What is a good GUI web development app?

[tzhu07]

So here's my situation: I'm basically a designer only, so I've mocked up in complete detail all the pages of the website I want to build in Photoshop, but I have virtually zero experience when it comes to the development and coding side of things.

Some things that I need to include in my website are:
1. Forums - customizable to my own aesthetic preferences.
2. Profiles - people can create and update profiles.
3. Listings - people fill out a form and the information appears as a listing (similar to craigslist).

I ALWAYS hear about Adobe Dreamweaver being friendly to designers, but is it able to insert the above elements? And is it the best choice if one is not able to hand-code websites?

I realize that no matter what route I choose, I'll be spending TONS of time learning web development, but I don't want to make the initial mistake of choosing a wrong route and have to start over if I realize that it's beyond my capacity to understand a certain application or method of web development.

Thanks.

 

[Sapphiro]

For the forums, unless you're very very fluent with php, I would suggest you to install one of the free forums such as phpbb, vbulletin (like this site).

 

[tzhu07]

For the forums, unless you're very very fluent with php, I would suggest you to install one of the free forums such as phpbb, vbulletin (like this site).

Would customizing them to my aesthetic preferences be fairly difficult? I want my forums to look exactly as I've designed them in Photoshop.

 

[weblord]

start with the most commonly used software such as dreamweaver, photoshop, and fireworks, yeah it's easier to learn web development for you since you're strength is in graphics already, it's a killer combination.

 

[tzhu07]

start with the most commonly used software such as dreamweaver, photoshop, and fireworks, yeah it's easier to learn web development for you since you're strength is in graphics already, it's a killer combination.

OK great, I figured Dreamweaver was a good place to start. I bought the Adobe Design Premium at a super-discount when I was in school, but I've never used Dreamweaver in that package before because the need never arose.

What are some great tutorials to start learning Dreamweaver CS3? I don't mind spending money on books, so please recommend whatever you can.

Thanks.

 

[lpxtech]

Well, I would definately agree on using forum apps such as phpbb and vbulletin, the best two available. As for a GUI app, I would say no. Not to try and deter you from using dreamweaver as it's a great application that I myself use. The fact of the matter is, when using and GUI based application to create code for you, you will most likely run into a few issues. The site will look ok in one browser, but not another, or it will look good in dreamweaver but not in the browsers. Also, the type of code that it spits out is horrible to work with.

Although, if you must use a something like that, then dreamweaver is the most advanced. I personally only use it for the code view and ftp capabilities, but have taught the design view before.

Are you going for speed and cost effectiveness or quality? That will determine what you will want to use. Sometimes, hiring a cheap freelancer, even some college students is worth the extra money to get something done, and looking/working great.

 

[tzhu07]

Yeah, I've heard that Dreamweaver's common criticism is that the code is not optimized well. I thought about hiring a freelancer, but my project is commercial and would require a constant web developer to look after it. And since I can't afford to hire other people, I'm exploring to see if maybe I can tackle the development side in addition to Photoshop design.

 

[broad]

In my opinion, Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 is the best tool for website designing. There is no need to know HTML language, because it generates HTML code for you. It includes rollovers, css styles, server side includes, templates and much more.

 

[gaucho1976]

FWIW, I'd recommend you to learn CSS and HTML in depth and then you won't need Dreamweaver. Plus, you'll find that some things made with Dreamweaver won't look the same in different browsers, and if you don't know CSS you'll be unable to solve it, furthermore, you won't even have a clue on what's going on.

As for forums, what people above said, just choose an already made forum and skin it at will, you may find almost any available forum at http://www.forummatrix.org/ with all kind of features and information about costs (most of them are free). That being said, I'd recommend you phpBB, very strong and with loads of bells and whistles even paid forum scripts lacks of. VBulletin is another option, I think it costs around $100 or something like that, but it has a lot of options and it's really easy to skin and modify at will. Then again, only if you know what you're doing, so I'd recommend you to start from... the start.

Just my 2 cents

 

[bluearrow]

Even if you use A HTML editor still you need to know about HTML and CSS because you encounter problems that you have to sort manually in code. I have been working on web projects for more than 6 years now I can tell that you can do things lot fast and easy with dreamweaver than any other web editor (HTML, CSS, PHP).

As for tutorials Lynda.com has great Video tutorials.