Recomend a website package

[Dead_One]

I'm looking to knock up some simple websites, fairly basic, but possibly getting more complicated soon.
Need to know a package to use.
They are mainly going to be commercial sites, but with no e-commerce on them, so lists of products, company info etc.

Need to be simple to use
and allow all the features you might want in a web site
any ideas?

[The Pimp]

http://www.34sp.com

£15 per year for PhP, CGI, POP3, FP Extenstions, etc, etc. £5 per year for .co.uk's as well.

Walibe.com & my own site are both hosted on their servers and I have no complaints (unlike a lot of the other low cost hosting services)

[The Pimp]

As for software, by far the easiest and amongst the cheapest would have to be frontpage. Quick & easy.

[Dead_One]

am really after something with a lot of templates to use, basic websites set ups. that sort of thing.
front page is fine, but a bit limited, means i have to think, and i dont want to do that

[The Pimp]

Plenty of Frontpage templates online, along with Dreamweaver ones as well. If you don't want to think about layouts why not use a portal such as PhPNUKE? Contains all the basic templates and all updates & additions are done online via the admin panel. PJ knows more about his side ofthing than I do so it could be worth speaking to him about it.

[Dead_One]

ok, change the question slightly.
the first website is for a trader in 2nd hand / used goods.
Needs to list all stock, as well as photos, prices etc.
Whats the easiest way to do this site, so it can be updated frequently with very little effort?

[AlastairM]

Whats the easiest way to do this site, so it can be updated frequently with very little effort?

Other than paying me to custom-build a CMS :D

Software such as actinic catalouge [ http://www.actinic.co.uk/ ] can do this, it has a stand-alone non-ecommerce mode, all controlled via a desktop app. Comes with some templates, lets you customise the logo, buttons etc. but if you really need to customise the site your going to need to be pretty handy with html. Bit pricy if you don't need the ecomm part.

Alternativly, look at something like Macromedia contribute [http://www.macromedia.com/software/contribute/] if your client is slightly computer savvy. You create a site in dreamweaver using its template system and the client use contribute to edit only the parts of the site you deem 'editable'. Haven't used it myself but it is getting good reviews. Gives the best control over the layout but you will have to build the pages first in dreamweaver, it's not completely out-of-the-box package.

For completely browser based solutions, xcent [ http://www.xcent.com/products.htm ] might have something, but it'll still have to be integrated into a site.

Can't think of any completely free options, I have got a couple of HTML books for sale though ;)

cheers

alastair

[ross]

Something like PHPnuke or similar might be good, has templates and what not also can be updated from a web interface as far as I know.

[madmuppet]

A very good hosting company is www.bluehattech.com very good service and excellect pricing for the features you are getting. check it out, even just to compare with others.

[Dead_One]

am not after hosting, i have someone who arranges that at the moment.
just something to design websites with
thanks for all the replies
will have a try and see which works out best

[Mr_Nemesis]

Originally posted by Dead_One
Whats the easiest way to do this site, so it can be updated frequently with very little effort?

It's called PHP.

And IMO if oyu want your site to look/work like anything other than ass, Frontpage would be a good thing to avoid. If you must use a GUIfied builder, stick to dreamweaver or bluefish.

[shifty.ricky]

Looking for a good webpage design program....its called Notepad :p

[abe]

Originally posted by shifty.ricky
Looking for a good webpage design program....its called Notepad :p

too true

although VIm is too nice not to use

[Mr_Nemesis]

Yeah, VI is great if you can be bothered to figure it out.

But if you're looking for a pretty funky windws based text editor which makes coding your HTML from scratch a breeze, you could do alot worse than NoteTab (http://www.notetab.com). It allows you to do a quite advanced search-and-replace across multiple text files, and has a handy "clipbook" feature which can automate the more mundane elements of HTML, and is fully customisable.

NoteTab is available as a freeware version with some of the features removed, but the free one should contain everything you need.

[abe]

I use VI almost daily, and VIm on my desktop for most things, has to be the best out there :)