SiteSpinner

I worked extremely hard on building a professional website using another software, finished it and uploaded to my Host. (It was a well known brand). The software was user friendly, but when there was an issue there was no live support offered and basically you were on your own to search the web, find forums, etc., etc.After finding out (weeks later) that the Search Engines were viewing all my website Content (- - - you know - - all the good stuff you think up to write to be more appealing to higher rankings for the Engines), as an "Image File", I knew I was in trouble. Literally the Search Engines were looking at Picture Files instead of the Page Content I had written! - - - That's where SiteSpinner came in. I needed something that would publish in an industry standard format that could be read by Search Engines. I know a bit about computers, but still, a friendly user format helps a great deal. Most important, when you reach that big blocking point where you have to get an answer, "Support" becomes critical. I rarely write reviews. That I am writing this says a lot.It just so happens that I was working on all this on New Year's Eve late afternoon and I reached that point. I submitted a question to SiteSpinner's Support Staff and put away the program expecting to start again on January 2nd, two days later due to the Holiday. I just could not believe my eyes when I saw a response in my e-mail a half hour later!! (Keep in mind that it wasn't only after hours, but on New Years Eve)! I wrote back in amazement and even received an answer! BTW - The answer solved my issue (another wonderment).My site is fairly large (having a detail page for each product), and also being connected to a Blog. Since I was replacing a website that was already in place, and also setting this whole site up to maximize Search Engine Optimization, it was a challenge. For a novice this could be absolutely daunting. The "Support", again, is critical when you reach a stumbling block. SiteSpinner has a Forum, a FAQ, and a fantastic Support Staff willing to help without attitude. 5 out of 5 stars!!The program is robust and offers much more than you will see on the initial pass. Most functions are intuitive, a few may not work as you are initially use to but these are small trade offs for a program that offers you all the functionality that you would need to build a great looking and functioning website with fantastic support. You can publish to your own computer and then FTP later, or FTP direct from the program (worked without a hitch). It is truly "What You See Is What You Get". The layout and working with images is easy and I loved the ability to automatically repeat things on "All Pages" and even "Lock" items in place so that they don't get nudged around. For those that need it, you can add music, video, timed events, you name it. This and you can even add your own coding and html. I use to use Front Page, and this is like that but only better. I don't have to go over price, because to get all this for the amount that is asked, well - - you be the judge! The whole package is 5 out of 5 stars to me! Happy building.

I am quite the novice when it comes to web design, and I knew that I didn't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for expensive web software (i.e. Dreamweaver). So I decided, for fifty bucks, to give Sitespinner a try. You can view the site I created with this software at mywifispy()com.When you first open Sitespinner, your immediate reaction is "I can't believe I paid fifty bucks for this!" An '02 Ford Focus comes with more extras than this. How wrong I was. As I began to build my website, slowly & surely, I discovered hidden little extras. By right-clicking on many objects, further options & menus revealed themselves. I was able to create buttons, pull-down menus, scroll boxes and other things that I had never done. I know for certain that there are many more options, features & functions on this software, but for now, I am happy with the website I created. As I mentioned above, Sitespinner is not idiot-proof. I educated myself with the tutorials which are accessible on the CD and in the Help tab at the top of the Sitespinner window. I recommend accessing the tutorial from the CD because the tutorial will open in an Internet Explorer window; that way, you can read the tutorial & work on your project simultaneously. Be a little patient with the tutorial as well. The authors of Sitespinner (Virtual Mechanics) make an effort to explain how to do things in "Lay Terms," but they get a little pro-noun happy and can leave you a little puzzled as to what they are referencing. One of the things that was most frustrating was using the FTP feature in "Publish" tab at the top of the Sitespinner window. For some reason, even with proper username, password & directory, I was unable to upload my project. I ended up opening the server directory with Windows Explorer and I just copied & pasted my project on to the server. It was a few extra steps in the process but the task was completed. To surmise, I gave this software 4 out of 5 stars because Sitespinner has a lot of features for the money. If the tutorials were written just a little better (they are good though) and If I could have figured out the FTP feature, Sitespinner would have gotten that fifth star.

I am most disappointed in SiteSpinner. I purchased it because of the excellent recommendations on the Amazon reviews. I don't excell in web design, but originally I used GeoCities, free site hosting, and Front Page 2000 and Front Page 2003, but the drawback there was I had difficulty finding a host that could upload it. In the end I used Site Builder by Yahoo, which is simple to use and I was able to create a main project and tie in four separate books as sub-projects. At that time, I was not interested in tags, etc. This is why I tried SiteSpinner because it sounded so easy. I purchased the software, read the tutorials and spent four days attempting to paste my text in by either Word or Wordperfect, but the text didn't format properly. I finally saw on the forum that one had to use "paste copy clone," which I did, but even when I used that, the paragraphs wouldn't always indent, and when trying to fix it, the tab didn't indent and I had to go through sentence by sentence and manually do this, but the indents wouldn't hold that way either. On top of that, the workpage is numbered in inches with no side bar on the workpages and the main sheet is not measured in inches so I could not find out how much text it would take and had to keep splitting my pages and redoing and saving them to get the entire writinge on. I never got as far as tags, etc. because I spent so much time trying to get the pages to look right.After four days of struggling with it, I finally gave up and went back to Site Builder, which probably can't do all that SS can, but it provides for tags, etc. and I can load it onto Yahoo hosting and it works out great. I am most disappointed and if it wasn't for the help of the Forum, I couldn't have gotten that far. It seems to me most unusual that the only help one can get is from a Forum group.

This might be a great web site designer, I don't know, but it certainly is not a html editor. You cannot open and edit a html file, which is a basic premise. Therefore importing an existing web code is an arduous task, of pasting code. Once in Sitespinner, you have to keep it as a project if you want to make any changes, so forget editing any code outside it.Luckily, I could return the product and buy another. I suggest you try the trial version before even thinking of buying it. It may suit your needs if you never intend using another program, but this locks you into features supplied in SiteSpinner, and you only have to hope it will do everything you expect it to.