I think Muse has been turned off for PC Users? Time to switch?

[paulears]

I've carried on using Muse, like many other people and I access the three websites via any of my macs or PCs - but the office PC wont start it any longer - it starts then shuts down. The macs still work. Tried the PC in the studio and it also shuts the app down. So two PCs with Muse on them (properly licenced) don't work. In the office I went back a version, still the same, so uninstalled it via the Adobe CC app, and when I tried to reinstall - Muse is now absent from the available app list. My guess is adobe, after 4 years of unsupported use, have switched it off properly. I knew the time was coming of course and have fiddled with a few alternatives - but some are very expensive, when Muse was included in my Adobe subscription. Re-writing three fairly simple but many paged sites from scratch is a real time pain, and worse - some, want you to transfer hosting to them too, and that is too complicated as they have useful extra features in terms of extra storage, lots of email accounts etc - so I wish to keep the hosting I have.

Muse was pretty good because it let me grab image files, paypal html and slap them on a page and showed my the site heirachy in a simple graphical format. Some pages have links to audio and video files. I don't want anything ultra clever - so just add a new product page, paypal button so people can buy it, and simple stuff like that.

NOT wordpress. 3 years ago I tried it and hated it. Something standalone and tweak on screen, save and hit an upload button.

I've looked at quite a few and they're heavy on social media integrations, blogs, and cool stuff I just don't need. Three sites - each hosted on different servers - uploaded via ftp from the software.

I don't have time to learn complex stuff - so an app, or a web based platform would be fine as long as it has local storage of the assets and files.

Is there anything around that works like this? The youtube videos with 10 best website apps didn't help much.
Cheers!

 

[fisicx]

Not anymore. Pretty much everything is now focused on online platforms. Wordpress being the biggest but the likes of Shopify and other site builders grab most of the market.

The likes of muse will always have a tiny following but developers have to make a living so they will put their efforts into projects that generate an income.

That being said, webflow seems to be popular but even then, it's a browser tool - Adobe keeps everything in their grasp.

I've got some simple HTML/CSS sites that get edited by hand but I'm moving them all to PHP as using includes makes my life so much simpler. Doing the same with your sites would make your life easier and making your sites responsive would be better for your visitors and Google.

 

[antropy]

Is there anything around that works like this?

I find ConcreteCMS to be incredibly easy to build sites with, it's worth having a try.

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

I find ConcreteCMS to be incredibly easy to build sites with, it's worth having a try.

Paul.

I had the opposite experience. That being said, it’s not what Paul wants.

 

[antropy]

I had the opposite experience. That being said, it’s not what Paul wants.

Unfortunately I do get that feedback from some people including my own developers which is bizarre as I really do find it so simple, obvious, and easy. Perhaps it just fits with how I expect it to work.

What's he after exactly?

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

An html editor he can install on his PC.

But one that has features to show site structure and probably a preview.

There are loads of html editors to choose from but no site builders anymore. At least not one I can find.

@paulears - can you see if you can get an old copy of dreamweaver 4. It sort of does the job but you may struggle to get it to work on a modern PC.

 

[antropy]

An html editor he can install on his PC.

But one that has features to show site structure and probably a preview.

Ah yes like a CMS that just uploads a static HTML site.

They actually have some serious advantages like being almost unhackable and always running super-fast with very little server load.

But of course they can't really be dynamic or database driven very easily.

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

I’ve got three sites still using html. Really simple structures, easy to edit and no databases. All hand coded as well.

But I just use a plain old html editor called brackets. No longer supported and nothing fancy but it works for me.

 

[antropy]

But I just use a plain old html editor called brackets. No longer supported and nothing fancy but it works for me.

notepad.exe for me!

Just kidding, I use KDevelop on Kubuntu Linux.

Paul.

 

[DontAsk]

I had a pure htlm, hand coded site (HTML-Kit, looks to be still available) with PayPal integration but moved to OpenCart when I wanted to give customers a better experience. Worked well for years.

Now it's, Notepad++ in html mode when editing my custom pages for OpenCart (I hate the built in Summernote editor, or the way it has been integrated).

 

[antropy]

Now it's, Notepad++ in html mode when editing my custom pages for OpenCart (I hate the built in Summernote editor, or the way it has been integrated).

Notepad++ is what I'd use on Windows for sure, especially with that ftp plugin.

Definitely don't use the theme editor in OpenCart, always work on a copy of your theme.

Paul.

 

[japancool]

Bring back Microsoft FrontPage!

Or maybe not...

 

[antropy]

Dreamweaver used to be my weapon of choice back in my Macromedia ColdFusion days!

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

CuteHTML is also pretty good and still seems to be supported.

 

[paulears]

I've got Dreamweaver as part of my Adobe subscription, but's it pretty horrible. I need to keep one hosting company mainly because apart from the website, I use it as storage and download for audio files - this runs on a separate software package so people can securely download files. Wordpress would actually be fine, BUT - this host is in Germany and if I use wordpress, the package I have would need replacing, and the cost prohibitive, so I'm really stuck with staying with them. Another 3 or 4 years and the downloads will be out of date, so I can stop then. (They support exam candidates, so when the exam licence ends and it is re-written, then the site becomes obsolete).

I figured a new system would be simple, but it is proving very different.

 

[antropy]

I've got Dreamweaver as part of my Adobe subscription, but's it pretty horrible.

Dreamweaver was great for writing ColdFusion, but I never used the visual editor.

Wordpress would actually be fine, BUT - this host is in Germany and if I use wordpress, the package I have would need replacing, and the cost prohibitive

So switch hosts?

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

Get a new host. Upgrading to Wordpress is free on just about all hosts.

It’s Dreamweaver 4 you want. Ancient but does everything you want. Just not sure it will work on the latest versions of windows.

 

[paulears]

entropy - sadly, as I mentioned - switching from this particular host is problematic. I've got a fairly complicated email forwarding system setup that is still collecting from a 15 year old dead BT address. BT are content to leave it working, but cannot transfer it to a new host. The host is not without problems - very strict email filtering, for example, but tampering with it is not something I can consider - hence I need to just find something to manage it.

I've tried vev - this on a test page can do what I want - not very exciting - but lots of pages, and allow things like PayPal buttons via html code - tested and that works.

fisicx - I've fired up Dreamweaver which is in my subscription (vev is about £90 a year) it's not much better than when I last tried it, but it can replicate the site I'm currently running but it means tables - and even a bit of simple code. I can remember the basics of html in terms of syntax and process. Just slow and laborious. In the end I discovered how vev handles code, but my (what I thought) was a chat bot questions generated a human telling me what I'd asked the bot, in about an hour, which is pretty good for an email response.

 

[antropy]

entropy -

It's "Antropy" - the opposite of entropy

sadly, as I mentioned - switching from this particular host is problematic. I've got a fairly complicated email forwarding system setup that is still collecting from a 15 year old dead BT address.

I'm sure a decent IT person could do this.

Paul.