How does one create a website?

[Buckle-meister]

I have used FrontPage for years. It supports CSS (do some homework on that)...

Did it. So CSS is sort of like a pool of default parameters like Font type, Point size etc that one can Call as a subroutine in a procedure in order to prevent having identical lines of code everywhere (programatically very sloppy!)?

...the space I don't pay anything for. It's FrontPage compliant so all I do is design the site in FrontPage, then I click the 'publish' button and it automatically uploads all the photos and stuff to the site.

What? No FTPing? Is FrontPage doing that for you?

The 'DUMMIES' series of books has HTML For Dummies available and you can be walked, step by step, through every aspect of setting up a website.

Do you think it would be possible to pick up how to do stuff just from FrontPage's help files or aren't they comprehensive enough? Also, is 2003 the latest edition?

Thanks very much for your input BMXTRIX. What a great resource this site is.

[JaceTheAce]

I have used FrontPage for years. It supports CSS (do some homework on that) and is as easy to design webpages in as it is to write a paper in Microsoft Word. Biggest difference is that FrontPage HTML actually looks halfway decent while Word's HTML looks horrid.

Yes, beware of Word HTML! When you save a document as a webpage (.HTM) in Word, there is a HUGE amount of excess and unnecessary code that increasing the file size of the webpage. This "feature" was a big mistake on Microsoft's part.

I use Adobe GoLive - it's just as easy as FrontPage, but much more advanced.

[jaxvon]

Robbie,

CSS, as you probably found out with a little research, is a way to save time and homogenize your website. Instead of typing out the html to govern what every single page looks like, you can use a single style sheet that dictates fonts, colors, sizes, layouts, etc that can then "cascade" through all of the pages (hence the name, Cascading Style Sheets). By using CSS, you can alter the appearance of your website by editing one document instead of hundreds. Keep in mind that the barebones content of the page, as in any text you see, is still in the html. However, because CSS eliminates making tables and all sorts of nastiness in html, your code will be clean and efficient. This is a good thing.

To see why CSS is so great, check out this website:

http://www.csszengarden.com/

Click on "view all designs" in the right menu bar. All of the pages you will see as examples use this html file:

http://www.csszengarden.com/zengarden-sample.html


Many websites use CSS, such as the BBC and CNN. Because of its design, CSS is very bandwidth conservative. The sports TV network ESPN switched to a CSS design and literally saved millions of dollars because of the reduced data transfer. If you are using FireFox and you would like to view a site without the CSS enabled, in the "View" menu, select "Page Style" then "No Style". It's pretty amazing how bare the html is on some sites!

[Haoleb]

I use Dreamweaver to make and update my website, Once you get the hang of it, its really simple. Basic things to know is create a folder your going to put all of your files in to be uploaded to the server. Its like the website is a finished meal, and all the different files are the ingerdients. if you dont put them all together its wont turn out right.

You can download a free trial of dreamweaver and either buy or otherwise get the serial number once the trial expires. They have premade CSS, which you open and basically replace the generic words with what you want to say. This is how I made my website, However i did a little bit more modification than I probbably should have to the CSS because there are some quirks. Because i only have 5mb of web storage i also compress my photos before saving them to use the minimal amount of space. This doesnt noticably degrade them but it can cut file sizes down quite a bit.

[sploo]

What? No FTPing? Is FrontPage doing that for you?

I don't know if it's actually FTP in the background, but quite a few tools have synchronising features, which will automatically upload the things that have changed to your server.

BTW This should also partly answer your question about what happens if your ISP goes bust - you should always have local copies of your pages/images.

I ran a site for a few years which had a backend database system, so obviously that needed to be backed up nightly, and was automatically transferred to another machine.

Yes, beware of Word HTML! When you save a document as a webpage (.HTM) in Word, there is a HUGE amount of excess and unnecessary code that increasing the file size of the webpage.

It's been a while since I used Word's HTML features, but yes, that was another one of the reasons I didn't like it - Microsoft bloat.

[Buckle-meister]

I use Adobe GoLive - it's just as easy as FrontPage, but much more advanced.

The impression I'm getting after Googling all three programs - FrontPage, Dreamweaver and GoLive - is that Dreamweaver is better than FrontPage though more expensive, and GoLive is yet again more expensive than Dreamweaver. Is this about right?

I also read that Dreamweaver has about 80% market share...I'd guess there's a reason for that.

I use Dreamweaver to make and update my website, Once you get the hang of it, its really simple...

If you were to recreate your site from scratch now that you're familiar with Dreamweaver, how long would you estimate it'd take?

[BMXTRIX]

Did it. So CSS is sort of like a pool of default parameters like Font type, Point size etc that one can Call as a subroutine in a procedure in order to prevent having identical lines of code everywhere (programatically very sloppy!)?

Yes, that's the idea. The main purpose being that if you decide to update your site from a light blue on white scheme to a burgundy on dark grey scheme you can just update the CSS page and the entire site will be changed in that instant. With a REALLY simple site I would just avoid CSS, but then integrate it later on as you become familiar with things down the road. Don't try to get to complex on day one, but definitely be aware of things that will matter along the way. For example, my 'learner' website: www.bmxtrix.com utilizes video editing (learned myself), Flash, ColdFusion, HTML, CSS, JavaScript (borrowed), frames, dynamicly built pages, email functions, etc. It all started with basic HTML though.

What? No FTPing? Is FrontPage doing that for you?

FrontPage will track all the changes you make and then handles all the FTP work in the background. I'm not sure if it is true FTP or something Microsoft specific, but it definitely can make things easier for you to deal with.

Do you think it would be possible to pick up how to do stuff just from FrontPage's help files or aren't they comprehensive enough? Also, is 2003 the latest edition?

I would hit your local library up and pick up FrontPage for Dummies. Yes, that one is there as well. The Help files are generic and not very useful until you are up and running. The books will walk you through basics in a few hours that might otherwise take you a few days to figure out on your own. I'm NOT a fan of books, but I did go through some of the FrontPage ones just on the first couple of days of using the product so I could get familiar with it.

FYI: I have used Dreamweaver as well. In my experience, FrontPage was far easier to use. Dreamweaver was lacking a lot of the very basic shortcuts that are very common to Microsoft applications which I thought was a nightmare. It is a more advanced program, but misses some basic functionality that it really SHOULD have. (Like CTRL 'C' to center or CTRL 'B' to bold). As well, since Dreamweaver is a bit more advanced, it may take you a bit longer to figure out how to use it, while not taking advantage of any of the advanced features it offers. Not a knock against Dreamweaver, but after using it for a few months, I came back to FrontPage.

[Haoleb]

The impression I'm getting after Googling all three programs - FrontPage, Dreamweaver and GoLive - is that Dreamweaver is better than FrontPage though more expensive, and GoLive is yet again more expensive than Dreamweaver. Is this about right?

I also read that Dreamweaver has about 80% market share...I'd guess there's a reason for that.



If you were to recreate your site from scratch now that you're familiar with Dreamweaver, how long would you estimate it'd take?

What really takes the most time is editing the pictures, Assuming I already had the pictures on file, maybe about 4-6 hours to build the whole thing again.

I know that dreamweaver has an automatic update FTP feature however I just do it manually with IE, and delete my folder off the server and copy up the new one. Pretty simple. of couse with a larger website this wouldnt be practical. So you'll have to figure out what works best for your needs

[AKAJohnDoe]

Yes, beware of Word HTML! When you save a document as a webpage (.HTM) in Word, there is a HUGE amount of excess and unnecessary code that increasing the file size of the webpage. This "feature" was a big mistake on Microsoft's part.

That really depends upon the complexity of the page. For simple pages with a couple of pictures, some links, a table or two, there is not much difference.

However, the BIG drawback to Word is that the HTML it generates is static and completely unaware of it's surrounding or run-time environment. For example, it does not modify the page for display on screens set with different screen resolutions. And, of course, no CSS, so the inherent redundancies there.

Word is an OK starter, but I have downloaded the 30 day trial of Dreamweaver 8 and think I will download and try out FrontPage as well.

www.AKAJohnDoe.com

[Buckle-meister]

A few of questions for anyone:

1. What does it mean when a Web Hosting package allows "15GB monthly traffic"?
2. What does it mean when a Web Hosting package allows a certain amount of Bandwidth? Is this just a different way of wording 'monthly traffic' above?
3. When one has a 'hit counter', can the webmaster (Robbie the web mastah! ) arbitrarily reset it?
4. Is it somehow possible to have more than one site running from the same I.P. address? In other words, could one upload pages for a number of different sites to the web hosting site and then somehow 'partition' them from one another?
5. The mailboxes that come free with web hosting packages, presumably any content within them is content deducted from the capacity of your allotted webspace?