BEST Website Builder FOR MAC???

Adobe Dreamweaver is the best & most powerful IMO... other than that, Notepad.

- Jared

Obviously Adobe Dreamweaver is the way to go. But other than Adobe DW, the best out of the box website builder is Rapidweaver. It has countless themes, like Wordpress and a vibrant community of third party developers that produce countless usefull plugins, scripts and snippets.

It does one click form pages, image galleries, video galleries, flash galleries and has lightbox built in. It does the lot...even one click uploads after configuration with your hosting details. If you know your way around some simple code then its pretty easy to customise too as you can work directly with html in the program and PHP in the templates...if you need to. But few people find the need.

It also has a pretty cool built in non database dependent blog. It's just a great program all round really if you don't want to get into the technicalities of DW.

They also have a free trial period so you can test it out.

Thomas

You really don't need Dreamweaver. Yea... it's got some nice bells and whistles but you could just as easily use NVU (a free WYSIWYG editor)... or code it by hand in TextEdit.

If you want to learn a little bit about coding and website design... just PM me and I can teach you some stuff.

I know what it's like to pound your forehead with a ball pin hammer with some of this stuff, so that is why I am offering to help.

A lot of people love Rapidweaver for mac:

RapidWeaver 4 - Powerful Web Design Software for Mac OS X

Just to throw my 2 cents into the ring, I just switched to the mac recently and have been an ardent advocate of Dreamweaver. I have used many HTML editors over the years and Dreamweaver was by far the best. However, I have to change that after using RapidWeaver, it does a fantastic job and it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

For the Mac users it is a far cheaper option and has everything that a high-end commercial package like Dreamweaver provides and is far more user friendly, even for a geek like me.

I have used NVU and its subsequent replacement Kompozer, and while it does do the job it is acutally generates very sloppy code and has some serious bugs (I got tired of having to fix simple code by hand).

Often times it is a matter of personal preference and your level of web design experience. However, for new designers and old hands alike I really do think RapidWeaver is an ideal solution.

Regards,

Sean Donahoe
The Manic Marketer

I use Dreamweaver - but then I've been using it since it first came out so know it well.

But if I were new to this, i wouldn't be looking beyond Wordpress.

Pearson

PS I've never used the built-in Iweb. Nobody else here mentions it. Is it awful?

I would use an online builder that is web software loaded on your domain and there aren't too many good online site builders. But this is EXACTLY why I say you go to WordPress as a content management system which doesn't require any site builder to take with you on vacation and you wanna write a page or a post. I explain the whole benefits with my WordPress expert on the line....

NicheBOT Live Coaching Show 37 January 28 at 5 PM Pacific

BBEdit all the way for me. Takes longer to learn but if you understand the code you're writing, you can do it all.

Can't believe all of you recommending Dreamweaver. This isn't 2002. Hello.

If you know what you're doing then it's CODA all the way.

If you don't know what you're doing then get RAPIDWEAVER, but be warned anything that writes code for you will make a messy code.

Dreamweaver, sucks. You that are using need to move on.

Having been a mac user since they had 6 inch monitors (and I used to design a print RE mag on the darned thing.......) I have every web design program known to man...womankind.

I still prefer Adobe's old CS2 over Dreamweaver, but now of course - Adobe bought them and you can't buy CS2. DW is great but there is a longer learning curve and if you are just starting out - you will have some long hours ahead of you before you really start cranking out sites.

RapidWeaver is great - but not quite a flexible as DW. But you do have an easy drag and drop interface, some good templates, and the last time I checked, a pretty active developer forum that seems to be cranking out new additions and templates pretty regularly.

All that being said - I am a confirmed Wordpress person. You can do so much with it, and you can add just about any functionality you want. You can easily make it look like a static website by removing comments, dates of posts etc.

It's great that it is browser based and you can make changes from anywhere on your sites. It's just a fun script to work with.

And if your host has CPanel - 5 minute install.

Melody

Not strictly a website builder...

BUT, if you want "light" on HTML tags, and "heavy" on CSS flexibility, check out CSSEdit by MacRabbit.

Awesome. And only about 30 bucks (I seem to remember).

Steve

Awesome! Thanks Guys so much for all your help! I will try rapidweaver probably , and word press too I tried dreamweaver, soooo much to learn, and I want it to be a little quicker. thanks
sheila

Wordpress.

If you want to customize it to your hearts content, hire a designer and get a great design made. Than, get a programmer to code the layout for you.

After those two upfront costs, you'll never have to worry again. Need something patched? Wordpress will take care of it in the next update. Need something added, 9 times out of 10, you'll find a plugin to get the job done.

if i start building a website with rapidweaver, can i also use dreamweaver for other or extra options,
does it make that big of a difference between the 2 leading webpage programs(dream and rapid)

i am going to build my own and my first website for my business and i am very creative, and i know i want my website to look as pro as possible, so at the same time i would like a program very user friendly of course to help me get started but at the same time no matter the program i will eventually learn the ropes and i would like to have unlimited capabilities expecially if i plan on keeping my website up to date...and doing it myself.

i used adobe illustrator to make my logo and i rather do everything myself instead of dealing with a middleman...

thanks for any advise

for the websites also, i heard flash takes longer for websites to load especially if the internet connection or computer isn't the greatest, but what is a recommended video editor thing, java or ...

also can it be any video i make myself of upload/download and can i just upload it to my website under a faster video player for my webpage(is it that easy or much more complicated...)

I would say use wordpress. It's universal.

If you MUST use a web design suite, dreamweaver is good, and the free tool that is bundled with the OS, iWeb, is not bad.

If you're going to use iWeb, make sure you get the companion program, iWeb SEO tools. It's free, and it will help you out quite a bit.

how would i be able to upstream good quality live video online but in a simpler form where it doesn't pause or load, i have cameras on my field and i want people to be able to log onto the website and be able to watch the games on my field and i was wondering if anybody has recommendations.

is there a difference between dreamweaver and rapidweaver when it comes to that specific features...?