A simple newbie question

  • johne53

    (@johne53)


    17 years, 1 month ago

    A few days ago I took my first steps at designing a web site. I started with (a trial version of) Xara Web Designer. This was okay to get the basics but one of Xara’s limitations is that you can’t use it to design forms (although forms designed in some other packages can be embedded in a Xara web page).

    Anyway, someone suggested that I take a look at WordPress. My site doesn’t need to have blogging facilities – I only want a simple landing page showing some basic info about my products with a form where people can leave their details if they want further information (I already have a working Perl script that can process the form).

    Would WordPress be good for something like this? I’m only asking because WordPress’s home page gives the impression that it’s primary use is to create blog sites.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • whooami

    (@whooami)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    Would WordPress be good for something like this?

    no. its overkill and since you dont know what you are doing .. its more work than necessary. theres NO difference between a page made with wordpress and a page in xara and a page made in notepad.. they all output the same code to as browser.

    Im curious, your profile says you are a “Software programmer”. what software do you program that you find it necessary to use a piece of &*$^% like xara to make a web page? Im seriously and sincerely curious.

    Thread Starter johne53

    (@johne53)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    I program bespoke applications for the Film & Television industry (for example to convert media from one manufacturer’s format to some other manufacturer’s format). I’m not involved in web programming (or web site design) in any way. Hence why I’m looking for tools that make web design easy. Xara, to be fair, is pretty good in that respect. It doesn’t go far enough but it has a simple aim, to ease the process of designing a simple web site. It doesn;t do anything fancy but AFAICT, it’s pretty good at what it does do.

    Thread Starter johne53

    (@johne53)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    Drupal has now been suggested to me as a possible alternative to WordPress. Checking out the Drupal web site, it does seem to be quite well suited to my needs. Does anyone here have any experience or comments about Drupal?

    Thread Starter johne53

    (@johne53)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    Forget it – I just read some of the criticisms on Drupal’s web site..! lol

    transpersonal

    (@transpersonal)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    WordPress can be used to make websites that look nothing like blogs. You do need some coding experience though. But even if you don;t t the very least you can get rid of the get sidebar php command and use pages instead of posts and there you have it, a site that looks nothing like a blog. I think WordPress would be a better choice than Drupal or even Joomla since it is so easy to use.

    whooami

    (@whooami)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    I think WordPress would be a better choice than Drupal or even Joomla

    I concur, if thats what you are looking for. I think the other two are overkill also though.

    A static HTML site has many advantages over using anything that’s dynamic, especially if youre not expecting any growth.

    For starters, the learning curve is tremendously reduced. Second, static sites are “safer” when youre talking about security and just over-all upkeep.

    Thread Starter johne53

    (@johne53)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    Thanks guys. WordPress has a couple of other advantages too. Firstly, I found out that there’s a local WordPress User Group, near where I live and secondly, a friend of mine is quite experienced with WordPress (though admittedly, only to build blog sites).

    Getting back to my original question though… I would definitely need to be able to design a form for the site and (ideally) I’d like the form to have the same look & feel as the other pages. In other words, if the other pages were based on a template, my form would need the same look & feel. This is where everything falls down with Xara. Can that be done with WordPress?

    whooami

    (@whooami)

    17 years, 1 month ago

    Can that be done with WordPress?

    my form would need the same look & feel.

    yes it can. Just like any other web-app or similar, including xara.

    that look and feel you speak of, that’s all accomplished using CSS. the structure is ALL the same.

    youre talking yourself into this so .. you want to go the harder way to have a couple pages (or one, as you indicate above) — cool, have at it. welcome to wordpress.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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