I have used Dreamweaver before, but creating a very Web 2.0 site is difficult these days. You will need to do a lot of scripting to get functionality that is already out there. Just my two cents. It will be good to have for customizations if you go the open source CMS/commercial forum route.

I actually haven't looked into Joomla yet Mike, but I definitely will now.. Thanks for the info buddy! Very informative and helpful..

 

[ickymay]

I am loving joomla so far , I was dragged kicking and screaming into updating a site which was being neglected running joomla 1.0 and I am now getting praise from the gymnastics club owner for getting it current and useable again

As a consequence I am now working with more than one website development using joomla 1.5 and experimenting with superfish for a drop down menu, I also use artisteer2 for creating the templates

I have dreamweaver and have used it for a few years but I can't help feeling it's clumsy and static, whereas using something like joomla makes the website "dynamic"

I can't recommend it highly enough

 

[RAK]

Can this be used for general web page design or is it only for share point. Could I use it for a website on my ISP's website server?

The program has exactly the same characteristics as Frontpage. It is freestanding and can be used as you standard web designer. <there is very little observed difference from frontpage except for a small number of updates in the menus. But, of course, it is updated with its coding and has been debugged from the much earlier Frontpage. Of course, don,t forget Expression. But Expression, for simple me, was, as with Dreamweaver, far to much for my requirements.
Give it a try:
Link Removed

It is also available on Technet with SP1.

 

[stueycaster]

I got the Sharepoint Designer and it works great.