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General discussion

Software to design website

Mar 14, 2007 8:27PM PDT

Hello, I?d like to design a website that looks somewhat similar (or at least as professional) to www.bulknutrition.com. I was hoping you guys could give me some advice on what software I would need to do this. I have no experience with web site design. I?m looking for software that would make it as easy as possible for someone like me that has no clue what they?re doing when it comes to web design, to create a website. In fact, if there is software out their that could give me a ready made template of a web site with just some basic things that I could customize, that would be great. Then I figure all I would have to do is upload pictures and product information to the site. I?m willing to pay some decent money for software if it can make the process of creating a professional looking site easy.

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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OK
Mar 15, 2007 4:41AM PDT

I took a look at the website you posted, and it seems like it's a website using a content management system (CMS). What that means is that the website wasn't necessarily designed from scratch, but the person simply installed a CMS and designed their own template. Those type of websites come with pre-installed templates that you can modify, which is what you're looking for.

Here is a link to a website I use to determine which CMS is right for me when designing a new website.

* http://www.opensourcecms.com/

The good thing about this site is that it will allow you to demo the CMS on their server, so you don't have to install it, but may test it prior before you choosing with which one you want to go.

Hope this helps.

~Sovereign

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Thanks very much
Mar 15, 2007 11:20PM PDT

Thanks very much, that's very helpful.I'm a bit computer illiterate lol, so let me make sure i understand this correctly.Is a CMS a program that gives you a ready made template (in other words a website with no products or pruduct info or anything) and then you simply customize some of the graphics and upload pictures of your products and product info to the site? Would Shopsite be an example of a CMS?

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Is a CMS
Mar 15, 2007 11:58PM PDT

Is a CMS the same as electronic storefront software?

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No. And a suggestion.
Mar 16, 2007 12:02AM PDT

Find one of your friends that does web sites and start talking with them about these issues. Use google.com and type in "How to create websites?" or other such things.

Bob

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CMS
Mar 16, 2007 9:53AM PDT

Well, a regular website designed from scratch, can look any way you like. A CMS website is based on rules that are already written. You can only change the things they allow you to change. Some CMS are more flexible than others. For example, often you will see in PHP Nuke for example the left navigation bar, the middle content, and a right news bar or something like that. You could move the news to the middle, the menu to the right... but you can't really "integrate" it to make it look smooth... unless you get a very advanced template or something.

When you design a website from scratch, you usually work with the source code, but with a CMS it will say something like "Click here to add a new menu item" and then you type in a box what you want to call it. So it's basically a template like you said, with limitations.

Storefront is a more specific CMS in a way. It's usually more sales oriented, but you can get a CMS and include a storefront. Your options are endless.

~Sovereign

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A free webdesign app.
Mar 15, 2007 1:39PM PDT

HTML-KIT.com is cool and easy to use but you'll need to know HTML.

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actually...
Mar 19, 2007 6:46AM PDT

i havent use them, cause i actually know how to create websites, but i think a good idea would be to use something like microsoft frontpage, which basically has a bunch of templates and you can just fill them out, and each template has different options for layouts, so there's good flexibility with out the need of knowing a lot about it. I'm not sure if front page is going to be part of microsoft office 07 though.

Maybe if you are intrested in learning a little bit, you could try using dreamweaver.

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Website design
Mar 22, 2007 2:50AM PDT

I am a novice and would like your advice on the perfect software and hardware setup for a beginner. (Very limited html) I want to design using flash.

I want to stay in the moderate price range. MAC- $1700 - ((need software suggestions))

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that's easy
Mar 22, 2007 5:37AM PDT

all you need then is flash 8, and an ftp program to upload your site.
(I'm not sure if flash has "built in" ftp software but I dont think so)
Beware though, macromedia flash player is adobe's now, and CS3 suite should be coming out March 27 I know dreamweaver will be in it i have no idea about flash. Flash Professional 8 is about 700 bucks but if you are a student somewhere you could get an academic prize which is the same product just cheaper, in Santa Rosa Junior Colleca, CA where I study you can get the CS2 Suite for 180 bucks including dreamweaver, pretty sweet...or suit...ha...anyway...and an ftp program should be pretty cheap maybe $30.

I stongly recommend you to learn at least some basic html if you are planning on building a site.

Hope it helps, Marcelo.