Dreamweaver, is overkill for building a simple brochure site. Even after Adobe’s interface clean-up in CS4, Dreamweaver still resembles a soviet era industrial truck with lots of buttons. But it’s also a completely full-featured Web solution and seamlessly connects to other Adobe products you may already have. That continuity of experience is worth something, even if you need to learn yet another program. Dreamweaver, while techno/industrial, is very learnable, especially if you have other Adobe products.
There are some other, even free, Web building programs but you either need to be a closet programmer or be content with extremely limited toolsets in making your site. SiteGrinder liberates you from both of these requirements.
If you want to include more robust Web functions to your SiteGrinder site like .php database functionality or e-commere, even the MediaLab’s documentation suggests using Dreamweaver to add that functionality, as well as uploading the site.
Web sites are the first impression most people will have of your business or project. It can affirm you either as a hobbyist or a pro in about a nanosecond. Choose wisely.
Good Web site design is not simply a matter of making a pretty page either. It’s as much about information design and understanding peoples' viewing conventions as it is about the technology and Web requirements.
We all think that everyone surfs the Web exactly as we do, making us qualified to build the perfect site - but it just ain’t so. Nobody surfs the web like you or I do; everybody uses the web differently. Once you get beyond ultra basic navigation, watching people use a site can be very, um, enlightening and maddening all at the same time. Web pro’s know much about this stuff and can prevent common mistakes. Web pros can also assist with Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As such, for more basic sites, especially for straight-forward promotion, Site Grinder might be the perfect fit. But, if you think that your site will grow beyond 15 pages, need to handle any e-commerce functions or have secure client/investor login areas, you may be better served by tracking down a reputable web designer that has a history and client base you can confirm.
