How do you make a Website?

Postby **Kirika** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:52 am

That may sounds stupid but.... how do you make a website? :red:

I'd like to start one myself and I don't really know where to go and where to start, so if you guys could help me, I'd really appreciate it!

Postby **Mithrandir** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:01 am

There are many places where you can get a free website. Most of them have lots of banner and pop-up adds. If you are enrolled in a school, sometimes they let you have a site on their server. I would recommend going to Google and typing in "Free Website." I saw anglefire and tripod on the list. Anyone else have a better one?

Postby **SMoonEmpress** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:08 am

That doesn't sound stupid at all! I think everyone is a bit confused at the beginning (I know I was).

A lot of times people start out with a Pagebuilder, which is a program that writes all of your html coding for you and you only have to do the "drag and drop" thing. I've only ever used one, and that was geocities, but I'm pretty sure that there are some other good ones out there as well. I think Tripod has a good one also.

Anyways, the best way, I'd say, to make a website is to figure out good ol' html, which is the language by which many webpages are written. It takes awhile to learn, but once you get the hang of it it's not bad. To start out you might look into using a pre-made layout. Those usually come with directions for use, and are pretty easy (most of the time) to figure out. If you choose to use html, you can set up an account with Tripod (free) and use their HTML editor.

Here are some good websites to help you out along the way:

Hosting Sites/Pagebuilders:

http://www.geocities.com
http://www.tripod.lycos.com

Free layouts:

http://www.daydreamgraphics.com
http://magitek-designs.net/
http://ere-serene.org/

HTML help:

http://www.lissaexplains.com/
http://www.slackerhtml.com/
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/

Good luck! I hope that helps some!

Postby **MyrrhLynn** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:33 am

Well everyone has already given a buch of good advice so I only have a little to add...

I would say learning to use HTML is the best idea. The Pagebuilder programs have huge limits on how good the pages can actually look. Also if you have Front Page that program is excellent because with the newer verisions you can switch between the HTML and a preview of the page. And it colors the html so it is easier to read then Notebook is.

Finally, another good place for layouts is freelayouts.com although some of the ones there are probably more complicated then you want to use, but they may give you some ideas.

Postby **Mithrandir** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:44 am

MyrrhLynn wrote:Also if you have Front Page that program is excellent because with the newer verisions you can switch between the HTML and a preview of the page. And it colors the html so it is easier to read then Notebook is.

:shudders:

M$ Frontpage is the single biggest cause of browser crashes on the internet. That program is bad news. Sorry, that came out more bitter than I ment it to. A co-worker of mine built a site using FP and every time someone on a Mac goes to it, it crashes their computer. I sure there are other programs out there that can color things better. If you use a mac, BBEdit is hands down the best - although it's getting more and more expensive.

[edit]snip[/edit]

That wasn't page maker, that was a different product they were talking about. Sorry for the confusion!

Postby **MyrrhLynn** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 10:54 am

oldphilosopher wrote::shudders:

M$ Pagemaker is the single biggest cause of browser crashes on the internet. That program is bad news. Sorry, that came out more bitter than I ment it to. A co-worker of mine built a site using PM and every time someone on a Mac goes to it, it crashes their computer. I sure there are other programs out there that can color things better. If you use a mac, BBEdit is hands down the best - although it's getting more and more expensive.

(On a side note one group of anti PM individules said something like, "Pagemaker by Microsoft can go so violently from one extreme to the other that it should be abbriviated Pagemaker by MicroSoft.")

Erm... I'm confused. Is Pagemaker = Frontpage? I have never had problems with it. But that could be that I don't really use if for anything except looking at my HTML. I don't allow it to put all sorts of stupid junk in my coding either like can happen to some people.

Postby **Mithrandir** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 11:00 am

MyrrhLynn wrote:Erm... I'm confused. Is Pagemaker = Frontpage? I have never had problems with it. But that could be that I don't really use if for anything except looking at my HTML. I don't allow it to put all sorts of stupid junk in my coding either like can happen to some people.

OOPS! SORRY! You are totally correct. I totally fouled up that one. Had Pagemaker on the brain. :winces: I'll go change that right now.

If you don't let it put the extra stuff in your code, I'll take you word that it works fine. My co-worker doesn't know any HTML, so that might explain a few things.

(And I use either pico or vi to edit my code, since it's usually on a unix box).

Postby **andyroo** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 2:23 pm

For highlighting of the code, I've always used 1st page 2000 (Windows Only) by EvrSoft. It isn't like dreamweaver or Front page where you don't really need to look at the html or anything. There is a beginner mode that can be used with nice big buttons and such not that may help any.

For learning html I would use Web Design in a Nutshell by Jennifer Niederst. This is just a reference book, but covers not just html, but CSS, JavaScript, XML, DHTML, different interactive elements that you can put into your web site and their ups and downs, presents different image compression scemes, and so on. I'm sure by now PHP, CFML, ASP, and .NET are covered as well. My edition book is sort of out of date as far as new web technologies are conserned, but HTML hasn't changed any. It's still HTML 4.0 as far as I know. If you wan't just HTML then check out HTML: The Definative Guide. By the way, these books are published by O'REILLY.

There are some other free web hosts that haven't been mentioned yet. http://www.hellandheavennet.com/main.php?id=freehosts has a list of free and pay web hosts.

Postby **Kirika** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 2:38 pm

errrrrh.... :drool:

I'm kinda lost...
Well guess I'll start with something simple like geocities and I'll update to more complicated stuff later.
Thanks everyone for the help!

Postby **Retten** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 2:56 pm

well i started out by reading some books from the library

there are alot of great ones for beginers and you dont even need to put your website up on the net to build it or even look at it one of the best free programs i know of is http://www.chami.com/html-kit/ i recomede you read up on it firts and check out some tutorials on the web

if you ever need any help just let me know and i can probally help you out oh and the best free website host is http://www.brinkster.com no adds lots of space

Postby **Christianotaku** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 3:00 pm

no the best is dreamweaver ? and why get free templates just make your own get some cool anime wallpaper cut a piece off put it as a haeader
very cool!!

Postby **Retten** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 3:53 pm

yeah dreamweaver is good but it costs $300 and i prefer to do it by hand anyway

Postby **Spencer** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 4:20 pm

I use FrontPage myself, I test stuff out with it since you can put in HTML then see how it looks. But then again, I haven't made a real webpage in forever...I'd like to make one, just for fun, but I dunno what it would be about.

btw, if you are interested in learning HTML, http://www.webmonkey.com is very good. That's where I learned most of the stuff I know.

Postby **Psycho Ann** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 5:40 pm

Am I the only one who uses Dreamweaver? (glances guilty at the software which she got from a friend copied for free before she got more serious in Him)

I'm all self-taught so I pretty much just use whatever basics there is (in other words, I *can't* use anything other than the basics).

I guess the first thing you need to properly decide what you're going to start with is what you're going to use the page for!

Is it a general information (anime, manga, etc) site? Art site? Blog? This way you can consider the site traffic and space into choosing which hosting you want. ^^

Postby **Straylight** » Mon Jul 28, 2003 5:48 pm

I have often just used notepad to do webdesign. Then I downloaded a special "programmer's text editor" (kinda like notepad but with extra stuff like line numbers and ident control). All you really need is notepad though. Just save and preview your work in the browser. That's the way I learned

HTML really isn't that hard, the basics are quite simple (although even for an experienced webdeveloper tables will always be a pain, hehe)

After you've learned HTML I reccomend you try learning CSS. That allows you to do some really cool formatting stuff

Dreamweaver is a VERY useful tool though. The thing I like about that package is the quick reference guide.

Postby **MyrrhLynn** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 1:15 pm

djnoz wrote:HTML really isn't that hard, the basics are quite simple (although even for an experienced webdeveloper tables will always be a pain, hehe)

LOL! I have actually gotten nightmares about tables! I really do prefer them to any other type of layout (frames, pop-up, etc.) But they can be so annoying sometimes!

Oh and Christianotaku I would like to point out that your idea of taking a anime wallpaper to make a header is a bad idea. If it is a wallpaper that a fan made (and not an official wallpaper) that would be considered stealing their work and copyright breaking.

Postby **inkhana** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 5:40 pm

To me, the best thing to do is like get cels from the show you want and make a collage in Photoshop (or whatever program) or draw your own, if you can. I've also found you can get nifty images from like posters and wall scrolls from anime shows (or other sold products). That way, nobody's feelings get hurt.

Postby **shooraijin** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 5:53 pm

> LOL! I have actually gotten nightmares about tables! I really do prefer them to any other type of layout (frames, pop-up, etc.) But they can be so annoying sometimes!

They do work really well for fixed layouts, although IE and Netscape sort of differ on the quirks on how things are arranged.

I'm happy to hear other people here actually design the HTML by hand. I pull up a text editor and write in HTML manually because I prefer that level of control over my display. (Poor Psycho Ann, still using Dreamweaver!

)

Postby **inkhana** » Tue Jul 29, 2003 6:06 pm

Since I'm not good with HTML, I start in Mozilla Composer (because that's what I have, and let me tell you, MS Word's converter...is awful. And that's putting it mildly...O.o Talk about cluttered, bloated code). Then after I put in items roughly where I want them, I take it to Wordpad and do the rest of the editing there, and clean up the file. I am really very much a novice...but I can do some pretty nifty things this way.

Postby **Christianotaku** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 11:59 am

actaully its not abad idea to use a wallpaper since most wallpapers are made under the free person cpyright act. And beside that the law on things sich as fan made wallpapers etc. is that you can make them and hold copyrigth to them as a whole but if anyone uses a part of it it is not it is reusing fan material to make a new fan material. which then you hold the copyright to.

Postby **inkhana** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 12:09 pm

Well, if it's a collage or something made from official images, that would be one thing, but to reuse a hand drawn fan image, to me, would just be wrong. If someone made a webpage with one of my hand drawn cg images without at least telling me or asking to use the image, I wouldn't be happy about it at all. Whether or not the law says so, it's a form of stealing, the way I look at it, because it makes it look like you made it.

Postby **Christianotaku** » Wed Jul 30, 2003 4:17 pm

not hand drawn fanart its made from offcial images

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