Are there any Web page designing software out there that allow me to drag and drop controls just like desktop applications. I found it quite difficult to design a web page using the designer in Visual Studio 2008 as it constrains me to a flow or grid layout. (I am not an accomplished designer but there should be some ease as one experiences while designing desk top applications).
Thanx in advance.
You should have no problem with using Dreamweaver and then transferring it to Visual Studio.
After all, they both spit out HTML and CSS.
Be aware though, the HTML and CSS they spit out is very bloated and a maintenance nightmare if you decide to jump into the markup.
You may also want to have a look into CSS grid layouts that already exist, such as Blueprint, 960 Grid system and Yahoo Grids CSS, and try and integrate those with Dreamweaver/VS. The Yahoo Grids CSS even has a tool which lets you build a grid from scratch.
Dreamweaver allows you to move the elements around to any part of the page, without being constrained. When you drag elements around the page, it automatically creates CSS code for absolute positioning and custom coordinates.
If you're already using Visual Studio, you can define a CSS style for an element, then give it absolute positioning and custom coordinates (e.g., positioning: position: absolute; left: 100px; top: 100px). After you do that, Visual Studio allows you to drag elements all around the page in its design mode, instead of elements being constrained to hugging the left side of the page.
I hope that helps.
There's a photoshop plug-in called site grinder. Haven't tried it myself but looks pretty good.