Where should I start?

[Hayles]

Hi

You've inspired me!! :)

I'd like to learn the basics about building a web site. Not on a professional basis (well, who knows though!), but just to design a simple site or to be able to make alterations on my own site would be enough for me.

There seems to be lots of different programmes around and I wonder if there's one in particular that you guys would recommend as an easy starter? Also, where would I get a copy at the best price?

Hayles

[creative-keyrings]

Hi Hayles,
for a starter program i would reccomend Microsoft Frontpage

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AZJV8/qid=1131910556/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/026-7958671-8954048

It is very userfriendly and would be great for you to start up on, its just short of £200.

If your a bit more expierened then i would go for Dreamweaver but you have to know what your doing with software like that.

Frontpage is the best solution for you, any further help just ask.

Regards,

Callum

[creospace]

If you can learn html without using a program you will be far better off. do, see what happens & experiment. Then play with CSS.

You just need to goggle these terms to get free lessons on the net.

I wont recommend any programs because I code by hand.

Best of luck

Gary

[creative-keyrings]

Also,

If you have a couple of hundred quid lying around for a website then it would save you a lot of time and you would kick a really nice site done for you.

my site was created by www.breamteam.com and they provide everything to get you online i would reccomend them fully.

Regards,

Callum Slade

[TWD-Tony]

I have to agree with the Frontpage suggestion, it's very easy to use from a beginners point of view... The only problem is that the code it creates is very sloppy - it's bloated with un-needed tags and code :(
So much so that some website's have seen upto a 50% speed increase from removing the bloated FP code.

Coding by hand is always far superior to any "off the shelf" app, but it's a steep learning curve - one that will be both challenging & rewarding! It just depends on how much free time you have for this project and your time frame to get a site online...

Tony

[clairemackaness]

Personally I found it really rewarding doing my own site. I had no experience of the internet 2 months ago, but I asked a friend who uses frontpage to sit down with me a teach me the basics for an hour or so and then bought myself a book.

As you can see whilst my first site was up and working, I redeveloped it using all the advice I'd picked up from UKBF.

Good luck

[Ravenfire]

I was actually told to steer clear of frontpage by a number of IT and web designers and I know and they recommended using Dreamweaver instead.

[creative-keyrings]

Ravenfire,

This person wouldnt be able to use Dreamweaver as they appear not to know anything about webdesign this is why i reccomeneded Frontpage, its a good idea to get to grips with webdesign....

[Kyotee Matt]

Back in the dim and distant past, when I began developing Kyotee, I had absolutely no experience in creating web pages - never mind creating an extensive server-side system. I didn't even know about the structure of an HTML document.

I learnt from the ground-up - I bought a book, read a few online tutorials, and using a combination of notepad and IE5, began to piece together parts of the puzzle.

Personally, I feel that it is important to understand the fundamentals of how HTML and CSS is rendered so you can optimize your web pages and tinker with layouts.

But thats just me.

Good luck!

[Ravenfire]

Hope you didnt think I was saying your advice was wrong I wasnt, just repeating what I had heard, not sure why they had such a downer on Frontpage really.

[creospace]

Front page is great for throwing out websites to get your dream up on the web but that’s it. Awful compliant code, not the most graceful freedom of design (from what I’ve seen) and a wysiwyg interface so you don’t really learn much about html.

Rather what you might call a false economy, do the right thing and start from scratch, a step learning curve maybe but well worth it in the long run.

Gary

[Hayles]

Thank you everyone. I've spent the last hour doing an online free tutorial in HTML.

I'm so glad you professionals couldn't see how happy and smug I was when I created a page with "Hayles First Page" .... and, wait for it... I got different colour and sized fonts AND a swirly background AND a link to my email!!

I'm going to finish this freebie course and then decide, with your help, on which I should go for - Frontpage or Dreamweaver.

How exciting!!

Many thanks
Hayles

[creospace]

Neither, carry on as you are, thats a great start.

Gary

[kyber]

A lot of the complaints about Frontpage are really focused on older versions of the product. The current release does produce reasonable code I hear and is easy to use.

Dreamweaver is over the top.

There are many many shareware programs and other low-cost options around though. It is worth trying out a few.

There is a lot to be said for hand-coding in a decent text editor though - preferably one that understands html.

Stuart

[Astaroth]

If you want to do it properly I would learn how to do it all using notepad. The WYSIWYG programs are all well and good but you will never learn the basics properly if you get one.

I am generally not anti-mircosoft but I cannot stand frontpage (for a number of reasons) and therefore would recommend that if you want to get one of these premium products that you definately go for Dreamweaver which is as close to an industry standard as you can get.

I guess it depends what you want to get out of it - if it is just for the joy of being able to knock up a quick website then more or less any WYSIWYG program will do fine.

[bitsnstuff]

Hi Hayles,

I got Frontpage and built 3 websites. I found it easier to start with as I understood they way Microsoft list things and have drop downs, their buttons etc., so it became less of a mystery how to find what I was looking for. It also helped me to work out the basics of web design, having absolutely no knowledge of the way that a website worked, got onto the net, etc.

I know that it is not the best way to write a site, however, I personally would recommend it as a way to learn the very basics without being blinded by science and put off before you start!

Kate :lol:

[Hayles]

Just a quick question while I'm sitting here proud of my five lines of text on my first HTML site (which, by the way has red and black text only as I haven't come to the bit of the lesson that tells me any other colours!!).

Can someone tell me how to make the space between lines when using
different in size please?

(Don't laugh you web supremos!)

Hayles

ps. it's only five lines of text as I can't think of anything else to write yet....that's all... :wink:

[multilingual]

Add another break code.

Just use

for a double space, etc.

JB

[Hayles]

But I want an 'inbetween' size... :?

[WelshPixels]

On the subject of
's and getting different sizes, (from memory) the size of this is set with the last font size setting, so you could cheat by just including a change of font size.

I personally started programming web sites using a freeware package called HotDog, then MS Publisher and finally Dreamweaver etc. Most of this was done with the aid of the tutorials found at the http://www.webmonkey.com web site[/url]

[Kyotee Matt]

It sounds to me like you might be better using (and learning) CSS to create your desired effect.

A List Apart is an excellent resource for learning about this sort of thing, and I personally found that Dan Cederholm's book 'Web Standards Solutions' (http://www.simplebits.com/publications/solutions/) went a long way when it came to making my own transition from table based layouts to CSS layouts.

A couple of articles that may be of particular interest to you (though you would do well to look around to find others):

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/practicalcss/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/flexiblelayouts/

Additionally, there is a comprehensive CSS reference here: http://www.w3schools.com/css/

I hope that all this isn't scaring you - just keep plugging away, and if you keep doing, then you'll learn faster.

Good luck!

[dagr]

My own point of view:

1) You just want to play around a bit to get an idea of what it's all about, and possibly put up a simple website:
- MS Frontpage or WebCreator or WebStudio.

2) You want to invest more time/money and design a slightly more advanced site or get a deeper understanding of the mechanics:
- Dreamweaver or Nvu (freeware)

3) You really, really want to become a webdesigner/webmaster:
- Possibly Dreamweaver for design outling, then an html editor (PSPad, htmlEdit, etc) + TopStyle +PHPEdit or similar server-side language editors.


Personally, I'd say give Nvu a try (and not just because it's free). You can skip between html source code, html tags and browser preview in a flash.

David

[Hayles]

Thanks so much everyone for your advice.

But any advice now on how I drag myself away from my computer?! Really enjoying learning the basics through HTML. So much too learn, so few hours in the day..! :D

[Richard]

I'd like to learn the basics about building a web site. Not on a professional basis (well, who knows though!), but just to design a simple site or to be able to make alterations on my own site would be enough for me.
Hi Hayles

You might want to take a look at http://sssd.k12.ar.us/departments/dts/training/fp.htm for a basic WYSIWYG programme.

It does some things differently to the way in which the full blown MS FrontPage does them. It takes a bit of getting used to so that you don't lose things that you've edited in notepad.

There are other freeware programmes that will do things like removing unnecessary code, etc. Try Gooling for specific applications.

Also, take a look at http://www.stanuu.org/whyfont.html to see how to overcome fixed font sizes on Webpages.

All the best

Richard