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I'm looking for free software for website prototyping and have no tbeen able to find anything. I've tried Pencil, and it's great but exporting does not work, which makes it pretty much useless.

Do you know of any free prototyping tools like Pencil Project that works?

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I just downloaded the latest Pencil for Windows from code.google.com/p/evoluspencil/downloads/list and export to PNG and PDF both worked perfectly. Can you clarify exactly what's not working that led you to seek an alternative? – Jason Hanley Aug 2 '12 at 7:31
Sorry, but questions requesting recommendations for books / software / apps / papers etc. would fall into the shopping request category and aren't really suitable to a Q&A website. The reason for this is that there is no one correct answer, and such recommended items would soon be updated and replaced with newer / better versions making the best answers redundant. Therefore you're better off visiting our Chat site for such discussions, they're not really suitable for this main site I'm afraid. – JonW♦ Aug 2 '12 at 7:54
@JonW In your opinion, where would it be most appropriate to ask this question? – DavidW Aug 2 '12 at 8:28
Either in our Chat site or possibly Quora, Yahoo Answers etc. Somewhere where discussions of this ilk are more suitable. The StackExchange network of sites discourage recommendation type questions for the reasons stated above. – JonW♦ Aug 2 '12 at 8:32

closed as off topic by JonW♦ Aug 2 '12 at 7:54

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3 Answers

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HTML, CSS and JavaScript are completely free and are typically the best prototyping tools for doing web site interactions. Plus, you can get as hi-fi as you want.

Paper and Pencil isn't always free, but you can usually raid the supply cabinet on the cheap. That along with an iPhone to capture them can make for fairly quick and easy low-fi prototypes.

You could use a combination of open source software like The GIMP or InkScape to sketch out your interactions, then use simple HTML to link them together as low-fi prototypes.

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Purpose of tools similar to Pencil is to create a prototype for presentation in very little time. Using HTML for prototyping takes more time then one would want to spend on it and is more tedious. Problem with paper and pencil is that you can not change things quickly, can not link pages and present it in digital form. – DavidW Aug 2 '12 at 6:51
Paper and pencil -> photos -> easily link and present digitally with HTML. I also typically encourage folks that prototype to start learning HTML. It's not that hard and once you get the basics of HTML, CSS and JS, you will be surprised at how fast and flexible it is even compared to things such as Axure. – DA01 Aug 2 '12 at 6:58
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The Pencil project is probably the best free mockup tool out there. I have not tried it myself, but have you tried the latest version? If there is indeed a bug, do file a bug so that the developers can fix it. All other solutions I have seen are not free or only offer trials.

One possible alternative would be to would be to leverage existing software you own/have, for example GIMP (which is free), Powerpoint, Visio and so on. Them simply download stencils and libraries to use. Here's are some places to get stencils (there are more if you google):

I also recall seeing a question or answer on here where someone has made their own set of widgets/stencils for powerpoint have have shared them. Unfortunately, I couldn't find that post. I will update my answer if I do find it.

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I have the latest version. Their pages are full of people commenting how exporting does not work and nothing is being done. Looks like developers just don't care. doing all this in non mockup software is too much hassle and not worth it. Plus you can not create links in exported pdf. – DavidW Aug 2 '12 at 7:13
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My best early stage prototyping always comes from a very rough sketch on letter-sized (A4) paper.

If you need to share it with your team, snap a photo with your smartphone.

If you need to edit, scratch it out and re-draw.

If it gets too messy, start a new one.

Then -- Once you have the basic concept, you can move to digital -- often direct to HTML/CSS.

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