Hi,

Looking for some advice. I'm looking at setting up a webiste for a new business venture. I'm looking for advice as to the best software to buy. My research to date suggests;
VSD - looks great and I don't want to learn HTML
Flash Firestarter - I would like some flash animation
Flash menu - as above
Photo Gallery - need to have some images of our business location available for viewing
Web Calendar - business is in toursimn and would like to list main holidays etc
Video player - to show vision of our venue

So I'm looking to buy the Designer pack which looks great value. But there are two addional programs I'd like advice on that aren't included in the Designer Pack;

Web Font - can someone advise if there is real value is using this software?
Color schemer - if I use VCD to develop the site, is there value in using color schemer?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks - Brian

I considered Web Font to be a must-have (and it's what helped push me over the price point edge to just buying the Super pack). If you insist on specific fonts being displayed on your page that many users won't have installed on their machines, and don't want to insert the text as images, you'll need this. On the other hand it uses Flash so if you need to support users who can't see Flash (like Linux users) it won't be useful at all.

I don't have an opinion on the Color Schemer. I have it, but already know what colors I want to use so I haven't even bothered to install it. I imagine the most useful part of it is the color wheel stuff to help pick out complimentary colors.

If you don't want to learn HTML, then you are probably on the mark. VSD should work for you; easily. That is what I did a long time ago (not VSD but a WYSIWYG editor). I found that knowing at least some HTML, really helped as I got deeper into website building. You may take a look at HTML editor 2008. This not just a HTML, it as a visual editor that works great or you can use the html editor portion if you need or want to tweek things a little if you do decide to expand your knowledge on html.
I have learned over the years that Coffee Cup offers the best. If the software doesn't do exactly what you want, chances are it will soon. Plus, the support is great!

Most things flash are great or can be. Keep in mind, there are still a lot of people that do not like flash. If you decide to use a lot of flash, consider using an entrance page, then link to flash or no flash pages that have the same content.

Flash font is nice to have, if not at first, use it to build a great looking site after you first get up and running.

Since when can us Linux users not see flash??

Mike...

I'd been told that, it was even the subject of a recent on-line comic drawn by a self-proclaimed Linux geek. Not knowing any better I figured I'd been told true...

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/

Now, now gentleman..enough of that Linux vs Windows bickering!

Mike you meniotned that

I know a little HTML, enough to get in to trouble So does this mean that the CC HTML editor would be a better option, providing more flexibility than VSD? How would you rate the visual editor component of HTML editor compared to VSD?

Heh. I don't really have a dog in the hunt. I'd be using Linux, too, most likely, except my main 3D modeling software won't work with it, even with emulators. Form follows function, so I use Win-doze.

On WebFont, I just did some stuff with it on the site I've been working on, if you're interested in seeing it in action. The site is at:

http://www.spinland.biz/test

The five secondary pages all have Web Font title banners. In practice it was fairly easy to use (a bit of fiddling getting all the needed files imported). I used an existing TrueType font and imported it. There are good how-to videos on this site for how to manage everything.

Ballen,

If you are wanting to develop websites for fun and profit, but have no desire to learn HTML, then VSD is the program to use.

If you want to do more things with your sites, that will likely require learning HTML, PHP, Javascript, etc. You will find that as you start using HTML, you learn a little an use that, then you learn a little javascript, a little PHP, ... You do not need to be an expert in everything to use the HTML editor with all these programming languages to use them, but once you start using them, the ability to create things increases greatly. So if this is where you may be going, get the HTML editor, start with the visual editor tab, and when you find the desire to add some PHP to your site, or javascript, you can easily shift to the code tab and not have to change programs.

Then when you decide that you are ready to use HTML code, you will be able to do so in the same program.

Thanks for the advice gentlemen!