Web software programs

[bsf]

I am a complete and utter novice and am looking for advice. Currently we have a large web site (www.wildmed.com) that is in HTML. This means that when we want to make changes to it, we have to go through our web person. Resultingly, we collect changes and periodically send them to him.

We would like to be able to make immediate changes (usually adding or deleting something, adding a new page, changing prices etc). We are considering purchasing a software program such as Dreamweaver, dumping our web site into that, and then hope we can make changes here in the office through whatever software we select.

I'm looking for advice on software programs such as this. I am looking for something that is user-friendly to those of us who know what we want but don't want to have learn programming to accomplish it, is technically reliable, and can handle the basic items of our site as it is as well as offer us options for more web services.

Do some of you have some suggestions or ideas for me? Thanks very much. BSF :rolleyes:

[tims15]

I am a beginner as well, and found HTML Kit (http://www.chami.com/html-kit/) very good. You do have to have at least a basic knowledge of HTML, but as WYSIWYG editors aren't very good, basic knowledge in HTML is needed in any non-WYSIWYG editor.

[ray326]

What it really sounds like you want is a Content Management System (CMS). Check out the open source systems at the link below and consider having your "web person" install and maintain that for you.

[rdjdnd]

I know Macromedia has a product called Contribute 3 that will allow you to make changes to your website without knowing any code at all. The price isn't horrible either. They have a free 30 day trial as well. I've tried it myself, it's really nice.

[webgovernor]

As far as CMSs go, about a week ago, I went through and tried every single one
of them(on opensourcecms.com), hoping it'd fit my needs, none of them did, but my needs were rather specific and complicated.

If you're adding content , and making changes, however, I found that WEB SITE BAKER,
was really easy to use. I also liked CMS MADE SIMPLE, DRUPAL, and LIMBO just for editing content.


There is a problem with converting your current web pages to a format that the CMS can understand. I found that website baker template were one of the easiest to
make.

If you're looking for live editing of content. then a CMS is for you. have your
web person install it and convert your existing pages into a format that
the CMS can understand.

Oh, and I'm sure Contribute is good too, but there are open source (free) ones
that can do anything Contribute can do. I always found Macromedia's products
extremely over priced. Maybe it's just me.

Well, good luck!

[rdjdnd]

Cool, I was unaware of the open source ones. That's good to know :)