Web Architect Pro on BDJ for 30$

[tomos]

in spite of my slightly negative comments**, I'm considering buying the Pro version of Web Architect on BDJ today for 30$US - http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/web-architect-10-professional/src=day?utm_source=DailyBits&utm_medium=email&utm_content=web-architect-10-professional+Link&utm_campaign=2015-06-25+PC+A

FWIW it's normally 99$. The regular edition is normally 50$
Compare editions here.

It's very mouse orientated, and steals a lot of vertical space with a ribbon. If you can handle all that, it's the best I've come across at helping you do stuff (wizards for e.g. adding image; easy to find special characters; validation; preview; etc.). So, it's also very suitable for someone who is learning - or doesnt do this kind of stuff often (I qualify on both counts there - but that makes the Pro 'extras' kind of moot for me...).

**
[edit] I'm unsure if there is a free version as mentioned below [/edit]

Web Architect:
50 euro/ free version (some limitations I think) [?]

It is very beginner friendly:

• everything is easily accessible via ribbon UI

I didnt find it very user friendly:

• it is mouse intensive, and keyboard unfriendly (no shortcuts for very basic things)
• no customisable shortcuts that I could find, at any rate

[tomos]

deal extended an extra day -
a little less than 20hrs to go as of this posting.


... still considering

[MilesAhead]

I notice in the features chart free updates for 1 year.  But when I looked on Softpedia it showed Last Updated June 2014.  Granted Softpedia isn't always aware of the latest revisions.  But I would take a look at a change log to see if you are likely to get an update before the year expires.

Have you looked at any of the html output?  I get the impression it produces html that is supposed to be maintainable.. which I think is a good thing.  But if the source often looks like a paragraph and a half of " " chained together it may not be so.

From my limited experience it seemed like the best resource was forums where those who do it all day for a living give a tip here and there how to do a thing using html/css instead of generating images for everything.

Edit: I am not familiar with the software publisher in this case.  But I would try to find out if you are entitled to major version updates.  Sometimes they put things on discount because they are about to obsolete that version.  Version 11 may come out a week after you buy version 10. 

[tomos]

The reason I know it Miles is that it was used for a four day HTML/CSS course that I did recently.
You've still got to write the code yourself (it's *not* a WYSIWYG editor), but the menus/buttons/wizards help to write those tags and bits that are more complex.
(I see they actually promote it as a teaching software - it was quite good for that.)

You're right about updates (I think anyways). It is pretty much HTML5 ready - as to whether it will be updated in the future I have no idea - but I suspect they wouldnt pay much attention if I, e.g. asked about getting better keyboard support.

[MilesAhead]

It sounds like a good product.  When programming IntelliSense or auto completion makes it much easier.  If it does that with tags it must be a great help.  Besides, any half decent page generation tool is likely to cost $50 or so if not open source.  Seems like you can't go far wrong.