Web Design Tools are crap...

[grobelaar]

I'd just like to publically announce that web design tools are quite possibly some of the worst and unusable applications that you can possibly get for computers...

They are mired in overcomplexity, unnecessary use of acronyms and technical terms and no where near to being WYSIWIG - I can only think that this is done with the express point of making them difficult to use so as to protect the living of internet professionals, by creating a 'black art'...

By comparison software like Quark Xpress and Adobe Photoshop are paragons of user friendliness and it pains me that web design can't be as easy as laying out a page of print...

The reason for this rant, because I was fired up to add a whole new bit to my website, yet I've had to spend the night faffing about trying to remember how to make transparent GIFs - Having managed it I'm now going to bed - GRRRRR!!!

[minor tint_]

i too have tried these tools and i have come to the conculsion that they are crap also......ill stick with adobe and macromedia for now.

[invisibleplanet]

ya should have txt'd me, grobs!

just select 'transparency' when u optimize the gif in photoshop... and make sure u use a transparent bkgd when u construct the psd.

hehe

have u sussed out css styles yet?

which builder do u use? macromedia? frontpage 2000?

love ip

[filthydave]

does this mean we're gettin more on our site? wahoo!

chill with the still, have a cadburys caramel or somat
just don't get angry with it mate
its not the softwares fault it was designed by idiots!

[grobelaar]

S'alright I sorted it eventually, its just none to clear that the gifs have to have a black matte and consequently when you see them on screen in the ImageReady exporter they look really crap with nasty black pixels stuck around the edges...

I don't think ImageReady is a very well thought out product - its just Photoshop rejigged and more thought could go into the presentation...

I'm using GoLive, which I suspect, given how well my site runs compared to other amateur efforts is actually a good WYSIWIG editor and writes pretty alright code. But I should expect no less for something that costs that much and given that packages likes Quark Xpress is a WYSIWIG editor for Postscript code, something far more complicated than HTML I'm disappointed with their efforts (although I have seen someone write raw Postscript - and create a magazine page - that was very scary person)...

But its also very obvious that the whole package is aimed at people putting together some monster site, complete with on-line store and database driven pages and so on - so when it comes to creating a site plain and simple its a nightmare. I'm just at the bottom of a very steep learning curve which is frustrating something... ta..

Yes, Dave it does mean that site is getting more content...