A close friend of our family has asked me to help him update his web page(purely informative site). It turns out though that the site needs so much updating that it would be better to just redo it altogether. I have some past programming experience in Java, Visual Basic, and HTML but do not have the time to brush up on everything I would need to know to help him.
Is there some reliable software I could download or purchase without breaking the bank, that could assist me in the design of this site. I would like to spend less than $200 on the software.

Thanks,
Shadrach

no, you would need to learn how to do it properly.

I'm not sure I understand. Are you saying that at $200, I would not be able to find a reliable product to generate some of the code for me, and would thus have to do it myself? I think the term "properly" is confusing me. Do you consider use of such products improper?

Thanks for your input,
Shadrach

What is meant by 'proper' around here is no tables for layout and using HTML and CSS for the site layout.

You could try Coffecup's software, it's under $200, but I'm not sure if it is a full WYSIWYG editor. Most of those types of editors, including the pricey Dreamweaver, will spew really lousy code. Even if Coffeecup is full WYSIWYG, if you don't know how to code, then fixing something that may not be working right cross-browser is going to be next to impossible.

Even if it does spew lousy code, sometimes deleting all the unnecessary code is quicker than doing it from scratch. Has anyone used 'Eclipse'? Its a free download. It was recommended to me. Do you think the freeware editors are worth the trouble? My experience with freeware leaves me generally more willing to buy the real thing.

Thanks,
Shadrach

Originally Posted by Shadrach

Is there some reliable software I could download or purchase without breaking the bank, that could assist me in the design of this site. I would like to spend less than $200 on the software.

How about free? Take your pick, of Dreamweaver, Expression Web (was FrontPage), or anything else you like. Most have time limited (30 day) but otherwise fully functional trial editions. Download one (or all) of those, fix the site quickly, and you're $200 ahead.

This is 100 % legal, and in keeping with the license agreement. Adobe hope that when you try Dreamweaver out for this particular mess, you'll really like it, and that the next time you have to do this, your 30 days will be up, so you'll buy a copy. It's maybe their best sales technique. But, if you only have to do this once, and can work quickly, it's free.

LadyNRed is right about wanting to use nothing but floating divs, and other tags as they're designed, then let CSS pick up the display. It will be maybe harder to get that from a designer than writing by hand. But you're right that when things are so terribly broken, often a tool to put things into a only annoyingly broken state, is a good idea.