simple website program

[Tuffgong4]

With all the programs out there I'm losing my mind. I need to create a professional looking website that is easy for someone with little to no coding experience, can easily post articles (that have been published across the web, and in some magazines, so it shouldn't look too bloggy), can easily create archive files and have a links page or module on the site.

I've been looking at things like Joomla, Wordpress, and phpNuke, but some seem to have heavy install procedures (I know nothing of this stuff) or may look to bloggy.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm linking the website at the bottom of the post (which is horrendous) that currently has the articles on it and what it needs to do, but we need a very easy way for someone other than me (who has less knowledge of this stuff, didn't think it was possible, huh?) to be able to post articles and create archive links with the previous article.

the website which currently does what it's supposed to is www.valentinochronicle.com but it's currently updated in dreamweaver and needs to be more automated, and more web friendly, this site was whipped together in a short period of time and is too complicated (not the site the procedure) to update by the person who needs to do it (has 0 knowledge of this).

 

[dubstar]

you can always customize wordpress templates and take out things you dont need.

its a lot easier to put time in to customizing it than creating something brand new.

also, you can just put your code in and then modify it to accompany the new code.

 

[Tuffgong4]

is it possible to do a local install of wordpress and then upload everything to a hosting service like godaddy afterwards?

 

[Tuffgong4]

anyone know anything about Joomla or Dotnetnuke

 

[fitz]

dotNetNuke is nice if you know enough to customize it. Last time I looked at it (a couple versions back) it was a little difficult to really customize it the way I wanted it to be.. it may have changed in the newer versions, however.

 

[Tuffgong4]

I have used dotnetnuke...for a person like me that knows nothing of coding or installing on a server it seemed pretty easy to use. I'm web coding illiterate and need something for someone to use that is worse than me.

 

[dubstar]

you can modify the templates live on the site without uploading it using PREVIEW... i dont know if you can download a live dev kit though.

the user can write, while offline, and then when they're online upload it. i'm about 95% sure about that.

 

[LordOfLA]

expressionengine.com

Comes free or in two paid versions. I will shortly be getting a license for it.

I'd gush about it but this is a tech forum

 

[Tuffgong4]

I'm gonna test joomla...heard some good things and from what I see very easy to install for a dummy like me.

 

[LordOfLA]

I'm using joomla at the moment for redmeteor.net. I must say that expressionengine free leaves it in the dust, soon as I buy the personal edition and get a site going with it I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[Tuffgong4]

thanks LA, took me a while to get back to this topic...joomla seems to be doing pretty well for me, but I'm always up for suggestions.

Got another no webserver no web anything experience question.

On godaddy's servers they install joomla in it's own directory, I need to redirect the main domain to a www.domainname.com/xxxxx directory. so I need to put something in the root directory to make it redirect there. Also will this effect the google searches with a redirect???

Any help would be always appreciated!!

 

[mfarley]

I used mambo (pre-cursor to joomla) for a couple years and played with joomla for a month or two. Definitely not "bloggy" if that's what you're worried about.

Redirecting is not the best practice, but if you have to...
php redirect
asp redirect
html redirect

Good Luck! =)