What's the best 'drag and drop' website creator software ?

vh1tone · 9 Apr 2013 at 13:22

I want to make up a website, but I'm not interested in getting into html coding (life's too short). I'm more interested in the graphics side and making it look good.

The Xara one looks quite good, but are there any others that you could recommend ?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

GravyMonster · 9 Apr 2013 at 14:10

If you want it to look good you'll need to know HTML, CSS and what the limitations are with regards to what you can and can't do in all browsers.

Also, I wouldn't say there was a 'best' WYSIWYG editor, just a 'least worst'.

vh1tone · 9 Apr 2013 at 15:41

Spunkey said:
If you want it to look good you'll need to know HTML, CSS and what the limitations are with regards to what you can and can't do in all browsers.

Also, I wouldn't say there was a 'best' WYSIWYG editor, just a 'least worst'.

I was afraid someone would say that. I guess I'll have to take the plunge and try and learn HTML

doiks14 · 9 Apr 2013 at 16:28

I may be able to offer some assistance if needed, do you already have a design?

uniQ · 9 Apr 2013 at 17:37

While it's not longer my go to CMS a vanilla WordPress install is going to beat hands down anything you can make in a drag and drop/WYSIWYG editor.

vh1tone · 9 Apr 2013 at 19:44

doiks14 said:
I may be able to offer some assistance if needed, do you already have a design?

I've got a few design ideas but they are all still in my head at the moment. I wanted to decide on what tools I was going to use first.

I was thinking of building it in Adobe Flash Pro, but then I read somewhere that Flash is dead and HTML5 is in. So not sure which way to go. I suppose I could do the page layouts in Photoshop then splice in Dreamweaver. But then I'd have to learn Dreamweaver :eek:

I'm not scared of getting into the coding side, but I don't want to get bogged down by it and loose sight of the graphics which I love doing.

ZombieFan · 9 Apr 2013 at 19:51

Your best bet is to get your ideas down by creating a mock-up of the site using something like photoshop. Once you've done that you can have a go at converting it to html.

K@rl · 9 Apr 2013 at 22:09

uniQ said:
While it's not longer my go to CMS a vanilla WordPress install is going to beat hands down anything you can make in a drag and drop/WYSIWYG editor.

+1 for word press. Its the best of both worlds. Plenty of drag and drop together with scope for learning too. There are loads of great free templates that you can very easily edit too.

doiks14 · 9 Apr 2013 at 22:24

ZombieFan said:
Your best bet is to get your ideas down by creating a mock-up of the site using something like photoshop. Once you've done that you can have a go at converting it to html.

This.

Let me know when you have the design and I'll see what I can do for you. Provided I get some free time

quite busy at the moment.

kitkat9933 · 9 Apr 2013 at 22:28

Serif WebPlus x6, we use it to teach the kids at my School. Great grab and drop Web Creator and makes everything nice and easy! Very Powerful as well in the right hands. I think you can get it for £50 which actually makes it quite good value for a single licence.

dave_a141 · 11 Apr 2013 at 22:47

Squarespace (hosted) is supposed to be quite good. Not sure if it'll be too template-y but it is very drag and drop

eashton · 11 Apr 2013 at 23:54

Using Serif myself after looking through options, don't have time to learn html and want create something that looks reasonable for my business and something that is easily updated on a regular basis. If you buy latest issue of web user you get half price hosting and a free license of webplus x6 through heart internet.

vh1tone · 12 Apr 2013 at 10:46

double post

vh1tone · 12 Apr 2013 at 13:10

eashton said:
don't have time to learn html and want create something that looks reasonable for my business and something that is easily updated on a regular basis.

That's the situation I'm in. I'll take a look at Serif see how it compares with the Xara one. Thanks

eashton · 12 Apr 2013 at 17:09

vh1tone said:
That's the situation I'm in. I'll take a look at Serif see how it compares with the Xara one. Thanks

I've found it quick to pick up, just like using Publisher or PowerPoint.

kitkat9933 · 12 Apr 2013 at 21:39

eashton said:
I've found it quick to pick up, just like using Publisher or PowerPoint.

Yeh Serif is amazing for its price. The students love it. It lets them concentrate on the design and presentation of their sites rather than coding them.

BloomerzUK · 13 Apr 2013 at 18:38

You could try Concrete5 - http://www.concrete5.org/

reflux · 13 Apr 2013 at 18:42

K@rl said:
+1 for word press. Its the best of both worlds. Plenty of drag and drop together with scope for learning too. There are loads of great free templates that you can very easily edit too.

+2 for WordPress. Turned this graphic designer into someone who could also knock up tasty and functional websites very quickly. There are millions of good looking themes and it's such an expandable CMS for almost any purpose.

BunnyKillBot · 15 Apr 2013 at 23:48

Spunkey said:
what you can and can't do in all browsers.

That topic is a minefield. I generally apply the principle of standard compliant, clean code, and to Hell with a browser that can't render a simple markup correctly. Concentrate on HTML and CSS. Javascript can do some cool stuff, but make sure there is a fallback for any browser/users with javascript disabled.

The likes of IE6 can **** off. Either upgrade your browser or get off the internet.

Spunkey said:
If you want it to look good you'll need to know HTML, CSS

Truer words were never spoken. Wordpress is good, but its also largely defunct. Either you know how markup works, or you change the banner image in a template and all your page content layouts look ****.

Its like learning to play piano without learning to read music. Unless you are a savant you can probably muddle along but will mostly just suck at it.

Markup languages like HTML are incredibly simple. I can understand you not wanting to delve in to hardcore C programming, but learning to put <p>tags around words</p> is hardly taxing. Stop being lazy and LEARN IT.

vh1tone · 16 Apr 2013 at 13:27

Went with Xara web designer 9 in the end. I didn't like the UI on the Serif one.