How to make a website? (software resources???)

Microcontrolled · 2010-03-24 00:01

I have a domain name and a host server, what is a good program that I can design a website on and upload it to the server? I do not know HTML so I would like a GUI related program. I don't have web experiance, so some tips would also be good. I would like to have one like uController.com, btw.

Thanks,
Micro

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mctrivia · 2010-03-24 00:28

i use notepad. and cute ftp pro.

learn html it is very easy should only take you a day to make a page like ucontroller.com. then learn php to do fun stuff.

http://www.w3schools.com/html/
http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/DEfaULT.asP

gui web page making programs are usually very expensive.

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WBA Consulting · 2010-03-24 00:34

I use Dreamweaver (IE: my site), sometimes I partner it with Fireworks (like I did here for rollovers), and occasionally Flash by using a starter template (like the colored square animations in this site), but they aren't free. I got started way back when Netscape Navigator had "composer" in it which was a simple yet effective WYSIWYG HTML editor. Fast-forward to today, and you have Seamonkey. I use it for basic HTML editing when I don't have my laptop with Dreamweaver.

www.seamonkey-project.org/
If you Google "seamonkey composer tutorial" or "seamonkey composer template" you will find lots of info to get started. A lot of universities have downloadable tutorials as PDFs for creating webpages with Seamonkey.

I use FireFTP (plugin for FireFox) for data transfer. Occasionally I use the FTP built into Dreamweaver, but I like being in control and it tries to "be helpful".

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ElectricAye · 2010-03-24 00:50

mctrivia said...
i
learn html it is very easy should only take you a day to make a page like ucontroller.com. then learn php to do fun stuff.
...

I agree. It's nice to know some basic code for working on the web and you can get a fairly functional website up and running with just HTML (that's how it was done in the old days, after all). Libraries usually have books on HTML and other, more dynamic methods. Some browsers have a "View Source" tab that allows you to look at the code that generated the webpage you are looking at. Sometimes you can snag code from that to use as a starting point/template and fill in your own photo tags, etc.

Also, sometimes a "canned" website software package will not give you exactly what you want, so it's nice to have a feeling for how to tweak the code after it's been created by a package.

mctrivia · 2010-03-24 01:04

try this:

<html>
<body>
<img src="http://forums.parallax.com/forums/uavatar.aspx?ImageID=1120">

My name is micro
<hr>
Copyright 2010<?php $now=getdate(); if ($now[noparse][[/noparse]"year"]>2010) {echo '-' . $now[noparse][[/noparse]"year"];}?>
</body>
</html>

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Erik Friesen · 2010-03-24 01:09

Unless you spend $400 you will probably spend as much time learning a program and its limitations as learning basic html. I tried every cheap one I could get my hands on and ended up with Coffee Cup Visual Site Designer just to get me by in a pinch. I think most nice looking sites are built by hand though. There are inherint limitations to wysiwyg editors.

mctrivia · 2010-03-24 01:26

looks like my code does not work as I thought it would. Actually it does work.

use index.html if no active code(tags like <?php...?>
use .php if you want to use them

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Post Edited (mctrivia) : 3/24/2010 1:41:57 AM GMT

computer guy · 2010-03-24 01:48

Even if you do use a program like Dreamweaver (which I use), knowing some HTML is a must.
What do you do if something the GUI did, doesn't look how you want it to? Being able to look at the code the GUI has generated and find where things aren't right, makes webpage design a lot easier.

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SRLM · 2010-03-24 01:55

I like Dreamweaver. To me, it's main advantage is to do all the book keeping and mundane tasks (maintaining links, templates, site wide details, etc.). You can get the student price for much less than the commercial price, but it's still pricey.

I also like Google sites. It's easy to quickly get something up, although you certainly have to know some HTML to get around the odd ways the editor does things.

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Powered by enthusiasm

Oldbitcollector (Jeff) · 2010-03-24 02:14

http://webpage-maker.com

One of the best $50 investments I've ever made...

I use this with all of my website as well as customer websites.

OBC

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Scope · 2010-03-24 02:22

I use Open Office

1 - create a text document (add background, fonts, photos, links, et cetera)
2 - Save as type: HTML Document
3 - Use FileZilla to upload
4 - Melt chocolate chips with crunchy peanut butter and eat w/skim milk

Of course, I don't do anything *fancy* with my web pages and I did learn HTML, XHTML, CSS, blah, blah, blah - for personal use, I prefer quick, easy & cheap

If I had to suggest a book it would be this one, from Elisabeth Castro:

www.elizabethcastro.com/html5ed/

John R. · 2010-03-24 02:44

Erik Friesen said...
Unless you spend $400 you will probably spend as much time learning a program and its limitations as learning basic html. I tried every cheap one I could get my hands on and ended up with Coffee Cup Visual Site Designer just to get me by in a pinch. I think most nice looking sites are built by hand though. There are inherint limitations to wysiwyg editors.

My experience suggests that very few of the advanced sites are built entirely by hand. Usually some type of "web site editor" is used. By "web site editor", I mean a program like Dreamweaver that not only allows for WYSIWYG editing of a page, but also helps manage the site in terms of links, navigation, site maps, etc. Usually, a combination of the GUI and "source view" is used. The GUI (or WYSIWYG) part to get the basic structure in place and much of the text editing and graphics laid in, and then going to "split" (half GUI, half source) or full source/code view to tweak things up. As an example, I rarely leave a table as Dreamweaver puts it in, especially if I come back and make changes. Dreamweaver, and most other packages, end up making a bit of a mess of the table code. It works, and displays OK, but can lead to problems in the future if you don't clean it up.

If you do a lot of web site work, you also tend to build a library of code "snippets" etc. You can either cut/paste them in, or the advanced editing systems have provisions for adding them as if they were part of the package to allow quick entry.

Don't use Microsoft Word. Every major package I'm aware of has a "clean up after Word" tool, and they have it for a reason. Word produces very messy and bloated HTML code.

Another option is to look at some of the Content Management Systems (CMS). DotNetNuke is one, but there are others. These let you create/edit a web site without having to write any HTML code.

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John R.
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WBA Consulting · 2010-03-24 07:38

Good point about mixing a GUI based editor and raw HTML. Attached is a snapshot of how I use Dreamweaver MX 2004. On the left hand side of the view: HTML code in upper window, WYSIWYG view in the middle window, content attributes in the lower window. All good webpage "authors" know how to tweak HTML manually. No GUI based editor is perfect.

I missed mentioning what SRLM did. I do love how Dreamweaver manages my templates. I can update my template for a site and Dreamweaver will automatically update all pages that use that template. Same thing for updating graphics, etc.

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mctrivia · 2010-03-24 07:47

personally i just write a php script to parse a template file in real time. but dream weaver is a really nice program. just to expensive for me.

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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

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Unknown · 2010-03-24 12:22

Sites like blogger, wordpress or yuku have free forum hosting.· Yuku has some annoying advertising but it is free.

Vaati · 2010-03-24 15:06

Haha... I use CMD.

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Chris Savage · 2010-03-24 15:13

I hand-coded my website for many years...but as time went on more and more people complained about certain scripts not working on their browser and I found it increasingly difficult to keep trying to make the entire site (I had 4 sub-domains too) compatible with IE, Firefox, Opera and Chrome. So one day I spent $285 and bought vBulletin Suite 4.0 w/CMS. Walla...the all new www.savagecircuits.com

P.S. - I liked the site the way it was originally...but keeping people interested means I needed to see beyond my own interests a bit.

As a side-note, many people start off with something like Wordpress (which I have also used) and have a blog-style website.

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Chris Savage

Parallax Engineering
·

stamptrol · 2010-03-24 16:36

Really, your webhost should offer you some basic tools to build your basic site.

I started with StartLogic.com and included in the the very modest hosting charges were all the tools needed to do both "fill in the blanks" page development as well as simple HTML editing, domain registration and mail server maintenance, etc.

Cheers,

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Tom Sisk

http://www.siskconsult.com
·

Microcontrolled · 2010-03-24 17:03

Thanks for all the help! I also am wondering: how do you sell things on your website? You would have to have some kind of PayPal thing set up so I don't know.....

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mctrivia · 2010-03-24 17:05

I am hosting him for free on my server. I gave him ftp access only. Though I could install a html editor for him but that does open more holes for hacking.

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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

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mctrivia · 2010-03-24 17:08

You need a paypal merchant account. Costs 3% of each transaction.

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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

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Microcontrolled · 2010-03-24 19:32

I have an account, but how do I integrate it into my webpage?

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Don't click on this.....

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mctrivia · 2010-03-24 20:05

Look under merchant options. They have a button maker. It will generate the needed html code.

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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

If you have not already. Add yourself to the prophead map

Timothy D. Swieter · 2010-03-25 00:23

I'd second Chris's point about going with a Content Management System (CMS) or something like WordPress, etc. Those system allow great functionality, there are plenty of templates and for the post part those systems are designed to be compatible with all major browsers and web platforms. There is a lot that goes into web usability and accessibility and working with the quirks of every browser out there. I have done enough web work to recognize the trouble.

I'd second (or third or fourth) the idea that learning HTML+CSS is a good idea. Basic skills goes a long way.

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mctrivia · 2010-03-25 00:26

Microcontrolled if you want me to install a cms I can. There are lots of nice free ones in php

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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

If you have not already. Add yourself to the prophead map

Chris Savage · 2010-03-25 14:50

I can say that neither my wife or myself were very happy with GoDaddy.com. They offered website building tools, but there were hidden costs and if you didn't pay them banner ads were displayed on your site. That was when I went with a hosting package. Boy I sure am glad I went month to month to try it out. My site was down so much I lost members. People got frustrated with all the Internal Server Errors and Fatal Execution Errors. In all fairness, I did have a shared hosting account. However, each call to Tech Support resulted in the same response..."A custom script you have installed on your website is causing the issue". Funny thing is I recently switched hosts and haven't had a single error. So I will save you that frustration.

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Parallax Engineering
·

Timothy D. Swieter · 2010-03-25 22:45

I have used BlueHost.com for a couple years now. I am also a registered affiliate so you do want to use them you can click through a link on Brilldea and I get a kickback for telling you about them.

Bluehost.com has a great price and several great features such as being able to install the standard programs into your web site for blogging or wikis or CMSs. With Bluehost I believe you may want to have a bit of experience in what you are doing as the hosting account exposes a lot of controls. It could be daunting at first to a newcomer, but there is also a bluehost suppose forum and customer support services though I admit I have not used the phone support. I have used e-mail support and they helped me to resolve my issue quickly.

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www.tdswieter.com

Oldbitcollector (Jeff) · 2010-03-25 23:57

I'm using hostgator for all my sites and they are doing well here..

OBC

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Microcontrolled · 2010-03-26 02:00

Thanks everyone, now writing HTML.

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Don't click on this.....

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mctrivia · 2010-03-26 02:02

looking good so far. glad you got rid of the background. you writing by hand or using something?

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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

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mctrivia · 2010-03-26 02:15

if doing by hand here is something that could help.

i have included an example.txt to show how to use it.

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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.

If you have not already. Add yourself to the prophead map

How to make a website? (software resources???)

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