Last year was the year of the CMS. By that I mean, it was the year WordPress came out of its shell and proved to the world that it could become as much of a mainstay of the Web as say, Paypal or Google.
It’s for this reason that we’ve awarded Artisteer the software product of the year. This program, which lets you instantly create great looking CMS site themes, is not freeware, but the utility of the program is such that we simply couldn’t ignore the promise it holds. There were rivals for the spot of course. We love what Weather Watcher has to offer, with it’s excellent collection of weather tools for serious cloud watchers, and Joiku, the powerful tool to turn your mobile phone into a wireless WiFi hotspot is also a real attention grabber.
But at the end of the day, we think Artisteer has the capacity to dramatically transform the ease of use of creating websites based around WordPress and other CMS packages. The program takes web design to another level, by offering automated tools which even the most indolent would-be designer can use and understand. And more than that, it’s the fact that the end result actually works well that impresses us the most. Not only can you build great looking WordPress and generic HTML templates (and soon Joomla and Blogger) but they actually install properly and work as they should. Which is powerfully enabling for the graphically challenged.
It will never replace a quality designer of course, but that’s not the target market. We’re looking at the population of non-design coders, the mom and pop site builders, the young, the web loving guru in the developing world, all of whom should seriously take a look at this and see if it fits into their small business plans. Lovely program.
Artisteer is the first and only Web design automation product that instantly creates fantastic looking, unique Website templates and Blog themes…No need to learn Photoshop, CSS, HTML or other technologies…With Artisteer YOU immediately become a Web design expert, editing and slicing graphics, coding XHTML and CSS, and creating Web design templates and Wordpress themes – all in minutes, without Photoshop or Dreamweaver, and no technical skills.
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We agreed so much that we covered your post at zMogo.com… Thanks!
Can't agree with you more; Artisteer makes it easier to build standards compliant templates and is quite pocket friendly too! Should be even more useful when they integrate Joomla, Drupal and Blogger.
Anyone thinking about buying Artisteer really should download the trial first and make sure that they can use the output. The statement that 'knowledge of html is not recessary' is misleading, it may be true of Wordpress, but certainly not of HTML templates and CMS. Having said that it is good value with a very good manual.
Brian is correct, try the demo first. The site makes out that any old dummy can do it, unfortunately I am not any old dummy – I can fathom it. It seems really good , just beyond me at the moment.
I am currently trying out the trial version and what I am disappointed with is the fact that you can't edit the bottom footnote colors without having to go into the CSS or footer.php file for your wordpress template. This is something that should be in the program….. not something you have to search for to edit after you export your template. So as it stands you do in fact need to know how to edit HTML and CSS files because currently not all color editing is built into the program as it should be.
So how well will a site built with this for Joomla 1.5x fare when a joomla upgrade/patch is needed? Wonder if anything would break during the upgrade if there wasn't any kind of patch?
Looks like a solid program for sure though.
The program does work and I will be purchasing it. However, it is advisable to know HTML and CSS along with a spoon full of PHP. You want all your components to match too!
It is also the case that although it is easy to create a template, it is still very possible for someone without a design bone in there body to make a horrible looking template too. So there is some skill needed. Or at least a bit of taste.
I would like to see an addition added so that I can add my own background illustrations and glares to use.
An upgraded menu option for buttons would be a super addition also.
Have to say i have loved this since i found it.
only thing that got to me was that you couldnt submit your themes
to wordpress theme site so i have just setup blog-skins
so any one using this sofware can click my user name
register with us and post your web designs
The Wordpress themes generated from this product do not function properly in FireFox 3.5 (they work fine in Internet Explorer and FireFox 3.0.11). Buyer beware – the issue has been brought up on their support forums and has been ignored.
I am using artisteer and it saved me a lot of time. I can create a website in 10 minutes! Then of course you have to add articles but you don't have to waste your time in figuring out html, css etc. Of course you should know html and CSS but now with artisteer iit is not a "must" but a "should".
Fabio G
I think, now whith Artisteer, I'll do a new site. Finish flash :-). And the price is correct.
see also Codelobster – Free PHP IDE with cpecial plug-ins for CMS.
We have put a couple of professional drupal projects on the road with Artisteer. It has decreased the turnaround time and price of webprojects significantly. So far it was alwasy compatible with each and every module we used with our Artisteer generated theme, also upgraded some without diffculty. However for real professional use we have found that manual aditing of CSS and themes was always necessary. It still helps to be a CSS guru. But it is a significant progress, when the grahic designer can go 80% of the way with this great tool anf keep the Coder busy only with minor adjustments.
It changed our lives.
Chek cthis out – 100% artisteer. It still hepls to be a good designer though. For some reason the output of the blog module is not shown in the Artisteer generated layout.
I use Artisteer, and i love it! I work in wordpress, and make a few really professional themes. Is very customizable.