Web Fiction Guide Forums | Writing
Poll: What do you use to make your web pages?
For anyone that's come by and looked at my site: http://dragonoftwilight.net, you'll notice one thing... IT LOOKS LIKE CRAP! (Then again, maybe it's just me and I'm using "author vision", where one's own works look like sins against the natural order, despite your best attempts at trying to make something decent and/or beautiful.) Now, I USED to use KompoZer, but I've recently switched over to SeaMonkey Composer, which isn't all that different.
So, to the main point, please list your site and what you used to make it. Something like...
Site: http://dragonoftwilight.net
Tool: SeaMonkey
Responses
Posted 1 month ago
I generally use a plain text editor or IDE with syntax highlighting. I mainly use gEdit on Linux and e - text editor on Windows. I also like Eclipse but find it a bit overkill for most projects. Any graphics are usually made with Photoshop or openCanvas.
Muse's Success - Web Fiction Index, Ratings, and Reviews
Posted 1 month ago
Site: http://www.scintilliarium.com
Tool: Various text editors (mostly TextEdit), Fireworks/Photoshop (for graphics).
Posted 1 month ago
Site: http://www.DigitalNovelists.com and its subsites; http://www.MeiLinMiranda.com
Tool: Drupal
http://www.meilinmiranda.com/
Posted 1 month ago
I designed http://www.guardiansofelidi.com to work with Drupal. The graphics were created in Photoshop, and I use Dreamweaver for the CSS/PHP I've had to do to beat Drupal into submission. This layout is heavily customized because I have a past as a graphic designer and am allergic to default templates even if they're prettier than anything I can do.
If I had to do it all over again, I might have saved myself the headache and gone with WordPress or Blogger- especially now that blogger allows pages. Now that I've got a grip on Drupal though, I am enjoying the power and flexibility of it.
Posted 1 month ago
http://tahjir.blogspot.com/
Tools: Blogger, Photoshop
I use a heavily-edited custom theme on Blogger, and Photoshop for 90% of the graphics. Mainly because site design terrifies me. I haven't even touched that stuff since text editors in grade school. >.>
I actually prefer Blogger, as I can mess around with it as much as I want, and when I do something stupid and make the entire site go white or something (which happens a lot more that I will admit) I can just plug in a back-up file. Back when I was starting I did check out Wordpress first, but blogger just seemed more newbie-friendly.
http://tahjir.blogspot.com/
Posted 1 month ago
Site: http://www.loveandwartx.com
Runs on Wordpress. Coded in BBEdit. Laid out in Illustrator. Graphics done with Illustrator and Photoshop.
Posted 1 month ago
http://www.skipthebudgie.org
Drupal, my own theme..., coding (when needed) usually with notepad++
Posted 1 month ago
For coding: Jedit (a great text editor), Eclipse (an IDE with a lot of options), Komposer (it's free and decent for editing html, but insanely bad for coding due to an annoying tendency to move things around)
Graphics: Photoshop, the Gimp (depending on whether I'm on Windows or FreeBSD)
CMS: Wordpress, (though I've been experimenting with Drupal lately)
Unfortunately, the thing that makes a website look good isn't really the tools. It's more whether you've got a basic background in graphic design, allowing you to use the tools in a way that doesn't make the reader's eyes bleed.
A good beginning might be "The Non-designer's Design Book" by Robin Williams (not the comedian).
My Blog (Jim's Brain Online)
Posted 1 month ago
I just use Gedit and GIMP
But ya, Jim is correct...it is more the designer than the tools.
Posted 1 month ago
It is more about having good design sense than powerful tools when it comes to how your site LOOKS, but obviously the tools are more important when you're determining how you want your site to behave. Some tools have nicer templates available to download than others (specifically, I think there are some gorgeous wordpress templates out there, but the blogger defaults are kind of boring).
Posted 1 month ago
Site: Firebird Fiction
Runs on wordpress and uses a free template (Blueprint) because you could fit what I know about graphic design on the back of a postage stamp and even that exceeds what I know of php (which could fit on the head of a pin without disloging the dancing angels).
I did mess with the css to make it the colours I like rather than the default green.
The gorgeous masthead I paid for.
Posted 1 month ago
Sites: Apocalypse Blog, Starwalker and Adventures in Text (writing blog)
Runs on: Wordpress
Uses: Free themes, heavily modded to look the way I want them to (MT dark, Danika and Fabel, respectively). I usually go into the CSS and fiddle with the code until it does what I want (and try not to break anything).
Starwalker
Posted 1 month ago
I use Drupal on my site. I've got a custom theme based on Zen -- just took a little CSS tweaking to get it where I wanted it.
Posted 1 month ago
http://vjchambers.com
I used notepad++ to code and Photoshop for graphics.
I've also made some widgets on widgetbox.com.
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