Maybe stretching the definition of DIY, but I'm maintaining a small club web site where one person (expert) has defined the CSS and someone else is contributing some graphics pages built with Dreamweaver. I do very little web work but am comfortable with markup languages. I believe in editing the code directly but it is handy to have a WISYWIG view. Currently using Frontpage 2000 because I happened to have a copy, but it is a bit clunky. Can't justify anything like Dreamweaver but don't mind paying for a basic editor. Anyone recommend any freeware / shareware / low cost editor suitable for XHTML? No Java, Flash, or any interactive stuff.
NVU is free and cross-platform, but no longer in development:-
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's no support, though, apart from via other users.
Now replaced by Blue Griffon:-
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can use it in WYSIWYG mode or text mode, and it will let you preview the results as they would appear in most of the common browsers from within the program.
I use Namo version 3, now up to version 9, which is $79.99 to download:-
Install and use a Wiki for most of it? It means you can use a simple markup language to write the pages and it's *designed* for maintaining on-line. (I'm using DokuWiki but there are lots of alternatives, for a sample of what a very basic one can do see
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or install WordPress, that's what a huge number of people maintaining their own web sites do nowadays.
The problem with editing web pages that way is WYSWBDTWIS (what you see will be be different to what I see) due to varying browsers, versions of browsers, screen sizes, font settings, addons/plugins, etc.
I use Komodo Edit, it "understands" and syntax highlights html/css plus many other file types, you can have a preview tab open which shows you roughly how it'll look in most mozilla based browsers (saving files automatically refreshes preview), but it can spawn to any other external browser you've got to check for sure, it has a built in FTP client too for uploading to servers.
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it's free, the niggle for me is that it's a bit slow loading.
I used to use the WYSIWYG editor built into Mozilla that produced resonably compatible and compact code. 'Tis a long time ago now though I think it's now SeaMonkey.
Never get involved in web projects (unless it's day job turf and the hourly rate is good).
Never get involved in club web projects.
Don't touch Dreamweaver with a bargepole.
You can't "define CSS". You can't do this before the structure of the site is defined, and you can't do it with CSS alone. It can be done, it's a good way to work, but it needs a wireframe of the rough site first (maybe even crude HTML), then CSS and also copious notes about how the selector structure is going to work. Then it needs two developers to whom "wireframe" and "selector structure" are just second nature. This is rare.
Your editing tool is a very minor choice. You just need a good coder's text editor. You DO NOT WANT an editor that tries to take over the role of understanding HTML & CSS for you. Dreamweaver is neither an aid to the beginner, nor a means of developing a commercial site. This is because of the nature of such tools in general, not Dreamweaver particularly. I use Eclipse or jEdit, but Namo or NVU would no doubt work too.
IMHO, go back to the CSS expert and have them also develop the site wireframe and some example HTML pages. Then (i.e. afterwards, and not before) other developers can work on adding the additional pages, based on this example. This also proves out the CSS in combination with the HTML, because you can never do all of it successfully and completely pro forma.
As to wikis, then they're a great way for an editor community to develop content-focussed sites collaboratively. However it's also hard to turn a wiki into a usable site for average walk-up readers, who aren't familiar with wikis. Much as I love wikis, this is a tricky problem to solve.
I know, but not an option. You should have seen it *before* I got involved
Agree totally (but it is nice to have something which marks tags, shows comments, is friendly for formatting and printing). I think I have a copy of NVU somewhere, but it's a *long* time since I was writing code, so I am out of touch with what's available. I started on teletypes.
Not an option. This is a reasonably competent designer with no interest in the organisation, just doing it as a favour for a friend.
It's not really a wiki sort of problem, it's a bit of a showcase, a bit of a knowledge base, and a bit of social networking.
I don't see how this expert *could* meaningfully develop CSS files in isolation from HTML files, how is the person creating the HTML files supposed to know how and where to use various id and class names?
Sorry, I didn't explain it very well. One of the club members came up with a basic page layout, colour schemes, graphics for the banner, etc. The "web designer" tweaked a template from something they found on the web and produced some CSS and "unpopulated" HTML. I simplified the CSS a bit and put in the framework text, designed and built the menus, sorted out a directory structure and linked it all together. Now I'm trying to keep it up to date. The originator wants to generate pages with a lot more pictures so we are re-vamping the structure. It's not going to be a very big or complicated site, it's a volunteer organisation which runs on a shoestring. I'm trying to make it 1) slick and 2) maintainable: not easy when some of the input that I have to work with comes from WYSIWIG editors which throw formatting tags around like confetti, and no-one apart from me thinks about file naming conventions and appropriate character sets.
It doesn't have to be. I use Dreamweaver for its template and library features, which work well enough. Also it does a good job of adjusting links if I move or rename anything. The source looks hand-written (because it is hand-written, apart from the template and library references).
On the other hand some of the content was edited by someone else using Macromedia Contribute, which seems to be incapable of writing sensible code.
My solution was to write some PHP that draws the framework, and a web based editor that takes simple textn a few commands and inserts a picture or two.
Adding an 'article' which is automatically indexed consist in filling in a form and attaching images.
Looks interesting, but I had pretty much stopped coding before VB came out. There are just too many programming languages out there to start learning another one. Mind you I did start with Elliot Autocode.
Maybe I am out of RAM. A mate of mine has just gone bionic with a Parkinson's disruptor. I'm just waiting for when I can get an SDHC card slot fitted.
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