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| WebSite X5 Evolution (PC) | 
 enlarge | From: PX Software
Category: Software
List Price: £39.99
Buy New: £20.97
You Save: £19.02 (48%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  (38 reviews)
Sales Rank: 119
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Xp
Media: CD-ROM
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5060160810104
ASIN: B000ZLPAFO
Release Date: December 20, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Inconsistent layout, limited capabilities, only good for very basic sites November 21, 2008
In a time where you can start creating websites from within the browser using Google Applications, and where powerful, full Content Management Systems are available as open source, this comes across as very much a 20th Century web development package, rather than a 21st century one.
Where's the Map Mashup creation? Where's the funky gallery creation? Where's the versioning? Content Approvals? Publishing Dates? Decent shopping cart (theirs is at best poor? Decent selection of templates, even? AJAX/DHTML visual effects?
The templates is particularly disappointing, since it claims to have a lot of templates, but when you actually come to use it, there are quite a lot that look very similar, and some of the numbers come from having the same template with a number of different alternate colour schemes. I wanted to create a games-related one, but there was nothing remotely appropriate - it's mostly fairly generic styling, with little real flair.
If you want to create a few entries to provide some details about yourself, then set up a blog on LiveJournal or Blogger, and you won't have to worry about arranging hosting, FTPing files up, etc.
If you want to set up a shop, skip this because the shopping cart stuff just isn't up to scratch - use Actinic, OS Commerce or any number of other dedicated offerings, which offer more power, more payment providers, and so on.
If you want to set up a photo gallery, then perhaps look at Flickr, or other sites or software really oriented towards doing that kind of thing.
If you want a simple company site, then you'd have to create your own tailored templates to look suitable, and then you're losing a lot of the simplicity.
I wanted to like this. The menu system makes some sense, and it's quite easy then to add extra pages and work out how to edit that particular page. For an enthusiast/personal site, the templates aren't so bad, perhaps. And it does run reasonably quickly on a machine with 512MB RAM, and is perfectly useable on a 1024x768 resolution screen. I just don't see many people finding the core capabilities sufficient for their needs, and those who do may be better off looking at some of the many comparable solutions available for free, rather than paying for an out-dated piece of software such as this. The plus point is that it seems relatively mature - in my tests it ran smoothly and didn't crash once, unlike some web page editing software around.
All in all, a rather limited appeal. Finally, registration was a bit of a hassle - you couldn't just install the software, you had to click through to a web page, register an account, enter a registration code, then get a returned code to paste into the installer to complete the installation. That's rather a pain compared to most software, and is just another black mark against the software.
A quick and simple website design tool November 20, 2008
This product makes it very easy to get up and running with a website for the most technophobic PC user. I was impressed by how easy it is to use Evolution Website X5 and the results, if a little similar and rather basic, are fully functional and quite professional looking.
The container includes an installation leaflet which as well as containing installation information, has an overview of the features and the 5 main steps necessary to create a fully usable website.
The software contains over a thousand different graphics models, all of which are customisable in terms of colour. The software also allows for the creation of a site map structure, the creation of pages, and stylised text and menus. It even has the tools to allow the addition of ecommerce features, including a shopping cart. Great value for the price. Evolution Website X5 also has a facility to allow the upload of a website to the internet (I have not tried out this feature yet, so am unable to comment on it).
When you put the disc into the PC you have to register the software which involves the provisionj of some personal information including an email address to the producers of the software.
Having spent some time trying out alternate website designs with this software, I think it makes the design of a website very easy and straightforward, which has to be a good thing for most people, but I also think you could probably recognise the style of websites created using the package. I found that I had to live with certain design features that I wanted to change - and I also didn't like having to provide my email address as part of registration.
Quick & easy! November 20, 2008
The box describes Website X5 Evolution as "the easiest software for creating professional web sites and online shops" with "no programming skills required". I can certainly believe this.
X5 Evolution is ideal if you are looking to set up a simple website cheaply and incredibly quickly. It's easy to use & purely visual, so you won't end up staring at reams of HTML, not knowing what to make of it all - unless you want to, as HTML editing is available if desired.
Of course, your options are considerably more limited than if you were to design your own website from scratch but there is still an impressively large selection of templates to choose from. You also still have to sort out the hosting yourself. But for the money, you can't go wrong!
But don't just take my word for it - see for yourself by downloading the demo from the WebsiteX5 website!
Lots of templates, but nothing really exciting November 19, 2008
If you're looking for a web design package there are 100s out there that are either cheaper (free) or more professional (i.e. Dreamweaver or Microsoft's Expression).
Although this comes bundled with a bunch of templates and a cute wizard, these are two thinks you can get without buying anything.
If you want to create your own web site, there is unfortunately a learning curve. You have to understand the technology and how web sites work. You don't have to learn how to program, but you do need the basics of HTML, a good design software and a quick way to edit it manually.
This package does what it ways on the box: it will create a rudimentary site for you, but you won't be able to modify the site to make it really yours and the package itself doesn't really lend itself to doing things manually, so for me it fails on all counts.
It does get an extra star for the templates. There are, after all, quite a lot of them. As I said earlier, don't buy this for the templates though.
 Easy to Use November 18, 2008
This is great really easy to use and fast. I created a website in about an hour which i am really pleased with. I have tried dream weaver without much success and then bought this for about 20. Buy it its very good.
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