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January 23, 2023
Question

Adobe Expression Web 4 replacement recommendation

  • January 23, 2023
  • 5 replies
  • 10475 views

I have a historical WWII website and have been using Adobe Expression Web 4 for many years.  The website is nothing fancy. I don't sell anything or require any user accounts or log in.  I mostly just index and post historical documents.  Expression Web 4 works fine with older versions of Windows, up until Windows 11.  It does "sort of" work on Windows 11, but if you try to add a link (a feature I frequently use) Expressions Web just shuts down.  Planning ahead for the day when Expressions Web 4 stops working altogether, I'm looking for another webpage editing/building program.

 

Ideally, I would like something easy to use without a huge learning curve. When creating new webpages, I basically just edit existing web pages and add new text and links.  I would appreciate either suggestions on what program to buy - or if there is a way to get Expression Web 4 to work with Windows 11.  Here is a link to my website so you can get an idea of what I need.  Thanks for any suggestions.

134th Infantry Regiment Website 

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    5 replies

    rayek.elfin
    Legend
    February 2, 2023

    I tested and opened the 134th Infantry Regiment Website in the Pinegrow Web Editor, and @60067 I believe you could easily replace Expression Web with Pinegrow. It will allow you to continue working with the site as you do now.

     

    The workflow is similar to Expression Web: load the local project folder (File-->Open Project), switch to the file tree in the left panel, browse the file tree to explore pages for editing. Create new pages in the file menu.

    The editor is WYSIWYG. Coding is not required.

     

    Pinegrow has no issues loading and editing all your @60067 pages for editing. It works intuitively if you are coming from Expression Web.

     

    Since you are a non-profit, you may be eligible for a 50% discount.

    https://pinegrow.com/docs/licensing-questions/students-teachers-ngos-and-npos/

     

    BenPleysier
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    February 2, 2023

    This is what I see when using Wappler:

     

     

    Wappler is the DMXzone-made Dreamweaver replacement and includes the best of their powerful extensions, as well as much more!
    60067Author
    Known Participant
    February 2, 2023

    Thanks!  I'm going to watch some of the "how-to" videos.  This looks like it might work for me.  

    rayek.elfin
    Legend
    January 31, 2023

    I have to chime in here, because I do not understand why WordPress is suggested as an answer to the OP's question. WordPress is fine, but in this particular case the OP's website consists of very simple styled, mostly text-based collections of pages with links and a few images: an archive, just as the OP mentioned.

     

    To then direct him to WordPress is, in my opinion, questionable and counter-productive. WordPress would require a complete overhaul of the site and is complete overkill in this case. It's not what the OP wants or needs in my opinion.

     

    Instead, the OP merely needs a simple visual web page editor to replace Microsoft Expression Web. Therefore, I would recommend BlueGriffon http://bluegriffon.org

    That's all he needs to continue to work on the site. There is even an free FTP addon which allows for uploading the pages directly to the webhost. The base software is free, and should suffice for his needs.

    As @Nancy OShea pointed out, BlueGriffon is no longer developed, so it wouldn't be correct to recommend it at this point in time. The only visual web page editor still available for desktop that is worth it would be PineGrow in my opinion, but it is rather expensive and somewhat overkill for a simple website like this one.

    https://pinegrow.com/

     

    Otherwise, a static page CMS might be worth checking out, but it requires some set up on the server side. But many of these are poorly developed nowadays too.

     

    @60067If I may make a few suggestions to improve the overall usability of your website:

     

    Add the following five lines of CSS in your content_script.css file at the beginning of the code to the body tag rule:

     

    body {

            (existing code is --fbc- prefixed lines: keep these)

                 max-width: 60rem;
                 margin: 2rem auto;

                 padding: 0 3rem;
                 font-size: 1.15rem;
                 line-height: 1.6;
    }

     

    }

    This will restrict the maximum width on larger screens and improve readability as well as usability. It will also improve how your site works on desktop & larger screens and center the main content for larger screens, as well as add additional margins at the sides to improve the readability on smaller screens. It also increases the type size and leading a smite, improving overall legibility and readability.

     

    Secondly, find and remove all local <font size=""></font> tags and allow the CSS to do the job is was meant to do: style your content. the <font> tag is extremely outdated and deprecated: used before the advent of CSS to style text.

     

     

     

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 31, 2023

    Sites that deal with historical content such as WWII, Vietnam, etc... really should be organized for future use.  Content should be easy to find & searchable.  The project will likely require collaborators now & in the future.  Since none of us will live forever, my recommendation to use WordPress is a long term solution rather than a quick fix to a short term problem of finding a new code editor. 

     

    AFAIK, the BlueGriffon project ended.  Like Kompozer, there's been no recent development of the Nvu-based editors for awhile.   I took them off my short list of alternatives along with Atom.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    rayek.elfin
    Legend
    January 31, 2023

    Thinking it a bit over, I do agree with you for the most part. And yes, I assumed BlueGriffon was still updated, but activity on the project has stopped since 2019. My bad!

     

    I suppose the site could be easily maintained with Pinegrow, but that seems overkill again.

     

    WordPress could be a solution, but again I question if it isn't preferable to use a static page CMS rather than relying on a database server in this case.

    Community Expert
    January 25, 2023

    Expression Web was a Microsoft product not an Adobe one. Adobe has had Dreamweaver, GoLive, and Muse. As stated, going to Wordpress or a hosted solution like Wix may be best in your case.

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 23, 2023

    Any desktop software recommendations will require good coding & web skills. These days, there's no single tool that can do everything.  I use Dreamweaver CC for coding and site management alongside other tools.

     

    CODE TUTORIALS:
    - https://www.w3schools.com/html/
    - https://www.w3schools.com/css/
    - https://www.w3schools.com/js/

    CODE EDITORS:
    -- Adobe Dreamweaver CC - https://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html
    -- Codespaces (free, browser-based) - https://github.com/features/codespaces
    -- Nova (Mac only, formerly called Coda) - https://nova.app/
    -- Pinegrow - https://pinegrow.com/
    -- Sublime Text - http://www.sublimetext.com/
    -- Visual Studio Code (free) - https://code.visualstudio.com/

     

    Hope that helps.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    60067Author
    Known Participant
    January 25, 2023

    I watched a few WordPress how-to videos and it seems geared more toward creating new visually attractive websites rather than just maintaining older sites. I may be wrong, but I got the impression that in order to use WordPress I would have to convert all the existing web pages.  Honestly, I am not that ambitious.  I was hoping to keep it simple - which may not be possible.  I do appreciate the suggestions - so thank you.

    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 25, 2023

    Visual appeal aside, any WP Theme can provide that (free or premium). 

     

    Data that can't be searched & accessed easily is useless.  Maybe you can enlist volunteers to copy & paste content into WordPress & add titles and keywords for you.   You can give them editing permission to add content with WordPress while retaining admin status for yourself and one other person to supervise.  The whole point of using WordPress is for its functionality as well as collaboration.

     

    The alternative would be to white paper the site.  Convert pages to PDF files with Acrobat.  People could then download documents to their devices & search its contents with Acrobat or free Acrobat Reader.

     

    Anyway, good luck.

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
    Nancy OShea
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 23, 2023

    Switch to WordPress.  The learning bar is such that it can be used by teens, adults & seniors.  No coding skills required.  

     

    WordPress is the affordable option used by millions of websites worldwide.  Most reputable hosting plans support it.  Many hosts have one-click WP installation from the server's Plesk, WHM or c-Panel.  Once WP is  installed, you can begin using it immediately to build your new website. 

     

    Best of all, WP is database driven so site visitors can easily search for content by topic, title, keyword, date, author, etc...  That's something static sites can't do. 

     

    Getting Started with WordPress

    https://codex.wordpress.org/Getting_Started_with_WordPress

     

    Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert