Website

[cyborgxxi 0]

Hey, can someone tell me the easiest way to build a website? Where can I start and what should I do to begin? My friend and I want to build a website for our friends but we don't know where to start. He actually knows some stuff but he is busy and hard to get to concentrate so if someone could get me started I would be very grateful. cyborgxxi

[wutske 0]

First thing I want to begin with:
don't use Word
do not use Frontpage

Those 2 don't respect any HTML rules and they produce pages that'll only be accesible with IE.

I don't know what you're expecting from the website, but maybe http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ might help (don't expect too much from this). For blogging, you're best of with blogger.com or other alternatives.
Last but not least, Macromedia DreamWeaver is a good app, tough it isn't free.

Notepad alternatives work excelent too , but you'll have to learn html for that

[webintern 0]

There are many HTML editors, but not too many WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors. If you are unfarmiliar with HTML, I would suggest sticking with the WYSIWYG editors. Some examples (as were mentioned by wutske) include the following: Word, FrontPage, and Dreamweaver. Others to consider are FirstPage and N|Vu. Of course, as with any type of product, there are advantages and disadvantages to each one.I agree that Microsoft Word and FrontPage traditionally generate poorly-constructed and Microsoft-centric HTML code. I nevertheless heard that the newest version of FrontPage strays from the monopolistic behavior of its predecessors, and it creates much cleaner HTML code. So, FrontPage can be a consideration. This costs though. I used Dreamweaver at a company sometime ago. I love the software. But, it costs, too, so I do not have it.For freeware, you should strongly consider FirstPage and N|vu. FirstPage is predominantly an HTML-only editor, but the newest version has some WYSIWYG features in it. I downloaded it and tried it at one point, but I think the poor responsiveness of the user-interface frustrated me. Somehow the cursor was sooo slow to react. The speed issue is a known bug, but I cannot recall whether anybody has really addressed it. This was unfortunate, because the software seemed to have a rich set of features and held much promise. Unfortunately, the poor usability led me to delete it.I have also tried N|Vu. It is fast, responsive, and writes HTML well. It was originally supported by the company that produces Linspire (formerly known as "Lindows" before the Microsoft lawsuit). It can produce decent web pages. But compared to FirstPage, N|Vu has fewer features and does not seem adapted for fancy DHTML/CSS/AJAX sites. If you want to create quick web pages, this is the product that will suit your needs well. As a side note, it is still at version 1 due to stopped development. So, in a way, it does not have space to grow.If you have the time, I would recommend investing some energy into learning HTML and related coding formats. They are very straightforward, and you gain the knowledge to completely control the look-and-feel of your web pages. As mentioned earlier, there is not lack of plain HTML editors, some with great features. In any case, good luck with all your work.

[Pharoah 0]

Yeah, I made a sample page in word and then looked at it in TextPad after it had been "published", full of garbage XML tags that had stuff like all your personal Word licensing information, spelling and grammar check resultso on the doc, your Windows version. I was amazed at how much crap they packed in that would be completely useless for those who don't browse the web using Word

[cyborgxxi 0]

Thank you everyone, I am gonna get started soon.

[KDEWolf 0]

But compared to FirstPage, N|Vu has fewer features and does not seem adapted for fancy DHTML/CSS/AJAX sites.

How's that, does FirstPage or any other program has decent built-in AJAX support?I used to use Dreamweaver MX a lot, but that was before XHTML and and new CSS support.
Is DW MX worth for building these new CSS based standards compliant websites?

[justlikepaper 0]

Use notepad. Learn some html and your set. But if you dont really want to learn HTML go to some site creators like Google Page Creator, Tripod, Geocities and Piczo. They all are great but most of them display adverts at the top.If you decide to code your site yourself, find some ad-free hosting so you wont have any adverts on your website. Adverts do not look good and can make websites go slow.

[ginginca 0]

Use notepad. Learn some html and your set. But if you dont really want to learn HTML go to some site creators like Google Page Creator, Tripod, Geocities and Piczo. They all are great but most of them display adverts at the top.

 

If you decide to code your site yourself, find some ad-free hosting so you wont have any adverts on your website. Adverts do not look good and can make websites go slow.

 

I completely agree about learning to hand code.

 

I don't want to "slam" dreamweaver, as it has its place, but coming from someone with over ten years of experience, I learned using a simple code editor by the name of Web Edit. (It's my full time job.)

 

For about six or more years we have been using ACE HTML pro for at least 90% of our code editing. We absolutely love it. They have a free version but it just doesn't compare to the pro version (which is actually very cheap.)

 

Based on my experience, dreamweaver likes to code sites a certain way, and we like to code things our way. So what often happens, is when the file is opened in DW, it will make changes to the code, or it won't appear correctly. But since it's WYSIWYG, making tables and cut & paste are a snap.

 

As for Front Page ... stay clear away from it. It adds all kinds of unnecessessary code, making the pages very heavy.

 

Where YOU begin depends on a number of things. What's your background, and what kind of site are you going to develop? What do you want the site to actually do.

 

A definate MUST is photoshop. It's the only image editor that I would ever recommend to anyone. If you need a scaled-down version, photoshop elements is a great starting point.

 

If your site is a forum (like this), or a directory, there's lots of open source PHP scripts to set up those kind of sites. With some practice it isn't hard.

 

There are other content management scripts too that you could look at. But as I said, it all depends on what you want the site to do.

 

My 2 cents.

 

Gin