Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
  As good as it gets for technonopes November 27, 2008
Let's face facts: HTML and CSS is beyond a lot of people without professional instruction. I've tried and failed several times and found it incredibly frustrating to learn. I have built a couple of sites on Dreamweaver but stayed well clear of the coding side of things (opting rather to fumble my (more credible) photoshop efforts at menu buttons and what have around you until they vaguely resembled something cool -- only to discover that on a friends browser it had managed to mangle itself up again and look nothing like I intended it too. I'd given up (until now) as Wordpress makes website design easy enough without all the hassle. Then along came this.
I have to admit, I've been surprised and impressed by Webplus X2. I've had a good play and after so much DW agony, it feels a little like I'm cheating with this! It's very versatile; I was expecting something very wizard orientated rather than a proper web 'design' application. It is actually possible to build a proper site using this software and building it is so much easier. Everything seems designed the way you'd expect a web-design program to be (unless you've been instructed, DW is completely baffling to begin with). The package comes with some PDF tutorials and is easy to learn and seems to go a long way (RSS and Paypal).
The bottom line is that this isn't going to build you a professional site, but if you're going to do it yourself and don't know HTML, this is an absolute godsend. You can do almost any sort of personal or small business site with this relatively painlessly (considering the alternatives!).
One last thing. By way or warning, to register this software you have to make a (free) phone call which is just so they can try and sell you an extra 40 worth of resources! (which came down to 20 when I refused!) You have to do this or face having the please register this software box popping up ad infinitum. It isn't much, but is slightly annoying and does cheapen an otherwise professional product.
 WebPlus X2 no need for anything else October 12, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I run my own part time Web Design company called Urweb. I have always been a Dreamweaver Macromedia (now Adobe) fan due to the ability to build professional looking sites, with very little HTML. However I had many issues with Dreamweaver that I could never get around, so tried a few other programs, netobjects and the likes. However I could never get the results I was after. I decided to give Webplus X2 a chance and after a few hours getting to know my new companion, I must say I am blown away.
Yes it does produce some long winded HTML and yes it is difficult to amend your sites in other programs, but why would you want to use anything else.
This has it all from its own Database manager, to ecommerce, to fancy slideshows, all built in. And whats more if I want my picture in the middle of my website I can do it, no frames no problem. You want to make the picture 3D, there is a button does that too. You can add writing where you want, put in navigation bars, and when you update, add or takeaway a page, the whole site is updated automatically. I have now converted 4 sites to this program, including one which is over 100 pages. The great thing is that for 37, my clients can now update their own.
Dreamweaver is currently around the 1000 mark, Webplus a mere 37, there is no contest here. Well done Serif, now ANYONE really can design their own website. Hopefully not putting me out of business.
Great web design software October 4, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've wanted to get my business online for a long time, but never got round to it. I'd never heard of Serif before, but a friend of mine started raving about their software when he got some of their products 6 months ago, so I bought WebPlus. I have to say this product is amazing!
To use it is a bit like using Word. You just move your graphics and text around the page as you want them appear online, and WebPlus does all the code for you. Things like drop down nav bars, forums, blogs, buy now links, etc. can just be dragged on. There are loads of templates to choose from if you want although I couldn't find one which was suitable for me, so I started from scratch.
I'm no computer genius - if someone like me can create a really polished, professional site, with a members area, customer forum and shopping...anyone can.
 Very disappointed after hearing good things about WebPlus 10 August 20, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Very simply, purchased this on the back of some excellent reviews here and elsewhere, and while i agree you might be able to create a new site very quickly it is not very straightforward if you already have websites (different one too that need to be managed separately) and wish to use this to edit / maintain them.
I am back to square one now as I need to have something in place to keep on top of my needs and those of the people who I support.
Might just be better off back with Frontpage.
Websites untangled - great software for non HTML experts August 10, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This software is just I what I was looking for. I've been struggling with html and css for months. Positioning elements properly took ages to work out but when I looked in another browser my carefully worked out design was all jumbled up. I never got the results I wanted.
Serif WebPlus X2 is very simple to use. You can use the templates to create a professional looking site in a few hours and if you have some experience of html then you can insert specific instructions into your pages very easily. What I like most about WebPlus X2 is that it's wysiwyg. Previously, I'd take an educated guess at what mark up I'd need for a given result and then have to view it in another programme. Anally retentive programmers probably learn reams of code off by heart to circumvent this but, me, I've got better things to do. With WebPlus X2 you can see what you're doing while you're doing it. You can also view your work in different browsers if you really want to check.
WebPlus X2 seems to be designed with people like me in mind. We know what we want to achieve but don't have the budget to employ an html/css coder or the time to bring our expertise up to their level. In addition to vastly reducing the time and expense that it would take to accomplish the same result by any other means, WebPlus X2 gives you the benefit of many presentational tricks that would take years of programming experience to achieve. My re-vamped site has already drawn favourable comments about its better navigation, layout and graphical design, all achieved in a fraction of the time thanks to WebPlus X2.
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