Resolved Yahoo Sitebuilder replacement?

Sub-topic: web development

I've been using Y!'s Sitebuilder and it's older brother, Pagebuilder for longer than I want to think about and have finally just had it with both of them. Pagebuilder dates back to GeoCities and Sitebuilder was supposed to be the "Great Revamp" of all WYSIWYG site compositors.... well, ain't happened yet!

Of late (last few years) both of these have been getting hinkier and hinkier and it's now to the point where I can rarely even get up a visible menu in either of them to do repairs or additions.

I need some recommendations on a fairly brainless free WYSIWYG, into which I can import the existing websites (and they're NOT small!), rebuild as necessary and then republish to my Yahoo domains so I can maintain the sites.

OK, I said "free ", but an inexpensive one would also be acceptable...

Perhaps I'm wishing for the Moon, but I thought if anyone would know, youse lot would!

Please feel free to reply off-line if you wish...

 

Oi! They STILL do that (PageBuilder in particular is fond of doing EVERYTHING in "tables "!) but I'm too (censored) old to start learning how to raw-code HTML,

(I just learned how to wave "Bye-Bye ", and NEXT week I'll get started on "Patty-Cake "!)

 

I've liked Kompozer, which is a continuation of the old nvu, in turn from Netscape Navigator's Composer program. You can quickly install it and then bring up a page and see how it handles your html. I always liked how it would quickly let me switch from view and code tabs (in other words, see what it would look like in most browsers, and see the actual html). I have tried other free programs and none have ever come close to its ease of use (I admit that this isn't necessarily the top priority for an html editor, but I sure love it). Of course I've never done anything too complicated, so I can't relate how effective it will be for you, but its worth a look.

 

Thanks, guys... both of those look quite nice and I'll do some experimenting with them.

The main problem I have is http://wwww.oldmusicproject.com and a cursory look at one of the pages (http://oldmusicproject.com/OneilsAirsSongs.html) will immediately show the main concern: with something more than 600 links on that one page alone, and some fifty-odd pages total on the site with a similar number of links, the importing and re-editing (if required [and it's ALWAYS bloody required, innit?] for re-formatting to the new editor) is a more-than-somewhat-daunting task.

I originally made the pages in something called "Web-Monkey ", which was a proprietary WYSIWYG for a now-defunct web-hosting service whose name escapes me... When I changed ISP's from "EROL'S" to the next victim (and I think there's been six or seven, including Verizon, DTV and others) I had to re-format the bloody site entirel, so the thought of using yet another compositor and having (again) to re-connect some 8500 links is, I must admit, enough to make me think seriously of just saying, "To hell with it" and staying where I am.

Still, I'm that unhappy with the way the site performs as to ask the question and consider yet another change and the consequent effort to keep the site alive and editable.

Sorry... got a bit morose and self-pitying there... not at all what I was taught.

Again. thanks to all for their replies and tips; your continued help and encouragement is MOST appreciated.

 

I see you have a major prior investment (in time) that could end up requiring a lot more time if/when you switch html editors.

That's one reason why I'd recommend taking one of those pages (the home/index page), renaming it indexOLD.html, and then saving it as a new index.html in Kompozer (or Amaya) and having a go at it. You can always re-upload the current page in a few seconds if things get too goofed up--keeping in mind that you would only want to work on one page, to see what it would look like. You can experiment with quite a few progams this way, to see which new one would require the least amount of re-working of links, tables, graphics, etc.

A couple of rambling thoughts that might be relevant:

It seems that you have special needs here--either shelling out some cash for a pro program; if you don't want to do that (can't say I'd blame you, as I like freeware as much as the next guy), get an open-source freeware program like Amaya or Kompozer. It is important that you have the same program for the next several years at least, because you don't want to have to go through this again at some point in the future if you don't have to. Open source htlm editors offer you the best chance that five years from now, your program will still exist in some form or fashion, regardless of the version of Windows. I'd avoid a freeware closed-source program for these reasons (it seems like you've run into this problem before). All of this is assuming that you won't outgrow the program, but (unless I'm misunderstanding you) it seems like what you need isn't necessarily something with a lot of bells and whistles, just compatibility with what you've already built.

 

Would this not entail my having to go into the code and change every link to simplify it? (As smart as I am in some respects with computing, I confess I understand HTML far less than constructing a new box from parts... forgive me if these are idjiit questions... I've always been a 'hardware' guy.)

I confess that the thought of mucking about in a page of HTML leaves me weaker in the knees than 'standing in the door' did for my first jump.

 

Thanks! I'll give that a shot. It seems a bit more manageable with the examples. I confess that the last time I moved the site from host to host, I had to rebuild every link and I used the dialog box for individual replacements... there's no way in (you know where) I'm gonna EVER do THAT again! Took **** near three weeks.

 

Will be working on this next week... will post back with results.

 

Semi-resolved. Sitebuilder's approach is to use the toolbar and "clear Image Cache "... works MOST of the time, but only for a while, so I'm now used to saving all work, clearing the cache and going back to whatever I was destroying.... only takes a few keystrokes and is the "lazy man's" out.

Thanks for the reminder Steve!