Looking at the different packages offered.

I like the Visual Site Designer (drag/drop feature...easy to use tool bar). With my lack of technical skills and HTML coding this is something that would be good to have available in my creating. Am I understanding that not all packages offer this feature/tool bar?

I will share some features I currently have and want to be able to keep...could you all share which package you feel would best suit my needs?

I want large/clear pictures.
Slide-show feature.
The hyperlink feature. (Linking to documents/photos in my galleries, or to other sites/my pages.
Contact Us form.
Video.
Side Menu Tabs. (I have several (parent/child) tabs and don't have room for a horizontal menu.)

I would love to take a look at your websites to see what you have been able to do with YOUR package. This would further help me in deciding which one I would do best with.

Thank you.

Melody

Melody,

Go to this forum link to see what others have done with VSD!

http://www.coffeecup.com/forums/designe … site-here/

Hiya Melody,

One of the best ways to be sure you can do what you want to do is to try it. Most of CoffeeCup's software has a 30 day trial (there are a few that are shorter) and you can play to your hearts content to see what features you can and cannot do with most everything. Most of the program trial versions are full features (once again there are a few things on a few that aren't available) so give a few of them a try and see how they work for you.

I would suggest taking VSD for a spin first to get a good handle on that and then would suggest the following programs for what you want to include:

Web Form Builder
Photo Gallery
Video Programs (depends on if you need to create or just to view on the site)

The rest of your needs are default in the VSD and HTML Editor programs as far as having themes already that you can choose from (many available in the theme store too for both programs, be sure if you buy themes that you make sure they go for the programs you are using), Menu options, links to pages and photo clarity etc. so those don't need special programs to use them.

Let us know if you have any questions at all or need help understanding the programs, that is something many of us can help with

Melody, your site has a very simple lay-out, so it would be easy to get the same look using VSD (even without a template).
The quality of your photos depends on how you process and save them – VSD won't change the quality of your photos.
It's very easy to create links in VSD, add in slideshows and videos, and insert forms.

There are plenty of VSD users here to help you put all your 'parts and pieces' together to get the site looking and functioning how you want.

I would make sure to save the original site files. Anything you don't have on your computer – grab it now while you still can. Take some screen shots of your page lay-out. You could use the HTML Editor or the Direct FTP program to grab your site/pages and save it on your computer.

You could also copy/paste your text from your live site and save it in Notepad to insert into your new site. Any photos you don't have; right-click on them and choose save as to put them in a folder for later.

Coffee Cup can't do EVERYTHING you need directly, but it's a platform that you get added functionality too. Like a few other users said: the HTML editor allows you to do just about anything from a coding point of view. The drag n drop interface can be limited and this is where you may run into roadblocks. This forum can be a great resource for you - you can get most of your questions answered by more advanced users. Best of luck!

Actually it can VSD hasn't quite the functionality of the HTML Editor but unless you want to incorporate php into it, it does everything else. I use VSD about 60% compared with 40% for the Editor. I have used flash, Iframes, Forms, Tables in VSD and best of all they are where you put them.
Melody The picture quality is what you insert. You can size them to suit. Also VSD will upload to S_Drive or host seamlessly.
As Viv says he could knock up a template in an hour you say, 2 hours max and you would have fun. We may be asking advice from you eventually.
Be assured we will be barging each other out of the way to help you make it happen. I looked at your site as Viv said it would be a doddle. Download as much of the site as you can to re use images text links etc