Building New Website

Henning

Taxi to Parking
Gone West
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
39,463
Location
Ft Lauderdale FL
Display Name

Display name:
iHenning
Hey, time to update my website....

Here's what I'm looking to do. I already have a hosted domain and site that's gotta be 8 years since I lost all the files to it. I want to keep my domain, how I go about it doesn't matter to me. I would prefer to be able to maintain and update the site from online. As long as I can link my URL to it, I'm happy.

I could also build it on some software on my computer. I have Office Ultimate and I downloaded Pagemaker from Yahoo, none of which I'm all that impressed with. I really don't want to buy expensive software to do do this.

What are my options for free/low cost or am I missing something awesome in my Office suite?
 
Hey, time to update my website....

Here's what I'm looking to do. I already have a hosted domain and site that's gotta be 8 years since I lost all the files to it. I want to keep my domain, how I go about it doesn't matter to me. I would prefer to be able to maintain and update the site from online. As long as I can link my URL to it, I'm happy.

I could also build it on some software on my computer. I have Office Ultimate and I downloaded Pagemaker from Yahoo, none of which I'm all that impressed with. I really don't want to buy expensive software to do do this.

What are my options for free/low cost or am I missing something awesome in my Office suite?

Try Joomla! requires an iota of computer knowledge and has tons of plugins/mods/templates. Typically a hosting provider will give you a control panel (cPanel, Plesk, Parallels ring a bell?) for your shared hosting and you just "install" it via the control panel. A touch of a learning curve. I personally HATE Joomla! because my typical contract is to make it do things it was never intended to do.... But for an end user who can deal with the limitations and accept it for what it is, it's not bad. There are others out there Drupal, Mambo etc... I set these things up for someone every month or so, PM me if you get stuck. Oh if you control your DNS entry, which you should, you can point it anywhere you want if you want to change servers. Typically takes an hour or so for the tubes to catch up when you do... They say up to 72 hours, don't expect instant gratification.
 
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Front Page was simple, Joomla is a jumble f-k. Figures it was done by an Aussie...
 
If you're looking to replace/update your HL Services webpage, Wordpress would do all you need and it's about as easy as it gets.
 
Front Page was simple, Joomla is a jumble f-k. Figures it was done by an Aussie...

2hours in, and you figure out what the wold knows, wordpress might be good if you just want a simple bloggy type site.

People usually drop off a copy of Jommla with a list of things it doesn't do or do well and want me to "make it work". This is akin to giving your A&P and Cessna 150 and telling him you need him to turn it into a Citation.... Sometimes it's easier to do what you want from scratch.
 
If you want the time consuming, tedious way, that takes some knowledge, Notepad. LOL
 
2hours in, and you figure out what the wold knows, wordpress might be good if you just want a simple bloggy type site.

People usually drop off a copy of Jommla with a list of things it doesn't do or do well and want me to "make it work". This is akin to giving your A&P and Cessna 150 and telling him you need him to turn it into a Citation.... Sometimes it's easier to do what you want from scratch.
I can't even figure out how to make it recognize the the files I import into the freaking Template folder. This is the same crap that I hate about LINUX, "It's so simple" My a$$. Everything is an unlabeled 12 step complicated clusterflop...:mad2:

Listening to that guys voice on the videos...ugggg, I just can't listen to freakin Aussies anymore.....:vomit:
 
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so where is your website? can we look at it, throw darts, highly recommend it to "webpagesthatsuck.com"?
 
I can't even figure out how to make it recognize the the files I import into the freaking Template folder. This is the same crap that I hate about LINUX, "It's so simple" My a$$. Everything is an unlabeled 12 step complicated clusterflop...:mad2:

Listening to that guys voice on the videos...ugggg, I just can't listen to freakin Aussies anymore.....:vomit:

The menu manager and the article manager are not intuitive, setting it up like you want it is the PITA. It's a slow process, you keep saving and cancelling and applying and "crap that didn't work"ing. Once it's up and going and you have it figured out, it's not so bad. With some time and patience you can make it look slick. Our mistake in marketing it was assuming that the customers would have the desire and time to figure it out...even after we set it up.
 
Still the old one that took 2.5 hrs to build using Front Page 10 years ago (files for which are on a computer lost long ago). It's at www.caphenning.com.

you got static HTML pages... they ain't lost. You want a zip file with em? Joomla! is serious overkill for recreating that with a more modern look.
 
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you got static HTML pages... they ain't lost. You want a zip file with em? Joomla! is serious overkill for recreating that with a more modern look.

No, I don't want any of it, I just want freakin a piece of software that isn't 5 steps backwards in terms of user interface from anything that came after DOS. Seriously, I gave up on Joomba, I don't need retarded s-it in my life. Then that freakin Aussie voice...:mad2::mad2::mad2: If their too stupid or lazy to build the software correctly, then don't advertise it as simple. I can loft an entire hull in Delftship faster than I can put together a 4 page website on there. I've just gone back to the Yahoo program which has more features than the Wordpress and is even easier.

It's not meant to be a free program, it's meant to force you to buy the advanced tutorial. I'm not into this for the freakin challenge...
 
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No, I don't want any of it, I just want freakin a piece of software that isn't 5 steps backwards in terms of user interface from anything that came after DOS. Seriously, I gave up on Joomba, I don't need retarded s-it in my life. Then that freakin Aussie voice...:mad2::mad2::mad2: If their too stupid or lazy to build the software correctly, then don't advertise it as simple. I can loft an entire hull in Delftship faster than I can put together a 4 page website on there. I've just gone back to the Yahoo program which has more features than the Wordpress and is even easier.

It's not meant to be a free program, it's meant to force you to buy the advanced tutorial. I'm not into this for the freakin challenge...
Wordpress really would work well for you. It's simple and to the point. There are MANY plugins that can extend the functionality. I seriously doubt Yahoo has a website tool that is more powerful.

I have about 30 minutes worth of work into the "website" for flight instruction below my signature. It is wordpress.

The two "app" websites below that aren't anything. It's just HTML and CSS. Probably 4 hours total into them.
 
No, I don't want any of it, I just want freakin a piece of software that isn't 5 steps backwards in terms of user interface from anything that came after DOS. Seriously, I gave up on Joomba, I don't need retarded s-it in my life. Then that freakin Aussie voice...:mad2::mad2::mad2: If their too stupid or lazy to build the software correctly, then don't advertise it as simple. I can loft an entire hull in Delftship faster than I can put together a 4 page website on there. I've just gone back to the Yahoo program which has more features than the Wordpress and is even easier.

It's not meant to be a free program, it's meant to force you to buy the advanced tutorial. I'm not into this for the freakin challenge...

I'd like to have a free F-22 that burns 5 GPH (mogas of course), can carry 10 pax and land on any grass strip in america that only takes about 2 hours worth of effort to learn to fly too, but it doesn't exist. 2003 was a much simpler time in web development. Try Dreamweaver, if you're lusting for the Front Page days.... Maybe you can get a 30 day free trial or something. If you want idiot proof, try wix.com.


You seem like the self sufficient type but if you want me to throw up a Joomla!, word press or if you're ambitious, I have a bare bones PHP/HTML site that I give away for people cutting their teeth to play with. I'll set you up.
 
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I'd like to have a free F-22 that burns 5 GPH (mogas of course), can carry 10 pax and land on any grass strip in america that only takes about 2 hours worth of effort to learn to fly too, but it doesn't exist. 2003 was a much simpler time in web development. Try Dreamweaver, if you're lusting for the Front Page days.... Maybe you can get a 30 day free trial or something. If you want idiot proof, try wix.com.


You seem like the self sufficient type but if you want me to throw up a Joomla!, word press or if you're ambitious, I have a bare bones PHP/HTML site that I give away for people cutting their teeth to play with. I'll set you up.
Depending what happens in the next 24hrs I may take you up on that...
 
Alright Bart, you're on....

I just downloaded Wordpress, again, another freaking program that doesn't self install? Who the F-ck is developing this crap. So, I go in the readme to find out how to install it and it failed at step 2...
Installation: Famous 5-minute install


  1. Unzip the package in an empty directory and upload everything.
  2. Open wp-admin/install.php in your browser. It will take you through the process to set up a wp-config.php file with your database connection details.
    1. If for some reason this doesn't work, don't worry. It doesn't work on all web hosts. Open up wp-config-sample.php with a text editor like WordPad or similar and fill in your database connection details.
    2. Save the file as wp-config.php and upload it.
    3. Open wp-admin/install.php in your browser.
  3. Once the configuration file is set up, the installer will set up the tables needed for your blog. If there is an error, double check your wp-config.php file, and try again. If it fails again, please go to the support forums with as much data as you can gather.
  4. If you did not enter a password, note the password given to you. If you did not provide a username, it will be admin.
  5. The installer should then send you to the login page. Sign in with the username and password you chose during the installation. If a password was generated for you, you can then click on 'Profile' to change the password.
When I try their hyperlink wp-admin/install.php, it errors
and gives me the error page I included below. Then I tried to follow the next step. I tried to attach the file even as a TXT but it kept reading it ad PHP and wouldn't allow me to load it up to here. As far as opening it in WP fine, but where in the hell I would enter my database connection information even if I had a clue as to what that even is?

Give me a f-ing break. If airplanes designers were as **** poor as software designers we wouldn't have a population problem.

I'm disgusted with the people involved in building this stuff.

wordpress error.jpg
 
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Alright Bart, you're on....

I just downloaded Wordpress, again, another freaking program that doesn't self install? Who the F-ck is developing this crap. So, I go in the readme to find out how to install it and it failed at step 2...When I try their hyperlink wp-admin/install.php, it errors
and gives me the error page I included below. Then I tried to follow the next step. I tried to attach the file even as a TXT but it kept reading it ad PHP and wouldn't allow me to load it up to here. As far as opening it in WP fine, but where in the hell I would enter my database connection information even if I had a clue as to what that even is?

Give me a f-ing break. If airplanes designers were as **** poor as software designers we wouldn't have a population problem.

I'm disgusted with the people involved in building this stuff.

View attachment 24050

That's not how it works. You need to install it onto a web server or hosting account. Not your PC.
 
That's not how it works. You need to install it onto a web server or hosting account. Not your PC.

Please find that instruction here:
Installation: Famous 5-minute install


  1. Unzip the package in an empty directory and upload everything.
  2. Open wp-admin/install.php in your browser. It will take you through the process to set up a wp-config.php file with your database connection details.
    1. If for some reason this doesn't work, don't worry. It doesn't work on all web hosts. Open up wp-config-sample.php with a text editor like WordPad or similar and fill in your database connection details.
    2. Save the file as wp-config.php and upload it.
    3. Open wp-admin/install.php in your browser.
  3. Once the configuration file is set up, the installer will set up the tables needed for your blog. If there is an error, double check your wp-config.php file, and try again. If it fails again, please go to the support forums with as much data as you can gather.
  4. If you did not enter a password, note the password given to you. If you did not provide a username, it will be admin.
  5. The installer should then send you to the login page. Sign in with the username and password you chose during the installation. If a password was generated for you, you can then click on 'Profile' to change the password.

70% of everything I have come across has no mention or an unintelligible, incomplete entry in the help file.
 
The closest you can get to Frontpage at Microsoft is the Visual Studio Express. http://www.asp.net/downloads Web development has changed immensely in 10 years Henning. Yes you can still do simple pages like your original site, but most sites today are data driven and thus linked to a database whether MySQL (in the Linux world) or SQL Server (in the MS world).
 
70% of everything I have come across has no mention or an unintelligible, incomplete entry in the help file.
That's because documentation is the last thing programmers write! (if they write any at all) :crazy:
 
You said "I would prefer to be able to maintain and update the site from online." This told me you were looking for CMS type system. These go on the server. If you're just trying to upgrade your site, a full blown CMS might be a little much, but Joomla! can be cut down to work, you'll spend the first few hours removing, not adding. WordPress is sort of a toned down version of a CMS intended for blogs, it has plenty of plugins, extensions and themes and would probably be very close to what you need.

Front Page was what's called a WYSIWYG (wissywig) editor, where you edit files on your computer then upload to a server. Probably the most popular one today is Dreamweaver, I don't use them.

Most of the time if you go somewhere like dotster or hostgator or something along those lines to setup your website (Get shared hosting for now, you don't want to configure a VPS via a Linux shell :) ) they'll give you a login and a password and you log into control panel (this is all in a web browser), I don't use these things much but I think cPanel, parallels, plesk are the names you'll see associated with them. With dotster and domain.com at least they have an "application vault" or something along those lines, you click around until you find it, there'll be things like wordpress, Joomla!, drupal, wiki,phpBB all sorts of apps, you click on your choice of software to install to your website, it'll take a few options and press go, wa-la your website is now up and read for editing on the internet. Kinda like this site, it runs vBulletin installed on the webserver. You really shouldn't be monkeying with MySQL or PHP or Apache or any of that mess find a hosting provider (and I can suggest some) that has a control panel and all the applications ready to go. To swap your domain over to a new provider, there's typically a control panel for that from whomever you purchased it from, you just have to update the nameservers, this takes usually an hour or three to propagate throughout the wide wide world of webs.
 
Alright Bart, you're on....

I just downloaded Wordpress, again, another freaking program that doesn't self install? Who the F-ck is developing this crap. So, I go in the readme to find out how to install it and it failed at step 2...When I try their hyperlink wp-admin/install.php, it errors
and gives me the error page I included below. Then I tried to follow the next step. I tried to attach the file even as a TXT but it kept reading it ad PHP and wouldn't allow me to load it up to here. As far as opening it in WP fine, but where in the hell I would enter my database connection information even if I had a clue as to what that even is?

Give me a f-ing break. If airplanes designers were as **** poor as software designers we wouldn't have a population problem.

I'm disgusted with the people involved in building this stuff.

View attachment 24050
It tells you exactly what is wrong. You need to run this on a server with PHP and you're going to need a database as well. Have you considered the possibility that software is a very complicated thing these days and perhaps Wordpress isn't designed poorly - instead you just don't know much about web development?
 
Right, I guess that's why it's free, so you get your money's worth....
You're really not going to find a product that does a better job then Wordpress at what Wordpress does at a cost either.

There are tons of cheap Wordpress hosts out there. Pay them a few dollars a month and it'll all be preinstalled.
 
go to www.hostgator.com get their hatchling plan, don't pay for the entire year (unless you want to) you're looking at 4-7 bucks per month depending on how long you want to commit to hostgator.

See here http://www.hostgator.com/apps/joomla-hosting.shtml
and here http://www.hostgator.com/apps/wordpress-hosting.shtml

This allows you to ignore Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP and the skillz needed to configure a webserver and focus on the software, I have to work now for a job that pays but when I get home later tonight, I'll throw up a wordpress or Joomla! install on my server and you can give it a try before you buy.
 
It tells you exactly what is wrong. You need to run this on a server with PHP and you're going to need a database as well. Have you considered the possibility that software is a very complicated thing these days and perhaps Wordpress isn't designed poorly - instead you just don't know much about web development?

Yes, I managed to figure that out on my own as well which still doesn't address my point, "Where in the instructions does it tell me how to go about that?"

The fact that I need to know about web development to use the tools to build a simple website with some text and pictures says volumes about the disconnect from the people developing these products and the general society of computer users who they are targeting the products to. In both sets of incomplete tutorials, the "Simplicity of Use" was a factor repeatedly remarked upon.

Most of us use websites as a tool, not a job and don't have days to waste on what should be simple projects. The web tool business is either blythly ignorant of that fact, or corrupted as bad as the legal industry in requiring that you hire one of their own to do anything.

If I met the guy running Jooma or whatever it was, he's got a beating coming for lying to me telling me how simple it was and wasting a day of my life.
 
Henning, I looked around for a free html editor when I got a new computer and I settled on Coffee Cup. It seemed to be the easiest for me to use and didn't take 12 days to figure out how to use it.


Wow, my first post. Maybe I should come here more...
 
go to www.hostgator.com get their hatchling plan, don't pay for the entire year (unless you want to) you're looking at 4-7 bucks per month depending on how long you want to commit to hostgator.

See here http://www.hostgator.com/apps/joomla-hosting.shtml
and here http://www.hostgator.com/apps/wordpress-hosting.shtml

This allows you to ignore Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP and the skillz needed to configure a webserver and focus on the software, I have to work now for a job that pays but when I get home later tonight, I'll throw up a wordpress or Joomla! install on my server and you can give it a try before you buy.


Cool, I have hosting already, and in my cpanel there is a Joomla button. There just aren't instructions on how to put it all together that I can make work. Every instruction set I tried left me with errors...:dunno:
 
Yes, I managed to figure that out on my own as well which still doesn't address my point, "Where in the instructions does it tell me how to go about that?"

The fact that I need to know about web development to use the tools to build a simple website with some text and pictures says volumes about the disconnect from the people developing these products and the general society of computer users who they are targeting the products to. In both sets of incomplete tutorials, the "Simplicity of Use" was a factor repeatedly remarked upon.

Most of us use websites as a tool, not a job and don't have days to waste on what should be simple projects. The web tool business is either blythly ignorant of that fact, or corrupted as bad as the legal industry in requiring that you hire one of their own to do anything.

If I met the guy running Jooma or whatever it was, he's got a beating coming for lying to me telling me how simple it was and wasting a day of my life.
These products are not meant for people that don't understand the technology. They're met for web developers. Not an end-user that expects it to be Frontpage. A web developer can then setup a powerful solution that is THEN pretty easy for someone to just log into and manage their website.

These are tools for developers moreso then a end-user-ready product.

I can buy just a turbo. But it isn't going to just bolt onto my motorcycle. The turbo is a component for someone that already knows what to do with it.

At the same time, I can buy a turbo kit FOR my motorcycle that includes a turbo PLUS everything else I need to plum it up. That product is a *little* more end user ready. But you still have to know what the hell you're doing.

Or I can just take my motorcycle to someone that knows what they're doing and ask them to put a turbo on it.

I doubt you'd be bitching about the original manufacturer of that turbo as building junk because the average-joe-sixpack can't make it do anything.

Think of downloading the raw wordpress as you just downloading a component/tool for web developers. A wordpress installed on a server is more of an end-user-ready product.
 
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These products are not meant for people that don't understand the technology. They're met for web developers. Not an end-user that expects it to be Frontpage. A web developer can then setup a powerful solution that is THEN pretty easy for someone to just log into and manage their website.

These are tools for developers moreso then a user-ready product.

THAT'S WHAT PI-SES ME OFF!!!!! If they would have said that in the intro/demo video I watched instead of telling how simple it all was, I would not have wasted a day on it, I could have been productive. There is not one video or tutorial that even touches on how the program is to be installed.

I don't mind them creating tools so complicated you have to spend months learning the languages and theories behind them to even install them, that's fine, but don't then market them to the general public as "Easy to use". In the first of the 20 minute series of free tutorials (there's more, but you have to pay for them and I'm sure they are all in that grating glass voice that makes me want to commit murder, I swear he sounds just like my last owner's idiot brother :raspberry:). they even say about the structure, "This is where traditional web developers have some trouble." intimating the rest of us wouldn't because it "really is simple" The install documentation is non existent, at least anything that works is.
 
THAT'S WHAT PI-SES ME OFF!!!!! If they would have said that in the intro/demo video I watched instead of telling how simple it all was, I would not have wasted a day on it, I could have been productive. There is not one video or tutorial that even touches on how the program is to be installed.

I don't mind them creating tools so complicated you have to spend months learning the languages and theories behind them to even install them, that's fine, but don't then market them to the general public as "Easy to use". In the first of the 20 minute series of free tutorials (there's more, but you have to pay for them and I'm sure they are all in that grating glass voice that makes me want to commit murder, I swear he sounds just like my last owner's idiot brother :raspberry:). they even say about the structure, "This is where traditional web developers have some trouble." intimating the rest of us wouldn't because it "really is simple" The install documentation is non existent, at least anything that works is.

Joomla!/wordpress is meant for the non-techy types. Joomla! requires a little more brain investment than wordpress. cPanel and hosting companies like hostgator,dotster etc.. have tried to take the technical knowledge necessary to set them up out of the equation... You shouldn't have even known they required a database to run. You should have enter a site title, an admin username and password and been on your way in about 15 seconds. Joomla! isnt' for web developers, its a hurldle I get forced to jump over when the customer decides to run it, Its a ***** to code around, and I can write better sites from scratch but the trade off is the customer can modify the content on their website and add modules with just mouse clicks and enough computer know how to run a web browser and a simple word processor. It's a mass of code that I have to cooperate with, that's why I dislike it.
 
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Joomla!/wordpress is meant for the non-techy types.
When it is pre-installed. The raw wordpress.org source code is not really meant for a non-techy. It takes some knowledge to make it do something.
 
When it is pre-installed. The raw wordpress.org source code is not really meant for a non-techy. It takes some knowledge to make it do something.

That's the idea behind cPanel and an application vault... I don't think he wants to know how to write custom WordPress modules...
 
Joomla!/wordpress is meant for the non-techy types. Joomla! requires a little more brain investment than wordpress. cPanel and hosting companies like hostgator,dotster etc.. have tried to take the technical knowledge necessary to set them up out of the equation... You shouldn't have even known they required a database to run. You should have enter a site title, an admin username and password and been on your way in about 15 seconds. Joomla! isnt' for web developers, its a hurldle I get forced to jump over when the customer decides to run it, Its a ***** to code around, and I can write better sites from scratch but the trade off is the customer can modify the content on their website and add modules with just mouse clicks and enough computer know how to run a web browser and a simple word processor. It's a mass of code that I have to cooperate with, that's why I dislike it.

That's the idea behind cPanel and an application vault... I don't think he wants to know how to write custom WordPress modules...
Understand. But he was complaining about the fact that the source code he downloaded was hard to use. I stated that's because it's not meant for a non-techy. We're saying the same thing here -- you just didn't understand the context of my statement.
 
When it is pre-installed. The raw wordpress.org source code is not really meant for a non-techy. It takes some knowledge to make it do something.

I set up a website for my wife and her friend with Wordpress on my own hosting. It took me about a week of spare time fiddling to get the CSS and modules installed to make it look/do what they want. Since then, I don't think I have even logged onto the site in over a month - and they are each updating it 4-7 times per week.
 
Joomla!/wordpress is meant for the non-techy types. Joomla! requires a little more brain investment than wordpress. cPanel and hosting companies like hostgator,dotster etc.. have tried to take the technical knowledge necessary to set them up out of the equation... You shouldn't have even known they required a database to run. You should have enter a site title, an admin username and password and been on your way in about 15 seconds. Joomla! isnt' for web developers, its a hurldle I get forced to jump over when the customer decides to run it, Its a ***** to code around, and I can write better sites from scratch but the trade off is the customer can modify the content on their website and add modules with just mouse clicks and enough computer know how to run a web browser and a simple word processor. It's a mass of code that I have to cooperate with, that's why I dislike it.

Exactly, Neither did that. Neither referenced me to do that. When Microsoft or anyone writes software to a Windows environment, when you need to do something critical, a box pops up with directions, a button to click and it happens. It does NOT instruct you to seek help in forums for the most basic of issues.

I just can't wait until the end of the Star Trek Wars as foretold/recalled in Futurama...
 
Exactly, Neither did that. Neither referenced me to do that. When Microsoft or anyone writes software to a Windows environment, when you need to do something critical, a box pops up with directions, a button to click and it happens. It does NOT instruct you to seek help in forums for the most basic of issues.

I just can't wait until the end of the Star Trek Wars as foretold in Futurama...
Oh my. Let me tell you. Plenty of commercial grade very expensive Windows software is ANYTHING but easy to use. Things you pay $30,000+ per year just for support (for one machine)...and even then..it's still crap.

I'll take my open source Linux projects any day over that crap, thank you. If you're in the server world though, it's a serious contender, and often MUCH easier to accomplish tasks with compared to the Microsoft stack. But I wouldn't suggest that Linux is the best tool for most Desktop users.

Most of the websites you visit are powered by open source technology. Including this one.
 
Huh.. didn't see a mention of Dreamweaver in here.

I interpret Henning to want to revamp his website using WYSIWYG tools. He's used to the "publish locally then upload to a host" way of doing things, and he clearly has no interest in learning programming. I didn't see a reason to change that -- are you adding a database or something Henning?

Dreamweaver should be able to import your existing stuff. Either re-download it or use Save-As in your browser to collect the existing HTML and images, and have fun.

I think Adobe still hosts a free 30 day trial of Dreamweaver. Don't tell your nerd friends or they will rage and shun you, Dwight Schrute style. This may not be a bad thing.

The code will be a dog's code by our nerd standards. So what? If it renders, it's good enough. Leave it alone for another 10 years. :)

$0.02

- Mike
 
Good point, I think Dreamweaver is what he wants.
 
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