Free Sitebuilder

[murray1987]

I tried using the free sitebuilder 4.0 that you offered when I signed up for hosting. It apparently is an old version and does not allow for uploading any photos. Is there anyway to easily upgrade for free or do you offer any suggestions as to other free sitebuilders that will allow photo uploading and free templates. This site I'm working on is for my church and now I feel I'm am letting them down because I expected to upload our photos instead of using the generic people that are in the templates offered. I can not pay anymore to buy a sitebuilder, our funds are limited. The program you offer states I can upload the photos but when I looked into the makers forum they say I cannot with that version.

Any suggestions?

Thanks and God bless you,
Blake

[gwyneth]

Because you don't have access yet to the rest of the forum, I'm copying a post that suggests free alternatives that IMO have advantages over the Sitebuilder even at its most current.

Note that you'll need to upload your pages and images to the server, either with an FTP program or the File Manager in cPanel.

Start of copied post:

Several recent threads have discussed a few of the issues associated with Site Studio/Site Builder.

These include (but aren't limited to) non-portability, quirky formatting, and trouble determining what to input so you get what you want.

While Site Studio seems to have one overwhelming advantage--the ability for even a total novice to publish a professional-looking page almost instantly--there are other ways for total beginners to achieve this.

IMO, one of the biggest drawbacks to using Site Studio is that it creates its own frustrations...leading novices to think 'if this is bad, the other ways must be even worse'.

Well, the other ways don't have to be worse, and offer much higher paybacks for the initial frustration, time, etc. that are inevitable even with Site Builder. And, ironically, it's much easier to find help when you're using the alternatives. (Hypothetical parallel--expert cookie makers wouldn't know the specific features of Cookeeze, the easy sleazy automatic cookie maker.)

One of the sites mentioned below discusses the issue here: Is It Better to Use an Online Site Builder or a Standalone Web Editor? (thesitewizard.com)

Believe me, you can do it. Here's how.

Option (or step) one

This site includes a very easy-to-follow set of explanations; an online page builder that lets you build and save to disk a simple page; and a free editor. There is help every step of the way.

* HTML for the Conceptually Challenged

Option (or step) two

Download NVU or KompoZer . Complete handholding and getting started info is available at:

Nvu Tutorials (thesitewizard.com)

KompoZer Tutorials (thesitewizard.com)

The first link in each list gives you a step by step guide to get you through your first page. Other info shows you how to use the program with existing pages, such as...

Templates and more

Each of these sites has more easy-to-follow information and templates you can download and customize.

So, you want to make a web page

The Web Diner Introduces Your Web Adventure!

Iron Spider

Easy lessons

The first site has lessons for every aspect of web publishing, but this part is particularly valuable--a set of interactive page components ("HTML tags"):

HTML Examples (interactive)

This site, while downright cheesy-looking, does have some of the easiest-to-follow lessons anywhere:

44 HTML Lessons and Tutorials