Website design best for mac

[Bigsul]

Bit random for today I know. However got a new job and need to purchase a web design tool for a mac. I'm pretty proficient with most computer stuff. Have used Quark and illustrator in the dim and distant past. The website I am going to be working on will need to be pretty functional, shop and checkout etc.

Thoughts?

 

[sebtucknott]

Hi Bigsul,

Are you looking to design the website as in do the visuals for it? If so Photoshop is your best bet. Say clear of Illustrator, this is more geared up for logos/vector work.

If you need to build the website too, I take it you're a beginner to this and would probably be best using an off the shelf shop system such as Magento or Shopify. Still will need quite a lot of learning!

If you're into coding, I use dreamweaver but the others in my team use Netbeans or Notepad++ which are both free.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Seb

 

[Silk]

Hi Bigsul,

Are you looking to design the website as in do the visuals for it? If so Photoshop is your best bet. Say clear of Illustrator, this is more geared up for logos/vector work.

If you need to build the website too, I take it you're a beginner to this and would probably be best using an off the shelf shop system such as Magento or Shopify. Still will need quite a lot of learning!

If you're into coding, I use dreamweaver but the others in my team use Netbeans or Notepad++ which are both free.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Seb

I use Notepad++ too. Fine if you already know your code. If not I would suggest Dreamweaver.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

I use Notepad++ but for a beginner i'd suggest a turnkey e-commerce script which will save a lot of work and be more functional. Also something like Joomla has a lot of good plug-ins and it's easy to manage content, might be worth a look.

 

[Grombleton]

Hi Bigsul,

Are you looking to design the website as in do the visuals for it? If so Photoshop is your best bet. Say clear of Illustrator, this is more geared up for logos/vector work.

If you need to build the website too, I take it you're a beginner to this and would probably be best using an off the shelf shop system such as Magento or Shopify. Still will need quite a lot of learning!

If you're into coding, I use dreamweaver but the others in my team use Netbeans or Notepad++ which are both free.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Seb

All good stuff there - Seb's got a lot of knowledge in this.

I pretty much echo what Seb says; for the visuals then having a good knowledge of Photoshop/Fireworks is important (i personally prefer layout work in Fireworks, but it's subjective) and Dreamweaver will help you get the understanding of how the site is to be constructed; then once you're confident then you can move to coding in a text editor such as Notepad++ or Textwrangler. Dreamweaver gets a lot of bad rep as it's normally used incorrectly but it can be a really valuable tool, especially with a built in FTP loader means it's multifunctional.

Again, Megento is the way for e-commerce in my view- decent integration with most other CMS' (it is a CMS in its own right, but some like to use it in tandem with Joomla! or Drupal). It'll not be easy but if you can get to grips with those most other things will come naturally.

Shout to any of us for help; there seems to be a good amount of web guys on here, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

 

[Bigsul]

All good stuff there - Seb's got a lot of knowledge in this.

I pretty much echo what Seb says; for the visuals then having a good knowledge of Photoshop/Fireworks is important (i personally prefer layout work in Fireworks, but it's subjective) and Dreamweaver will help you get the understanding of how the site is to be constructed; then once you're confident then you can move to coding in a text editor such as Notepad++ or Textwrangler. Dreamweaver gets a lot of bad rep as it's normally used incorrectly but it can be a really valuable tool, especially with a built in FTP loader means it's multifunctional.

Again, Megento is the way for e-commerce in my view- decent integration with most other CMS' (it is a CMS in its own right, but some like to use it in tandem with Joomla! or Drupal). It'll not be easy but if you can get to grips with those most other things will come naturally.

Shout to any of us for help; there seems to be a good amount of web guys on here, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Brilliant, thanks. I have dabbled with dreamweaver so will start there and tap you up if needed.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Coda. Sorted!

 

[JCL]

If you want something less bloated than Dreamweaver, then I highly recommend Coda. But that does assume that you'll be hand-coding.

 

[TimWatt]

Easy answer to this - Rapidweaver!

Made by a Brighton based software company (Realmacsoftware).

Brilliant support, and community making stuff for it - which shows confidence in the product. Dreamweavers may sneer (as it can't do everything), but it's actually really great for making good looking websites without very much knowledge, and can do a lot when you have experience.

Otherwise, if you're collaborating with others not on Mac, use Wordpress, which is roughly the same or maybe a bit less user-friendly and has a large if variable in quality support community.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Easy answer to this - Rapidweaver!

Made by a Brighton based software company (Realmacsoftware).

Brilliant support, and community making stuff for it - which shows confidence in the product. Dreamweavers may sneer (as it can't do everything), but it's actually really great for making good looking websites without very much knowledge, and can do a lot when you have experience.

Otherwise, if you're collaborating with others not on Mac, use Wordpress, which is roughly the same or maybe a bit less user-friendly and has a large if variable in quality support community.

This multiplied by a million.

Rapidweaver is a joy to use!