Website building

[m4tty]

Hi,

Ive got some spare time and thinking of building a website for myself. Learning from scratch and skint so does anyone know the best programs to use (if poss free or trial version) can you actually go live when using a trial version. ?

Thanks

 

[Badger]

i use www.weebly.com

 

[m4tty]

That looks good. Did you do the site building yourself and can I ask you for a link to your website (pm if you dont mind) so I can have a butch at yours. Do you also know about hosting and domain names etc. If im taking liberties asking for your web address sorry. Thanks

 

[user 7547]

I can do some free hosting if you want it, all you need to do is get a domain, otherwise it would be a subdomain, be perfect for what your doing.

Learning wise, use notepad and your day to day browser, it's all too easy to build sites now days and know no code what so ever and you just learn to drag and drop in the end.

Using notepad and starting from the very start with HTML, build a simple site and go from there. Maybe include some CSS at the end of it to make it look nice, before attempting something that does it for you. That way you get an understanding of what the code is doing.

Domains is what links an ip address to something a bit rememberable like http://www.talk.electricianforum.co.uk

".co.uk" is a top level domaiin

"electricianforum" is the domain

"www." and "talk." are both subdomains.

Hosting Servers are the sexy machines that provide all the information to the internet.

Hosting providers come in all shapes and sizes and vary with price, different bandwidth limits and storage space, limits in amount of accounts you can have or even databases. Its a good idea to shop around for a good price and look at reviews on the providers performace and support.

domains are generally very similar in price and hosting varies quite a bit. both can be found from the same provider or seperate providers, it tend not to matter where you get either from.

Im sorry if you already know this, just ask more questions if it didnt really answer yours.

 

[Dane]

get yourself dreamweaver

best web programme going

unless you are clever and write HTML from scratch into note pad lol.

Need any help give me a PM Advice is free lol

Get your own hosting and your own domain, much better that way. more professional.

Hosting -

 

[ianmacd]

I use vi but woul dnever recommend it to anyone that has never used it. Dreamweaver is aparently good but far from free. Easiest prog for creating web sites has to be iweb thats free with a mac but the mac isnt cheap either.

As for hosting/domains etc, I can help you with that if needed (I have a very small ISP) and can also get you some free space if needed and domain reg at cost (

 

[m4tty]

Badger - your PM box is full by the way

 

[calltronics]

DREAMWEAVER.

No debate here.

As for coding the HTML direct on notepad..........come on!

Do you use notepad for documents NO.

Then why code HTML when there's tools to drag and drop!

Plus the famous "wysiwyg"

There's lots of ways of getting dreamweaver ........ if you know where to "buy"!

 

[ianmacd]

You windoes wieenies make me lmao.

As for getting dreamweaver, There is no legal way to aquire it for less than the multi hundred pounds it costs.

 

[a1]

I use Dreamweaver, But I have learned a heck of a lot of code and can write a fair amount of it without looking any up.

I also bought "SmartFTP" (Which, apparently was once a free programme). That is a MUST for ME as I have thounds of files and folders.

But on a small scale - You won't need it.

 

[a1]

You windoes wieenies make me lmao.

Eh? :|

As for getting dreamweaver, There is no legal way to aquire it for less than the multi hundred pounds it costs.

Quite Correct, and worth every penny too, IMHO.

 

[Lurch]

I also bought "SmartFTP" (Which, apparently was once a free programme). That is a MUST for ME as I have thounds of files and folders.

Filezilla. I've got sites, domains, folders and other stuff all over the place. Quite well organised in there considering.

As for DW, I've had MX and CS3, does the job, it's what I learnt HTML on, along with copious reading of books and website guides and tutorials (proper ones though, not the DIY website in a box type guides). I can knock up a fairly simple site in notepad OTTOMH, wouldn;t dream of coding from scratch with it though for a decent site.

If you're trying to learn how to build websites so you can save a few quid on your own then I wouldn;t bother. You need to actually have an interest in the job in general. Either get someone else to do it or, well, that's it really. Having said that, joomla and wordpress are easy enough to use and tweak, can get a reasonable looking site out of those.

 

[jibspark]

Dreamweaver CS4 for me, well worth it!

certainly isnt 'drag n drop' but once you get the hang of coding and css its great!

At the end of the day it all depends on how professional you want the site to look, its not just the coding but the graphics too. after you get the the hang of all that you might want to read up on search engine optimisation, a dam boring subject but well worth learning!

As for hosting, be careful, a lot of the cheaper hosting companies wont give you much at all, some of them will even charge you for each email address you have!