what is the best software to build websites with? baring in mind that i don't have knowledge of php, mysl or any computer language really.
is Dreamweaver CS3 any good? i am not looking to add lots of flash, maybe a flash menu, but the rest be fairly basic, a simple website with about 10 pages, attached to it a gallery, and a forum.
Ive installed MG2 (php script) for the gallery and phpbb3 for the forums but i need to know how to build the actual site
I have a design i made in photoshop and i know how to export that as html.

Anyone got any advice for me? non sarcastic advice that is....

cheers for that tip chet, you have just single handedly revolutionized my new project, downloaded loads of templates as well hehe

cheers

Depending on who your hosting is with you'll have loads of one-click install Content Management Systems like Joomla at your disposal.

Although Joomla is very powerful, it is a little more difficult to get to grips with if you're a novice than some others you might have in your control panel. Certainly, for ease of use and a less steep learning curve, Wordpress is a good option too, and is a lot easier to customise visually as well (not to mention a wealth of plugins that will make it do almost anything you want it too, including galleries and forums that you can build into Wordpress).

I prefer to build sites from scratch myself, but have actually used Wordpress as the basis of quite large and complicated sites, especially when I know the client wants to update their site themslef and has limited coding knowledge.

Incidentally, even using a CMS like one of these, a web design application is still very useful. I do a lot of hand coding in Notepad, but also use Dreamweaver (PM me if you want any software ). NVU is a free (open source) web design application that is also quite good and easy to get to grips with - http://nvudev.com/download.php Kompozer is a bug free distribution of NVU, although I haven't used it, so can't comment on it other than to say it is also free - http://www.kompozer.net

i used Joomla in the end, customed a template i found, set up gallery and forum and chat room and just need to add content...its a local website

one thing i find annoying, when i make my html and paste it into the content, i choose a different background colour for my content than that of the template, it still shows the template background colour in the post as opposed to the colour i picked in html

this is the theme i chose


tribute theme

but i modified all the orange graphics to be blue

Does anybody know of a fairly easy way to merge databases? i have on my website, 3 different parts to it....

a forum using phpbb v3
the main joomla website
a coppermine image gallery.

Trouble is, they all need separate log in as they all have their own databases,
so how can i make my website so that there is only one point of registration instead of 3?

Thanks for your reply Stu, i rather like coppermine and phpbb v3 though so i prefer to stick with them if i can. I will look into finding a tutorial for merging user tables, i wont mind attempting it as long as i find a comprehensive guide to follow. If i do marry it up though then i will consider installing the joomla extensions you mentioned for an easier life. will also see if i can find a bridge for phpbb v3 in case one exists then there would only be two logins