Show HN: Creating a website should be as easy as creating a Word doc

Show HN: Creating a website should be as easy as creating a Word doc(42pag.es)

8 points by nateparrott 11 years ago | 7 comments

diasks2 11 years ago |

Great job. Nice execution. I would recommend adding some type of simple tutorial walk-through after the new page is first created. It took a little while for it to sink in that this is a blank canvas and I can start typing, etc. Maybe the fact that the canvas is the same color as the background of the site, it is not easy that this is a "word doc" where I can start building. I know you probably want to keep it minimalistic, but it might help to outline the canvas so this fact is more obvious.

smt88 11 years ago |

My first reaction: creating a website already is as easy as creating a Word doc.

How is this different (or how will it be different) from creating a Google Doc and sharing it with the public? Or using Google Sites for that matter?

(Not trying to jam you up -- genuinely interested in this and your answer.)

jumasheff 11 years ago | |

Well, I am going to teach programming basics using Codecademy, and this project is a great tool which I will use so that my students can build things from the very first lessons and show their parents/friends their outcomes.

The project beats Google Sites by allowing you to edit HTML, CSS, JavaScript right from the browser with minimal efforts.

nateparrott 11 years ago | |

That's why I'm doing this — I think it's crazy that our best solution for creating a simple, one-off site is to use a collaborative document service and share the link. Google Docs is built for documents, and you can tell—hopefully this can evolve into a better solution to the use case where you want to create a really simple web page. Thanks for the feedback!

smt88 11 years ago | | |

"As easy as a Word doc" is misleading then. Editing CSS and JS isn't as easy as Word, even if it's considered a feature and a convenience.

I do think it's a good, catchy phrase, but it isn't necessarily hitting your target market.

Are you pretty similar to a hosted Jekyll service, then?

jumasheff 11 years ago | | |

Cool project. I'd kindly give you a pointer to try to collaborate with Codecademy team. They are super friendly and grounded guys to work with. I'm sure you can come up with a great joint project with them.

fiatjaf 11 years ago |

Amazing take at simplicity. Anyone can edit by default is great, email-only authentication better yet.

I just don't know how to add more pages.