Used to use Front Page on my small business site (static, no e-commerce), and now looking to upgrade the site a bit. No code, just very simple stuff, image slider will be as complicated as it gets

Haven’t got FP now, so looking at something new…

I’ve seen Serif’s Web Plus which looks in budget, but templates look limited. Any others I should look at?

Cheers

Try googleing free dreamweaver alternative. If I were you though I’d learn to customise WordPress, shouldn’t need any special software for that.

Hmmm… looks pretty neat, and fairly easy to use.

Is wordpres more of a blog orientated site creater?

Yeah – WordPress, Drupal (my personal favourite) or similar things are worth learning and you can extend them to do lots of things, not just a blog…

Rachel

So would WordPress (or Drupal) still be the best option for me – for my 10 page basic static site with no blog?

There might be a slight chance in the future of a blog, but for the moment I just want to get my current site ‘made-over’

Everyone starts out saying “I just want a really simple site…” 😉

I used to use an ancient (free student) version of Dreamweaver that I picked up at Uni. Eventually found the limitations of it and now just use Notepad++ !

Wow – just read this WP tutorial – looks brilliant. Super flexible, looks like it’ll do pretty much what I want – static page site look quite easy 🙂

Have a look at weebly. All done online and free to a point

My site is a wordpress creation. Not by me though.

http://www.allmountainventure.com/

Isn’t STW site wordpress based? Loads of free plugins with the hard work done for you is the best thing, plus is supposed to be fairly Google friendly out the box. You just have to find a template you are happy with.

If you get the right hosting with a ‘Fantastico auto installer’ initial set up is a 2 minute wizard affair.

Allmountain… – bloody ell – nice!

I’m sold on wordpress – apparently drupal is more intensive and involved…?

Kompozer is the DW spin-off (it used to be called Nvu before they got bought out IIRC)

http://www.kompozer.net/

Amaya is another one

WordPress or Joomla are both good for basic sites.
Find a hosted option and off you go – loads of widgets and components you can add later, themes and templates to make them look good. They should both be able to futureproof you for some time.

RogerTC – what’s a hosted version – i saw something similar in the tutorial. He signed up for hosting and downloaded and installed WP from that site.

I have a site already, do I need to ask them if it supports WP?

I use wix.com and redirect my domain to the wix page. Very easy to use and have done the same for a few mates.

If you just want a simple static site, I would just use a nice template. eg something from here: http://andreasviklund.com/templates/
I think they look quite smart for a business. Easy to edit in a text editor to create a few pages. Though it helps if you have some knowledge of HTML/CSS.

@Bonesetter – some hosting services will provide you a hosting service, then allow you to use their installers to create a site using one of several opensource CMS packages. Some com e with email etc.

Just be careful because many of the super easy online services do not let you move your site should you want to, so you expend a lot of time and effort building your site only to be locked into the package, also check scalability.

Drupal is very functionally capable as a CMS but the learning curve is incredibly steep and not very intuitive to use.

I would recommend WordPress as a starter.

I would recommend Joomla or Drupal if you find that there isn’t a plugin or module for WordPress that doesn’t meet your requirements.

Could anyone recommend a hosting company? I’ve seen Zen, One, 5quidhost etc. My site is local (UK) based

Currently with easyspace and they’ve said if I add a mysql package i can run wordpress. easyspace doesn’t get great reviews (and ive found them slow on response sometimes), so am looking to change

Thanks for the help so far everyone – great stuff

i’ve built a couple of wordpress sites and they are very adaptable. I moved from dreamweaver and have done barely any coding since i uninstalled it. You’d be surprised how many sites out there are based on WP.
There’s lot’s of plugins you can include and it’s very straightforward to remove the blog stuff and have it as ‘normal’ website.
Do a bit of research into the different themes available by using websites like this one http://slodive.com/freebies/free-business-wordpress-themes/

123-REG looks pretty decent

123-Reg = Fasthosts = 1and1

One WordPress route would be to make your life easier by giving up some control and using an of-the-shelf (but still configurable) theme like:
U-??Design
Karma
Whitelight

(go for the big popular ones)

Or, if you’re in a particular market, you can find themes particular to that market (e.g. Hotel, Corporate, Manufacturer, Agency, etc).

I’m not saying it’s the best route, but I even know some knowledgeable developers who use this method for their ‘bread and butter’ clients.

I’ve used 123-reg for domain registrations for ever, never had a problem with them (even after Pipex bought them). Can’t comment on their hosting though.

If you’re running a WP site and don’t have hosting, there’s always wordpress.com

Ah sorry, 123-reg is not 1and1 – that’s UKReg.

Themeforest.

Also consider Adobe Muse over Dreamweaver – I’ve used it for mockups before and it’s ok for small static sites – it would be a nightmare to convert to WordPress though.

I would recommend Joomla or Drupal if you find that there isn’t a plugin or module for WordPress that doesn’t meet your requirements.

+1

Could anyone recommend a hosting company? I’ve seen Zen, One, 5quidhost etc. My site is local (UK) based

GoDaddy are quite cheap, have European servers and you can press a button and they will install WordPress for you.

Easy

I use http://www.tsohost.com for hosting. I can’t quite understand why they are so cheap.
I’ve read reports everywhere that they they are brilliant. When I phone them up, someone answers the phone who knows everything. They install WordPress with one click.
Yet, they only cost £35 a year.

Recommended.

They’ve just made their website nasty though.

Well, i’m signed up with 123-REG, and have transferred my domain name…

I’ll hang fire till that has transfered and dowmload WordPress from 123-reg’s site as it looks like the DL/install process can be tricky