Fusion 7 Web Building Software - have you used it?

[cbeckPhoto]

Depends on what you want from your web site. pbase.com or other such site might be the least effort option.

Part of the package that came with my D70 from Ritz was an offer of
the Fusion 7 Web Building Software for $9.99 (supposedly $150
retail but Fusion 8 is available for a $110 upgrade).

I have toyed with the idea of a web site for some time and I would
like to know if anyone has used this software and if it is any good.

It's not the $9.99 I am concerned with - I don't want to spend a
lot of time building a web site (it is not that important to me)
but if it is easy to use and easy to keep up I might try it.

Also, do you have to pay them a monthly fee for web space or can
you use it with existing web space you might have from another
source?

Thanks,

Jerry

 

[Jerry McColgan]

Part of the package that came with my D70 from Ritz was an offer of the Fusion 7 Web Building Software for $9.99 (supposedly $150 retail but Fusion 8 is available for a $110 upgrade).

I have toyed with the idea of a web site for some time and I would like to know if anyone has used this software and if it is any good.

It's not the $9.99 I am concerned with - I don't want to spend a lot of time building a web site (it is not that important to me) but if it is easy to use and easy to keep up I might try it.

Also, do you have to pay them a monthly fee for web space or can you use it with existing web space you might have from another source?

Thanks,

Jerry

 

[Mike St James]

Jery, I have been using NetObjects Fusion since v.1, and long before it was owned by Website Pros. Itis a very capable WYSIWYG layout program, and one that hundreds (maybe thousands) of third-party components have been written for.

Check these:

http://www.syscoseattle.com/

and

http://www.stjames.net/

for examples of sites that I constructed (and maintain) with NOF. There are more powerful solutions out there but for a good balance of learning curve, capability, and price, it's hard to beat NOF.

--
Mike St James

'Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.'
-Benjamin Franklin

 

[Bill Hall]

I use Fusion 7 to generate web sites. You don't have to pay them for web space. That's not what they do. You have to use web space that you get elsewhere. The software just generates the pages. Here's some sites that I have generated using Fusion 7:

http://billhall.net
http://mudwindandfire.com
http://nlbf.org

As you can see from that first site, it has a pretty nice photo album generator.

Part of the package that came with my D70 from Ritz was an offer of
the Fusion 7 Web Building Software for $9.99 (supposedly $150
retail but Fusion 8 is available for a $110 upgrade).

I have toyed with the idea of a web site for some time and I would
like to know if anyone has used this software and if it is any good.

It's not the $9.99 I am concerned with - I don't want to spend a
lot of time building a web site (it is not that important to me)
but if it is easy to use and easy to keep up I might try it.

Also, do you have to pay them a monthly fee for web space or can
you use it with existing web space you might have from another
source?

Thanks,

Jerry

--
I'm a man... and I can change... if I have to... I guess...

• Red Green

 

[Jerry McColgan]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I'll give it a try.

Jerry

http://billhall.net
http://mudwindandfire.com
http://nlbf.org

As you can see from that first site, it has a pretty nice photo
album generator.

Part of the package that came with my D70 from Ritz was an offer of
the Fusion 7 Web Building Software for $9.99 (supposedly $150
retail but Fusion 8 is available for a $110 upgrade).

I have toyed with the idea of a web site for some time and I would
like to know if anyone has used this software and if it is any good.

It's not the $9.99 I am concerned with - I don't want to spend a
lot of time building a web site (it is not that important to me)
but if it is easy to use and easy to keep up I might try it.

Also, do you have to pay them a monthly fee for web space or can
you use it with existing web space you might have from another
source?

Thanks,

Jerry

--
I'm a man... and I can change... if I have to... I guess...

• Red Green

 

[Jerry McColgan]

I meant to ask, if you set up your web site and change where you want it, how hard is it to move it to another web location?

How much memory would you need on the web location?

Thanks,

Jerry

Jerry

http://billhall.net
http://mudwindandfire.com
http://nlbf.org

As you can see from that first site, it has a pretty nice photo
album generator.

Part of the package that came with my D70 from Ritz was an offer of
the Fusion 7 Web Building Software for $9.99 (supposedly $150
retail but Fusion 8 is available for a $110 upgrade).

I have toyed with the idea of a web site for some time and I would
like to know if anyone has used this software and if it is any good.

It's not the $9.99 I am concerned with - I don't want to spend a
lot of time building a web site (it is not that important to me)
but if it is easy to use and easy to keep up I might try it.

Also, do you have to pay them a monthly fee for web space or can
you use it with existing web space you might have from another
source?

Thanks,

Jerry

--
I'm a man... and I can change... if I have to... I guess...

• Red Green

 

[Mike St James]

I meant to ask, if you set up your web site and change where you
want it, how hard is it to move it to another web location?

Jerry, changing hosts is a 15-second change you make in the inlcuded NOF FTP client, but unrelated to your software, you also need to transfer your domain so that the new DNS will be able to find it...that can take several days.

How much memory would you need on the web location?

How much stuff do you want on your web? I would think that 40-50mb of storage should be enough to start. If you need to increase it, most hosts will charge a reasonable fee for additional mbs.

--
Mike St James

'Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.'
-Benjamin Franklin

 

[Jerry McColgan]

Thanks, that is probably reasonable I'll just have to think about where I can get that space cheap. I think it is a lot more then my dsl provider offers free.

Jerry

I meant to ask, if you set up your web site and change where you
want it, how hard is it to move it to another web location?

Jerry, changing hosts is a 15-second change you make in the
inlcuded NOF FTP client, but unrelated to your software, you also
need to transfer your domain so that the new DNS will be able to
find it...that can take several days.

How much memory would you need on the web location?

How much stuff do you want on your web? I would think that 40-50mb
of storage should be enough to start. If you need to increase it,
most hosts will charge a reasonable fee for additional mbs.

--
Mike St James

'Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen.
Keep in the sunlight.'
-Benjamin Franklin

 

[Mike St James]

Thanks, that is probably reasonable I'll just have to think about
where I can get that space cheap. I think it is a lot more then my
dsl provider offers free.

Jerry, I have been wanting to try 1&1. Next time I do a web, I am going to give them a go. Looks to me like you can get by for as little as $5 per month.

http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/SharedHosting ;jsessionid=45060E556989CA91A5D3112A25BC3E62.TC62a? frame= top

Check it out...they have an enormous range of options, and seem stable. They do a lot of advertising in the computer magazines. I haven't heard anything bad about them. Also, NetObjects Fusion has a great online community. You will want to subscribe to some of the newsgroups. You will inevitably have questions, and you can learn a lot nust by browsing through the posts (like on THIS site!)
--
Mike St James

'Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.'
-Benjamin Franklin

 

[photomert]

Jerry,

I found Net Objects Fusion difficult to learn and too abstract to use, given my level of experience/interest, and I gather that you probably are a beginner, like me.

The problem I found is that too many of the program's tools are not viewable on-screen---you must learn to navigate the layout of the program's many available features in order to use it. Nor is the user-interface as intuitive as others I have used.

By contrast, I propose you take a look at WebStudio 4, by Back-To-The- Beach Software, which is very easy, if not simplistic, to use.

WebStudio's user interface gives you a one-screen overview of almost all the features available to you; you might find this approach easier to learn and use, if you are a casual web author like me.

The WebStudio interface is not as professional-looking as Fusion's but you probably would find it very much easier to use, unless you are very quick at learning software. I guess my point here is that if you want to get your website up and running, rather than spending time learning the software's interface, then Fusion might not be the best choice.

Also, check out 0Catch.com for your hosting. You can host your web pages there for free, to get a feel for how the whole web-authoring and hosting thing works, then upgrade to paid hosting after you have gotten your feet wet.

By the way, once you sign up for your free account at 0Catch, you can download WebStudio's 30-day trial version. 0Catch is spelled with a zero, by the way, not the letter "O"

I hope this post helps!
--
everything changes, try not to get stuck

 

[Jerry McColgan]

My thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I have ordered the Fusion 7 software simply because of its $9.95 price tag (including shipping).

The web site the Ritz coupon referred me to was not working correctly but when I called their tech support they took my order on the phone and confirmed that they will honor the price.

At that price I can afford to throw it away if it proves too troublesome to learn.

I am a newbie to web design but I have worked quite a bit with computers and software for the past 20 years or so. Since retiring I have tried to avoid learning new programs or buying anything that can be avoided but I can see that building a web page is somewhere in my future.

I have not found anything that seems any good that is free so I'll take a $10 chance on Fusion 7.

Regards,

Jerry

 

[Jerry McColgan]

Another option I had not thought about is that my Microsoft Office apparently has Front Page.

How would Fusion 7 compare with Microsoft Front Page for building and operating a web site?

Thanks,

Jerry

 

[couman]

Another option I had not thought about is that my Microsoft Office
apparently has Front Page.

How would Fusion 7 compare with Microsoft Front Page for building
and operating a web site?

Thanks,

Jerry

If you are used to Office, you might like Front Page -- it has the look and feel of an Office program. It too is a WYSIWYG editor, has an instant preview mode, and an HTML mode -- instant switching back and forth. Make sure that you have Front Page and not Front Page Express -- the latter is useless. If your ISP is using Windows servers, Front Page can utilize its server extensions to communicate with the server for easy site management -- that won't work with UNIX based servers.

If you already have it, give it a try. [You could also use Word, but DON'T -- Word generates too much garbage HTML.]