SiteGrinder anyone?

[grafikhaus74 10]

I'm currently interested in the above program. Basically (they say), you design your web site in Photoshop, name the various layers with simple extensions and SiteGrinder boils it down into web-compliant, CSS-based web pages.

 

Has anyone tried this?

[shakermaker 10]

you know how frozen microwave meals might be a quick, easy solution but just aren't as good as the real thing?

 

if it's anything other than a hobby site then to learn html & css would be my advice

 

;-)

[klingon2me 10]

Hi. I am using sitegrinder and while I agree with shakermaker, I have found it a really good tool for someone who can use Photoshop but is not up in html.

 

You can download the demo without paying to get the feel of whether it will be useful or not. I did and bought the full version for about £120

[grafikhaus74 10]

Thanks for that, Klingon

makes a change from the usual "Oh I use Ajax, Ruby on Rails, get me a life" people.

[liam1412 14]

Thanks for that, Klingon

makes a change from the usual "Oh I use Ajax, Ruby on Rails, get me a life" people.

 

But the fact that you even know that ajax and ruby on rails even exist let alone that they are web based languages suggest someone else may need to get a life. :hihi:

 

Oni kidding mate.............. I know a spot of html and css and php and the reason people give the "get a life" type advice is the same as what shakermaker said. If you plan to launch a site that is only every gonna get xx number of visitors at anyone time then the software you can buy will suit you fine. If however you intend your site to grow, all these fancy and expensive software packages do is produce bloated html/css that will cause your site to be slow under strain.

 

Thats the only reason people give you that sort of advice:thumbsup:

[jezzyjj 10]

The frustrating problem with web design is it is not something you can really automate that well. There are lots of browsers and several operating systems all with slightly different ways of doing things. So to do web coding well you need to know lots of hacks and workaround's especially with CSS as it is very variable in it's behaviour with all the different browsers. So that's why people may 'help' by suggesting learning code.

Even Dreamweaver, one of the best tools out there produces code that needs tweaking to make it work, though DW CS3 is very clever at helping you do that. I used to work in a web design place doing coding and designing, but now if doing a complex site, I will ask a coder to do the back end work for me as I don't have time to keep up with all the hacks necessary these days with CSS, or things like Ajax, PHP.

My soon to be replaced website was done using tables, as CSS wasn't up to the job when I did it. The new version will have CSS and Flash to simplify design and make it easier to update, but it's a pig to make it work in all browsers.

 

BTW - You can produce a webpage straight out of PS without buying any other programme, using Save For Web - which is quite a powerful tool. But like any automatic process, it produces code that needs some care to tidy it up afterwards. Image Ready which used to be a separate part of PS is now almost totally integrated into PS. So if you have PS CS3 or an earlier version with IR, that may do all you need.

But even if you use something like SiteGrinder, you need to really know what you are doing with regard to the website structure as that's where most sites fall down, before any coding is even done. So make sure to get your structure/navigation working properly and the rest will be a lot easier for Sitegrinder/PS etc.