I recently purchased Corelx4. I am interested in designing my own web site and was hoping you could recommend a Corel Program, or if there is such a program in x4 please let me know. Your time is appreciated. Patrick G. Smith 

Currently I am designing my own website with Corel, too. I use both Draw and Photopaint, but my limitation is in designing Banners and buttons only, not configuring whole templates, although I think that might be possible (with some basic HTML and Java skills). There were some threads around here in the past, you might find them with some descriptive keywords...

wrote in message news:32741@coreldraw.com...
>I recently purchased Corelx4. I am interested in designing my own web site
>and was hoping you could recommend a Corel Program, or if there is such a
>program in x4 please let me know. Your time is appreciated. Patrick G.
>Smith
>


I've been making sites since '96 or so. Draw/Photopaint should NEVER be used
to *create a website*. Yes, they are both excellent tools to *create the
graphics* for the site, but never for any code. I use Draw and Photopaint to
do all of the graphics on my site, and yes I will prototype in
Draw/Photopaint, but I do all of my coding in another application. In fact,
you will hear the same advice from people on various Adobe forums in re:
Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks. All great graphics apps, none of them
are web editors nor should they be used as one.

So, first off: learn HTML and CSS before doing anything else. If you're not
familiar with them, take a look at www.w3schools.com. Once you've done that,
you'll be more aware of the limitations of the web. There are no true
WYSIWYG web editors out there. Yes, most actually do claim this to be true,
but trust me - none really do. You don't just "draw boxes", etc like you're
in an illustration/dtp app - that will produce extremely fragile code.

Personally, I use Dreamweaver - it's a great tool, but to get the most out
of it one needs to have HTML and CSS knowledge. DW is not the only game in
town though. If you can afford it, great, pick it up - the latest version
will be released on Sept. 23. If it is too pricey, well, HTML is just text.
You can always use Notepad. Yeah, it's a lot of typing and can be slow
going, but you'll learn the code quickly :) I've heard great things about
Namo (www.namo.com) but have never used it so I can't personally comment on
it. NVU is also known to be good, but it has reached end-of-life and now has
a new name/life as Kompozer - www.kompozer.net).

So you now have 3 suggested apps: one very expensive, one reasonably priced,
one free.

wrote in message news:32747@coreldraw.com...
> Currently I am designing my own website with Corel, too. I use both Draw
> and Photopaint, but my limitation is in designing Banners and buttons
> only, not configuring whole templates, although I think that might be
> possible (with some basic HTML and Java skills). There were some threads
> around here in the past, you might find them with some descriptive
> keywords...
>

Be careful how you use the word "template," Mo. In terms of web
editing/design, most applications have "templates," but the word can mean
very similar, but also very different things. For example, in Dreamweaver, a
"true" template is your master page where you've laid everything out and
you've made some editable and non-editable regions - this file is
specifically saved as a template via a menu routine. This will put the file
in a specific place in the site definition and will also give it a specific
file extension. THEN, through the app you would do a File | New | From
Template and choose the template you just made. This will restrict you from
doing anything on that page except in the editable regions you've defined.
This is a good thing because you're not accidentally going to muck something
up/change something that should be the same on every page.

Some people will also call a file they create and just keep doing
"save-as's" with different file names a "template" as well; but this does
not have the same functionality as the "template" I mentioned before. Each
web editor out there has their own way of doing this, that is why it's very
important to distinguish what is meant by "template". In their own way, they
are all correct in calling them templates, but when you're dealing with
others on the same project or exchanging info, don't presume everyone is
meaning the same thing :)

Also, you said Java - I think you mean JavaScript. Java and JavaScript are
NOT the same thing - very different in coding and their abilities. Most
everyone has JavaScript enabled on their browsers, but not everyone may have
a Java engine installed.

Thank you for explaining those terms, Hunter.

Hunter:

For example, in Dreamweaver, a
"true" template is your master page where you've laid everything out and
you've made some editable and non-editable regions - this file is
specifically saved as a template via a menu routine. This will put the file
in a specific place in the site definition and will also give it a specific
file extension. THEN, through the app you would do a File | New | From
Template and choose the template you just made. This will restrict you from
doing anything on that page except in the editable regions you've defined.

 

And also very important - when you change the template (you can also have nested templates) all files made from that template will update and reflect the changes in the template. This can also be done with server side includes, which are platform independent, but I usually prefer a mix of both.

wrote in message news:32893@coreldraw.com...
> Hunter:For example, in Dreamweaver, a
> "true" template is your master page where you've laid everything out and
> you've made some editable and non-editable regions - this file is
> specifically saved as a template via a menu routine. This will put the
> file
> in a specific place in the site definition and will also give it a
> specific
> file extension. THEN, through the app you would do a File | New | From
> Template and choose the template you just made. This will restrict you
> from
> doing anything on that page except in the editable regions you've defined.
>
> And also very important - when you change the template (you can also have
> nested templates) all files made from that template will update and
> reflect the changes in the template. This can also be done with server
> side includes, which are platform independent, but I usually prefer a mix
> of both.
>

I try to avoid nested templates, Lars. It's funny, Murray Summers, one of
the guys who wrote the book DREAMWEAVER MX TEMPLATES and discussed how to
use nested templates in said book, now tells people to never use nested
templates :)

For myself, I've found that SSIs (server-side includes) are mandatory to
keep the site updates easy. In my "old days", I had no clue about them and
on my website I had to update every single page every month with new
graphics for the "volume #/issue #" stuff and to update the dates for
monthly archives. It would take me hours to update the 150+ pages every
month (and the page # increased all the time). Now with over 850 pages on my
site, having menus and all common items for each page via SSIs mean that I
only have to update a single file and it's propogated throughout the site.
For subsections that may need their own "common data", I just do SSIs for
that section. Personally, I use Templates and SSIs on every page/site I
make.

Hunter:

I try to avoid nested templates, Lars. It's funny, Murray Summers, one of
the guys who wrote the book DREAMWEAVER MX TEMPLATES and discussed how to
use nested templates in said book, now tells people to never use nested
templates :)

 

I know, I spoke to him in the DW newsgroup :-) Well I still use them sometimes, but I have found out that there are other ways. Nested stuff gets overly complex.

Hunter:

Personally, I use Templates and SSIs on every page/site I
make.

Same here. They are a great relief, and the cornerstones upon wich I build sites.

wrote in message news:32909@coreldraw.com...
> Hunter:I try to avoid nested templates, Lars. It's funny, Murray Summers,
> one of
> the guys who wrote the book DREAMWEAVER MX TEMPLATES and discussed how to
> use nested templates in said book, now tells people to never use nested
> templates :)
>
>
> I know, I spoke to him in the DW newsgroup :-) Well I still use them
> sometimes, but I have found out that there are other ways. Nested stuff
> gets overly complex.
>

Murray's a great guy - I met him at TODCON in 2007. I know people give him
grief about his bluntness in his comments, but I'd rather he be direct and
honest. I must've missed you over in the DW newsgroup. I see Walt and Hywel
in there all the time.

Hunter:

Murray's a great guy - I met him at TODCON in 2007. I know people give him
grief about his bluntness in his comments, but I'd rather he be direct and
honest. I must've missed you over in the DW newsgroup. I see Walt and Hywel
in there all the time.

 

I think he is very helpful over there. I don't visit the DW group that much, only when I occassionally do web design and stumble upon problems.

wrote in message news:33081@coreldraw.com...

>I don't visit the DW group that much, only when I occassionally do web
>design and stumble upon problems.
>

:) I'm there pretty much every weekday