Desinging A Web Site

[bohor]

hello all :bye:
I want to make my own web site, but I don't have a clue about anything considering web site creation!!
I figured that 2 basic things for designing a web site is some web site design program, and some space on itnernet where I'll put my site, right?
Where can I get those, free ofcourse?

[Wael]

Might Help (http://www.freewebhostingtips.com/)
(No personal experience)

[Kon-Tiki]

Website design program... you already have the best one. Start->Bureau accesories->Notepad.

As for webspace, try looking at freewebs.com (http://members.freewebs.com/) or the likes. For the coding part, the very least you'll need to know, is HTML. It's dead easy... kinda like using a text editor. A good tutorial on HTML can be found at W3schools.org (http://www.w3schools.com/).

G'luck on your site :ok:

[mika]

Well a web site is nothing more than an HTML page. You need to know this (unless you use what they call a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor - which I wouldn't recommend, only for the simple fact is that I believe you should at least know HTML basics). Here are a couple of tutorials on HTML I found using Google:

An Interactive HTML Tutorial (http://www.davesite.com/webstation/html/)
W3C School's HTML Tutorial (http://www.w3schools.com/html/)

About the pictures, well you don't HAVE to have any on your site per se, but to do any, you'll need to use programs like Photoshop (http://www.adobe.com/) (Way expensive) or Paint Shop Pro (http://www.jasc.com/).

For hosting, check this (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free+hosting&btnG=Google+Search&meta=).

[Strobe]

most important for designing your website is a suitable approach to it....
to be precise - planning and developing a decent concept.

you might start with answering the following questions to yourself like:

what will be the purpose of my website?
what should it contain/which categories will you present?
will there be pictures, text, and perhaps some extras (like a guestbook or such)
what will its so called "look and feel" be like? (colors, font, graphics, segmentation)
which audience will it be aiming for?
how much time are you willing to invest in this project?

best thing would be to write down everything so you get an appropriate overview
of your requirements. afterwards it might be helpful to scribble the basic appearance
on paper to make visualization easier.

i would recommend a grafics-based editor (WYSIWYG) like dreamweaver or
similar. there are loads of free programs on the web to serve this purpose.

[bohor]

so, when I make a site in notepad, how do I upload it to the internet?

[Strobe]

you have to save your code file in the correct format, as there is .html or htm.

after you have acquired some webspace you'll need a so-called ftp connection.

that is a software which allows you to copy the specific files from a directory on
your computer into a directory on your webspace.

[bohor]

Thank you for the info Strobe, and all others too..
another question:
How can I, or can I get a free domain name??

[Strobe]

what exactly do you mean with "free domain name"?
you mean a name which is not like "lycos.yourname.com", or what?

[bohor]

well, I donno... :unsure:

Can I get a www.myname.com for free?

[punch999]

no simple that

[mouse31e]

One of the best free webhosts in my experience is Deluxe Host at http://dhost.info. They offer 100MB space and 300GB bandwidth per month (ad-free) though they don't accept sites that want to have loads of downloads. They also offer php support and free MySQL but if you're new to web design that isn't going to affect you!

I don't know exactly how it works but I believe you can get a free .co.nr domain name from here (http://www.freedomain.co.nr).

[Kon-Tiki]

Or .cjb.net, no? Or was that .tk...

[mouse31e]

I think www.dot.tk (http://www.dot.tk) will take you to the page for .tk domains but I think you have to get a certain number of hits to keep a .tk domain for free. :D

I think you're right that cjb.net is also free. That's at www.cjb.net (http://www.cjb.net). I think it can also include free webspace though I don't know how much and it probably has ads on it!

[Gormash]

Bohor, as for FTP programs I recommend WS_FTP lite. It's free, and it's good.
Basically you have the files on your computer in one window, and the files on the net in another. Simply select the files you want to transfer and drag-n-drop them in the other window and they get copied.

For HTML tutorials I'd also check out http://www.htmlgoodies.com as they have some good beginner-tutorials.

Notepad is a good program for HTML, yes, but I would recommend TextPad as it has a few improvements.
- First of all, you can load several documents in one window (much like tabs in Firefox).
- It can load and save larger files than notepad.
- You can colour-code tags, making it easier to see if something is a tag, value or text.
- lots of HTML tools (that I never use but can be good for others).
Apart from that it is just the same as notepad. The trial version is not timed, even. I've had my copy, with all features installed, for about 3 years and the only bug is that once a month it asks if I want to buy it (I always select "Try a little longer"). ^_^

Once you have mastered HTML you should take a look at external CSS-files (I know, a bit premature, but keep it at the back of your mind). It's a great way for webmasters to organize site layout without repeating a bunch of codes. And, it's even easier to learn than HTML.
Won't help you until you know HTML, though...

As for hosting, I'd go with almost anything that has the ability to link files directly off-site and that is ad-free. I believe the example mouse31e mentioned first is a good option.
Alternatively you can use http://www.funhosts.com/ where you can register with domain-names like http://bohor.funhosts.com and similar names. There are several option for the "last name" of the address...

Good luck, and above all else... Have fun! ^_^

[bohor]

thank you all guys for replying, you'we been most helpfull...
Thanks to your help, I will have my site in no time!! :ok:

[bohor]

Originally posted by Strobe@Jan 15 2005, 06:20 PM
i would recommend a grafics-based editor (WYSIWYG) like dreamweaver or
similar. there are loads of free programs on the web to serve this purpose.
hm, is dreamweaver an editor for creating flash sites?

[Unknown Hero]

Originally posted by bohor+Jan 16 2005, 06:47 PM****</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (bohor @ Jan 16 2005, 06:47 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> ******QuoteBegin-Strobe@Jan 15 2005, 06:20 PM
i would recommend a grafics-based editor (WYSIWYG) like dreamweaver or
similar. there are loads of free programs on the web to serve this purpose.
hm, is dreamweaver an editor for creating flash sites? [/b][/quote]
Macromedia is producer of one of the best web developing tools! I use/have for web creating:
- Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004
- Macromedia Extension Manager
- Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004
- Macromedia Flash MX 2004
- Macromedia FreeHand MXa
- Macromedia Flash Player 7

Do you need more?
See that Macromedia Flash MX 2004 - it's for creating flash "things"! :cheers:

[mika]

Originally posted by bohor@Jan 16 2005, 07:47 PM
hm, is dreamweaver an editor for creating flash sites?
Nope - dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG HTML editor. Macromedia Flash MX is used to create Flash "videos".

[Unknown Hero]

Originally posted by mika+Jan 16 2005, 09:25 PM****</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (mika @ Jan 16 2005, 09:25 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> ******QuoteBegin-bohor@Jan 16 2005, 07:47 PM
hm, is dreamweaver an editor for creating flash sites?
Nope - dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG HTML editor. Macromedia Flash MX is used to create Flash "videos". [/b][/quote]
NOPE! You can choose batween WYGIWYS and text editor!!!! :angry:
BTW Flash "videos", "games", etc. it's all the same!

[bohor]

I desinged my first web page (http://dhost.info/borderlining/)using Microsoft word, and I am so proud of it! :wub:

but there are few thingies with which I aint so proud off though... First one: When I type in my web adress he doesn't load my main.html page, but an index. How do I change that? Other thing that I don't like is that it doesn't display the banner of abandonia on the bottom of the page, why is that??

[N17R0]

Well, your page needs to be named index.html to load when the URL is entered. Browsers search for index.html first, then index.php, and all other different extensions.

[Kon-Tiki]

Just had a look at your source and man... didn't know Ms Word could generate HTML-files. I almost thought you just wrote the HTML, but then you wouldn't have so much garble in it... of which some could've been better put in a CSS file (but that's still a bit too advanced if you're just starting out yet). Anyways, that surprise left aside, let's get to that banner problem.

After alot of searching, I finally found the image you use for the banner. It links to
http://dhost.info/borderlining/main_files/image001.gif, which doesn't seem to exist. Once it does exist, it should show up on the page :ok:

[mouse31e]

I think when the page was created with word it has created a local link to /main_files/image001.gif when the file on the server is abandonia_banner_small.gif and is in the root directory.

There are two ways to solve this problem.

1) Using your ftp program create a folder called main_files on the server and then put the image in it, renaming it image001.gif

2) Open the page in word and edit the path to the image so it points to abandonia_banner_small.gif. Don't worry if it doesn't display properly on your computer, once it is on the net it should work!

Hope that helps!

[bohor]

Thank you guys so much!! The page runs perfectly now!! :ok:

Now I have another question? Where can I find, and how do I add a guest counter, and how do I make a guest book?

[Reup]

Check out Hotscripts.com (http://www.hotscripts.com) for a lot of scripts. Choose your favorite language and install it. Some of these scripts may require a little bit advanced stuff like setting file-privilges etc., but not all.
There are also counters (like the ones from Nedstat (http://www.nedstat.net) that you can simply 'install'' by pasting a couple of lines of JavaScripts into your page. There are similar webservices for guestbooks such as this one (no experience with it) (http://www.freebok.net/guestbook/help/gettingstarted.html).

Good luck with that!

[bohor]

thanks much reup! :ok: