Website Design (Techies, help me out!)

[sgreger1]

I am trying to set up a website for my mother-in-law's restaurant, but I don't have any of the necessary programs any more.

Specifically, i would like to set up a flash website.


My problem: I don't have any of the good programs to do this with, and limewire has been shut down so I can't blatantly steal it like I would normally do.



Do any of you techies have a copy of the following programs which you feel like sharing? (Keep in mind, I have a mac)

Adobe Dreamweaver
Adove Flash Suite
Adobe Photoshop


If anyone can find a way for me to obtain these, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm not up to date on my pirate websites, so I am unsure where I can find a copy of them since limewire is down.




Any program that can handle compiling flash websites is fine (if you know of any good third party ones, lemme know. Doens't have ot be adobe), or even any type of decent dreamweaver like compiler would be fine.



You guys rock!

[devilock76]

Why flash. Personally I stay far away from it. Especially when you have to consider mobile devices these days and the most popular one will not render flash. I only see flash as useful for high level media type sites. Not most businesses. Now if you want to talk good open source development tools for html like say Bluefish among others or maybe some good open source CMS software that makes building an interactive web presence easy I can help there.

Ken

[sgreger1]

Why flash. Personally I stay far away from it. Especially when you have to consider mobile devices these days and the most popular one will not render flash. I only see flash as useful for high level media type sites. Not most businesses. Now if you want to talk good open source development tools for html like say Bluefish among others or maybe some good open source CMS software that makes building an interactive web presence easy I can help there.

Ken

I completely agree RE: Flash. I think it is gimmicky, takes too long to load, and it is no longer viable as companies like apple have decided to ditch it. I planned to get around it by having an automatic redirect to an HTML page for those without flash (a mobile friendly version of the site).



The site is going to be simple, it just needs to show pictures of the food, the menu, and maybe an "order" section that essentially just send an email to a dedicated inbox for taking orders.

All very simple stuff, but she saw a competitors site do all the cool flash animation stuff and she was like "WANT". (THIS is the site she saw)


I am going to try to do it with flash, but I don't have the program(s) necessary to pull that off.



If I were to do it in just HTML, my HTML/javascript etc skills is rusty and outdated, so I would need a program that can allow me to do the least amount of actual coding. Something like dreamweaver or equivalent would be great.


What is bluefish? I don't need anything to be particularly interactive, but I would like it to be animated in a style similar to that of a flash website. But I don't even have photoshop, and I am on a mac so most pirated stuff is only available for windows.





EDIT: HTML 5 is supposedly going to replace flash, but how does it work? Can HTML5 create a flash "looking" webpage?

[sgreger1]

If I were to have a flash template, I just need to be able to switch out the pictures and change the text in the template. That is the bare minimum of what i need here. Is there anything I can get that can open a flash website template and change pictures/text?


If anyone knows the hot spot to pirate some shit, please PM me or post it here. I am not paying adobe $500 to spend an hour building a website.

[sgreger1]

I'll be "that guy".

Stop stealing stuff. Especially for a commercial purpose.

Besides. None of those programs are "necessary" in any stretch of the imagination.

Like Devilock76 suggests, I'd stay away from Flash, particularly for something like a restaurant which might, likely, want to be visible/functional to the mobile browsers.

Gimp should cover you for Photoshop and it's free: http://www.gimp.org/
Dreamweaver is lame (IMO), but if you really want training wheels on your development try this: http://www.kompozer.net or this: http://www.aptana.com/
If you think you really need Flash - try this: http://www.flashdevelop.org (free) or this http://www.sothink.com/product/swfquicker/ (30 day demo - $89 after)

I would stop stealing stuff if it were priced accordingly. It costs the same for a mega corporation like Disney to buy a copy of PS as it does for me, (especially a commercial license). If I could afford it I would, but I don't have several hundred dollars to pour into this. My original plan was to just do the whole thing on a trial version, since the site will need almost no updating after the initial launch.



I am using flash because it is what she wanted, though I generally do not like flash sites. I am going to figure out how to set it up to recognize if someone is loging on from a mobile device, and have it redirect them to an HTML version of the site that is mobile friendly.


Re: Dremweaver is lame. Yah, but some of us need training wheels

Re: flashdevelop.org <----- This is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!

[sgreger1]

There's nothing on that page you linked to that needs to be in flash.

Really? Sweet! Sorry, it's been so long since i've tried to set up a webpage, I am still stuck in the year 2000 when it comes to web design. How could I make animations such as that without flash, is that possible now? Using CSS or what?

[sgreger1]

I feel the same way about gold and gas, but I'm not quite to the point where I start stealing it.

Lol, good point actually.

No, frankly this is a small operation, a modest website for a very small family business in the ghetto. I just don't have the money to do anything crazy, but I know that my labor is free and I can obtain the software to make it happen. It doens't need to be brand named, the freeware flash developer you posted was perfect for this, and the openoffice HMLT editor is perfect.

[N0mad]

Or she could just hire a professional... Like danielan said if she's impressed with that site it wouldn't cost much at all... Your mother-in-law is a restaurateur right? What does she know about Web Design or what she needs, that particular site can't even be indexed or link to a specific content page.

How do I know this you ask? I've been writing business applications for the Web for over 10 years and that's what I do for a living now. Meet with some local collage students get some samples of their work and get a few quotes and DO NOT let anyone do it in flash if you do you'll have to pay them to update it next time you need a change.

My advice because you did ask for it, mow her grass, do repairs around the house, change the oil in her car but stay out of your mother-in-law's business and your marriage will last longer.

[sgreger1]

Or she could just hire a professional... Like danielan said if she's impressed with that site it wouldn't cost much at all... Your mother-in-law is a restaurateur right? What does she know about Web Design or what she needs, that particular site can't even be indexed or link to a specific content page.

How do I know this you ask? I've been writing business applications for the Web for over 10 years and that's what I do for a living now. Meet with some local collage students get some samples of their work and get a few quotes and DO NOT let anyone do it in flash if you do you'll have to pay them to update it next time you need a change.

My advice because you did ask for it, mow her grass, do repairs around the house, change the oil in her car but stay out of your mother-in-law's business and your marriage will last longer.

Lol, well she is a immegrant who doesn't even know how to use the internet, so she can't do it by herself. She asked me to do it as a birthday present because professional freelancers charge far to much considering I am willing to do it for free, I just didn't know all the cool freeware programs that are available now.


You can get around the indexing problem by having an HTML page as well, that way the crawlers can read what they want and index it properly, but the user can still see the site in flash.

@Danielan: 100 bucks for a website, holy shit you must be living somewhere totally different than me. $1,000 is like the minimum for everything i've seen.




I guess I could just go with HTML, but I am not good enough to do all the sexy stuff with it. I suppose I should give it a try, as I agree flash is not only outdated, but not as efficient for a business as a regular HTML website.



As for the whole index/specific content links, the site I showed you is the second search result when i type in "Lumpia house dublin", so obviously it is getting indexed somehow. How is it doing that?




Guys: She is not going to hire a professional. This is for a birthday present. It doens't have to be perfect, but it has to be something. I can do all the rest, I just needed to know of some freeware programs to do it with. Thanks for all your help guys!

[lxskllr]

I second danielan's suggestions. I don't know a damned thing about web design, but I'm a huge fan of open source software. It my or may not be as good as commercial solutions, but they're free for the asking forever. No worries about the BSA knocking down your door, no ridiculous workarounds to get around DRM, and no virus payloads that were inserted into the cracked program. You can use open source for fun or profit, and don't have to worry about anything. Oh yea, and **** Flash. Adobe is a blight on the computing landscape, and should be avoided at all costs.

Edit:
It doesn't have to be exactly what she wants first time through. You can setup a basic page at first, and then add features as you learn. She'll get a decent site, and you'll learn new skills. It's a win-win, and it's hard to complain when considering the price.

[sgreger1]

I second danielan's suggestions. I don't know a damned thing about web design, but I'm a huge fan of open source software. It my or may not be as good as commercial solutions, but they're free for the asking forever. No worries about the BSA knocking down your door, no ridiculous workarounds to get around DRM, and no virus payloads that were inserted into the cracked program. You can use open source for fun or profit, and don't have to worry about anything. Oh yea, and **** Flash. Adobe is a blight on the computing landscape, and should be avoided at all costs.

LOL, okay okay guys, maybe i'll consider doing it in HTML instead. She isn't real familiar with the itnernet and just liked the flashyness and animation from the flash. i can do something flashy and animated with macromedia flash, but I can't make that happenw ith HTML (though apparently it is possible).


And I agree about the open source stuff. This way, no commercial license is needed, and I only need the most basic of functions, I don't need th entire suite for making a site like ebay, just to add some pictures and text.

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

You already have to do an HTML version like you said for non-flash-devices. So just do that first. You might want separate HTML pages for mobile vs regular browsers that just don't like your flash. Or if you do use flash just make it a part of an HTML page that you don't need to update. Also check out using CSS and DIV instead of TABLES for layout. It makes the markup look nicer.

[sgreger1]

You already have to do an HTML version like you said for non-flash-devices. So just do that first. You might want separate HTML pages for mobile vs regular browsers that just don't like your flash. Or if you do use flash just make it a part of an HTML page that you don't need to update. Also check out using CSS and DIV instead of TABLES for layout. It makes the markup look nicer.

That was my plan was to have the flash site run within an HTML page, then create an identical (but less animated) non-flash version for people who don't like flash or are using a mobile device.



I don't think it will be a problem, and I don't even care about search engine results. Everyone goes to her yelp page anyways, and I will just update the yelp page with her new website and she will get the same amount of traffic. indexing isn't even that important to me to be honest.

She is asian, so wants some flashy ninja shit. Therefore I will make one with flash and one with HTML and then everyone should be happy.

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

That was my plan was to have the flash site run within an HTML page, then create an identical (but less animated) non-flash version for people who don't like flash or are using a mobile device.



I don't think it will be a problem, and I don't even care about search engine results. Everyone goes to her yelp page anyways, and I will just update the yelp page with her new website and she will get the same amount of traffic. indexing isn't even that important to me to be honest.

She is asian, so wants some flashy ninja shit. Therefore I will make one with flash and one with HTML and then everyone should be happy.

Well I guess you just need the "If asian = yes, flashy-ninja-shit = true" script

[dreed2]

You can do wonders with JavaScript, which will bypass the whole Flash thing. Until Flash works on iPhone and iPads (which it will soon, by the way), I wouldn't recommend designing an entire website in Flash since so many people use iPhones, etc. Not to mention that updating a Flash website is a freakin' nightmare. Go with basic HTML and a little JavaScript for interest. Keep it as simple as possible. It will save you many headaches in the future.

PS: I have a Mac, I'm a professional web designer and webmaster, and am using Adobe products on it, but believe me when I tell you that Adobe is VIGILANT about anyone pirating their software! They offer HUGE cash rewards for anyone who will rat on pirates. Otherwise, I'd be happy to give you a free copy of the software I paid megabucks for if this weren't the case.