Recommendations for free website development software?

[Sundog]

I will be developing a portal and website for a local nonprofit organization. I find numerous free website development software packages by Googling "free website development software". Do Loungers have experience with any (or recommendations for low-cost ones)?

[agibsonsw]

Hello. Do you mean 'wysiwyg' editing - where you can type and format text, and insert tables, or code-editing (HTML, CSS)?

[Sundog]

Hello. Do you mean 'wysiwyg' editing - where you can type and format text, and insert tables, or code-editing (HTML, CSS)?

Preferably WYSI<close to>WYG.

[agibsonsw]

Preferably WYSI<close to>WYG.

I was going to express a similar thought <close to>

I can't really help then, although someone recommended Kompozer to me recently http://www.kompozer.net/. It has a 'clean' look and includes file management tools to help you maintain a site. Might be worth a look. Andy.

[Sundog]

Might be worth a look.

Thanks for the lead, Andy. I will give KompoZer a try. Note: The big Download for Windows button at http://kompozer.net/ downloads version 0.7.10; the latest download in the list below is 0.8b3. I will work with 0.8b3 and see how it goes.

[ChrisGreaves]

Do Loungers have experience with any (or recommendations for low-cost ones)?

In the past 2 weeks I looked at Google Sites and at WordPress. I chose WordPress because it offers a blog-plus-pages in the one setup.
WordPress takes a little more setup (MySql database) and offers a choce of "your hosting service or ours"; I chose mine, which is silly really because after I am gone, my blogs/site will die, whereas an independent hosyter will, in theory, live forever.
{later} I don't mean to sound morbid, but your web site is not You, it is the non-profit organization. As well I figure that whatever (today or tomorrow) eclipses Word Press will have the ability to port my hosted web site to theirs or someoneelses {/later}
WordPress seems to alllow on-the-fly theme changing whereas Google Sites seems to require a copy, save, and paste of each page.

Trial Google Sites can be seen at https://sites.google.com/site/chrisrewardsdevelopment/, https://sites.google.com/site/chrisrewardssolutions/ and https://sites.google.com/site/chrisrewardstraining/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Web Press sites at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/WP/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/ClearThinking/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[John Gray]

KompoZer is a successor to the moribund Nvu, and both are attempts to replicate Dreamweaver (without its $enormous budget). When I worked with 0.8b1, a couple of years' back, it generated really awful HTML code. But it may do what you want, and it's free.

If 'starting over again', I would probably go for WordPress, like Mr Greaves.

[jscher2000]

WordPress takes a little more setup (MySql database) and offers a choce of "your hosting service or ours"; I chose mine, which is silly really because after I am gone, my blogs/site will die, whereas an independent hosyter will, in theory, live forever.

This is off topic, but consider that: (i) internet companies do not live forever, and (ii) once your credit card stops honoring renewal charges, no host will be inclined to continue hosting your site...unless it makes them a lot of money, of course.

[BobH]

This is probably bad advice, but when I last built a website for my high school class of 50+ years ago (http://www.broughton1960.com), I took the opportunity to learn HTML, CSS and a little php. Because I was learning as I went, I decided that learning the basic tools was better than the generator packages as it would let me learn why some things worked and others didn't. It was a long slow slog and the results weren't very glitzy, but it got the job done. A good editor is essential. I tried several and finally settled on HTMLPad from Blumenthal Software. I cannot overstate how well it works (at least for me) nor how great the support has been. Questions posted are answered quickly by Mr. Blumenthal himself. (HTMLPad)

[Sundog]

I chose WordPress because it offers a blog-plus-pages in the one setup.

Chris, thanks much for sharing your info, and for the website sample URLs you provided. My nonprofit website will have a blog, so it seems that WordPress is what I should investigate.

A while back I reported on Google Sites in this forum (post 29711, Website creation using Google Sites), which I found to be very easy. The one drawback I seem to remember is that a viewer may need to have a Google account?

The very tiny look I've had at WordPress seems to concentrate on its use for blogs, and it's unclear to me how effective it would be for a portal/website project that may end up at around 30 pages. Any advice? I may try Google Sites with a link to a WordPress blog; what do you think of that approach?

[jscher2000]

The very tiny look I've had at WordPress seems to concentrate on its use for blogs, and it's unclear to me how effective it would be for a portal/website project that may end up at around 30 pages.

I am somewhat familiar with Wordpress.

Wordpress has the concepts of "posts" and "pages." Posts are what you normally imagine for a blog: dated atomic units of content that can appear by themselves, or in various categories, in chronological order. Pages are web pages that you can arrange arbitrarily as you wish. Often the "home page" of a Wordpress blog is a list of recent posts, but you easily can switch to having a "page" be your home page.

The main benefit of using Wordpress is having the pages written and edited through a control panel rather than having to use FTP to upload them. You also get a choice of lots of pre-built templates (many free, some paid), and an expert community of customizers.

On the other hand, your pages are generated from database entries, so it's probably a few milliseconds slower for visitors than just getting pre-built pages. There are some plugins for Wordpress that cache pages to address that issue, but it all gets a little complicated the more you dig into it.

[ChrisGreaves]

This is off topic, but consider that: (i) and (ii)

I don't see it as off-topic.
I considered this when I moved from Googles BlogSpot, Blogger, or whatever it is called nowadays.

My blogs (e.g Torontopreneur) on Google's BlogSpot will, I think, spin at 7200 rpm (or more) forever, because Google "owns" the material and, I suspect, my Google Account will not die when I do (I'm still not sure how to resolve this question in a positive manner!).
My WordPress sites will die within 12 months of my expiry, but I think that if I hosted my WordPress on their site then, like Blogspot blogs, it might live forever.

I think that 3rd-party hosting makes sense when one is producing a blog for an organization.
When one is producing a blog for an individual, one might have to make a decision.

[ChrisGreaves]

... for a portal/website project that may end up at around 30 pages.

I face a similar problem in that I want a glossy-looking site that won't offend a CEO/CFO/President of a member of The Deep Pockets club, but also need to weave in some 700+ web pages on technical matters e.g. 2UpPrinting.

I figured that I need a semi-commercial (i.e. professional) engine such as Google Sites, WordPress et al. to give me the professional look and feel.
I plan a CEO newsletter, monthly via MailChimp, with one 300-word article, no fancy-schmancy links or graphics (CEOs, remember) but with links to a couple of interesting Blog items. from the same site.
WordPress (or similar) gives me blog-and-pages sufficient for my presence.
On one page, or maybe in fine print, I'll have a link to a site-map that links to the 700+ pages of technical stuff compiled with my own compiler WbWrd.

In this way I'll have the best of both worlds - a professional store front with its own blog in one format, and the ability to compile new and modified web pages directly from Word documents on-the-fly.

CEOs won't want to read the technical pages, but I will continue to email them as links to people who ask about e.g. 2up-printing.

Hope this makes sense.

Overpoint: I figure that when, not if, I migrate from WordPress, it will be to an engine that is so superior that for it, importing my WordPress site will be a simple matter.

[BobH]

Hello Chris and All!

I downloaded WordPress and extracted the files from the zip, but I can't find any installation or setup tools.

What am I missing this time?

-b

[jscher2000]

I downloaded WordPress and extracted the files from the zip, but I can't find any installation or setup tools.

Honestly, I don't know the steps because I didn't set up WP that way. My host's application panel had a button, I clicked it and filled out a couple of forms. While I think it's a good idea to have a local copy in case you edit a style sheet or template that you need to restore, it doesn't run locally unless you install a web server and MySQL database.

[Sundog]

I plan a CEO newsletter, monthly via MailChimp, with one 300-word article, no fancy-schmancy links or graphics (CEOs, remember)

Chris, in my experience, CEOs NEED graphics or they won't even read the text... When in doubt, do something visual.

[ChrisGreaves]

What am I missing this time?

Ans: My bloglet on what I did. You sound as if you are at Step 5.

Creating a Word Press Blog
Comments welcome via this thread.

(later) I note that my quotes got mangled into weird characters, plus a few typos ...

[ChrisGreaves]

... CEOs NEED graphics or they won't even read the text

There's a graphic - my head shot, to prove I can do graphics.
Maybe Canadian CEO's are more down to earth.
I figure that for most of them their secretary will print off the newsletter and stuff it in the CEO's briefcase.

That said I do feel that Canadian and Aussies adopt technology faster than some of their cousins as a national norm.

Since every recipient will have been met, face-to-face, by me (over lunch) and will have requested the eLetter, I anticipate early acceptance and a certain hunger for the content. That is, I don't have a great need for flashy images to capture attention; they already want the eLetter.

Perhaps i should do a survey after the first 6 months of any subscription.

[Sundog]

My bloglet on what I did. You sound as if you are at Step 5.
Creating a Word Press Blog
Comments welcome via this thread.

Chris, you get my nomination for the North American Indoor Heroic Endeavor Help To Others Award. Thank you a ton, metric or otherwise.

[ChrisGreaves]

Chris, you get my nomination for the North American Indoor Heroic Endeavor Help To Others Award.

Aw shucks, Sundog. 'Tweren't hardly nuttin'
Tell you what, next time you're at YYZ you can buy me lunch at The Montreal Deli

P.S. I act only on a tip I read 5 years ago that suggested that it made no sense to write something up and let it spin on my local hard drive; may as well post it on the web for others to see.

Many a time at a client site I have referred to my own web pages to re-learn how to do something, or to paste a snippet of code.