WebPlus X2 Website Maker Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)WebPlus X2 is an amazingly powerful, if eccentric, site-building program, and an incredible bargain at Amazon's current price.
I've been using it for a few weeks now, and I'm constantly being pleasantly surprised by the ease of use and the depth of the options. The individual features are way too elaborate to address here; one can download a full manual from Serif's site to get a sense of the full scope of the program.
If you're a raw beginner, prepare to put in a lot of work before you can take full advantage of the software. But if you give it time, you'll be rewarded. The combination of the enclosed printed manual and the help files are very well-produced, and don't make any unwarranted assumptions about the skill levels of the user.
About that eccentricity: An important thing to understand about WebPlus is that in many respects it's more like a desktop publishing program than a traditional WYSIWYG web page creation program. You specify a page width and depth, and build within that canvas. It relies on a lot of absolute positioning of graphic elements, which means you need to make a good assumption about the screen resolution and and browser window size your viewers will be using. And there are a lot of type effects inherited from the program's cousin, PagePlus, which result in creation of graphics files that are placed within the page. Attractive, but at the price of compatibility with web standards. (I've been using different incarnations of PagePlus for years, so I started out being familiar with Serif's tools and tactics.)
The skilled web programmers who offered rotten reviews, comparing with the likes of Dreamweaver, are missing the point. Dreamweaver (which I've used) is a muscle program that costs about 10 times what you'd pay for WebPlus. Different products, different markets.
I was surprised and delighted when I opened the package from Amazon and found not just a program CD and a jam-packed resource CD, but also a printed manual and two template packages, one with sample business sites and the other for home and hobby use. Those last three items are a la carte products elsewhere. Also, there's a thriving user forum that offers great tips and quick advice.
This latest incarnation of WebPlus was marketed strongly on the abundance of Smart Objects, which rely on a Serif host server to make response forms, forums, blogs, analytics tools, etc., a drag and drop process, rather than items that require scripting on a full hosting service. Giving credit, these are free with the software, with only modest limits on total data volume (you can buy extra). But in the past few weeks that server has been plagued with large chunks of downtime, which can cause a whole site to hang. The user community has been up in arms, and Serif recently responded that the problems came in their expansion to a bank of multiple servers, and said they believe the worst is over. The service has been stable for several days, but I'd say the jury is still out on whether these tools are reliable in a commercial setting.
Bottom line: If you're starting out with a modest understanding of computers and the web, you should be able to use WebPlus X2 and its templates to produce professional-looking sites rapidly, at invitingly low cost.

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WebPlus X2 makes it quick and painless to produce professional-looking sites featuring interactive forums and blogs, polished animated photo galleries, podcasts and cool YouTube videos, Flash animations, secure password-protected pages, easy e-commerce sites with partners including PayPal, and much more, with handy on-screen help to guide you every step of the way.Whether a novice or a seasoned designer, a hobbyist or commercial manager, WebPlus has something to offer everyone, resulting in amazing websites without the headaches - and without breaking the bank.

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SiteSpinner Pro Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have used Web Easy 6 and upgraded to 7 when it came out. Although that program was ok, the instruction as well as help from the company is non-existant. If it wasnt for the forums set up for the users, I would have had a heck of time getting my site done.
When Web Easy 8 came out, I decided to look for something else. I was not impressed with the previous WE upgrades. I read other reviews from other sites and decided on SiteSpinner Pro. As with any new program of this type, there is always a learning curve. If you are not willing to look thru tutorials and scour the internet to learn, you may want to go with a site that offers templates where all you do is replace text and pics and your done. That being said, I have found this software to be extremely good and am I'm very happy with it.
STRONG POINTS
It's truly 'what you see is what you get'. I like the fact that where I place an object is where it shows up in my browser. It has a built in Opera browser which is nice since I use internet explorer. So I get to see my design in 2 different browsers to make sure things will look good. Working with text, pics, objects, shapes is a breeze. It's easy to manipulate things and get the results you want. I just recently messed around with adding audio and video and it was easy also. Most everything is built in: want to add your own Javacode? click the code box and type it in. Want to add an mp3? click the multimedia button, choose song, browse to find it and your done. It's just as easy to make a mouseover too!
There is a very strong forum too with lots of help from other users as well as company staff. A few of the users have their own websites dedicated to SiteSpinner for help. Very handy. You can use it to build site for mobile phones (although I have not used this feature yet but sounds interesting). I also really like the eyedropper in the pic & text boxes that allows you to get a color from anywhere (even outside of the program!). It also has a built in animation tool for objects/text to do animations on your page.
WEAK POINTS
It doesnt have an option to give pics or text a drop shadow. There are ways around this but would be nice if built into the program. There are many tutorials with the program that are very good; however, a few of the advanced features lack examples to follow to learn how to use. Other than that i have not found too many things I dont like at this point.
OVERALL
The thing to remember, there is no perfect software out there and all of them will have the high and low points and their own learning curves. I think that Virtual Mechanics is on the right track with this. They seem to also take note of what users would like to see in their forums and try to implement it into their next update. If you dont want to take the time to learn Dreamweaver or spend the money, this is a great alternative and worth your time. I can't give anything a '5' since that means there would be nothing to improve. There is always room for improvement or more features.
You can check out my 1st website I've done with this program here: [...]

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SiteSpinner Pro is a Windows-based professional Web & Mobile Website Design and Animation software package that enables anyone to create rich, interactive Websites for desktop and mobile devices (such as the iPhone®, Blackberry®, etc) - quickly, easily, and professionally.

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