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the basement => the archives => web design support => Topic started by: Mange on June 15, 2008, 02:43:46 pm

Title: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Mange on June 15, 2008, 02:43:46 pm
So I'm going to start opening myself for comissions for my badges and CATS style suits, warmers, tails n' such.
Only problem is I am a computer dummy and need help with making the website. It also has to be free..ish? I have Verizon so i know I get some webspace for free...but as for knowing how the heck to make a website I am clueless.
Anyone care to shed some advice?
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: josh down on June 15, 2008, 03:20:36 pm
well... i used freewebs... it's alright if you don;t wanna custumise your site that much cause it's so difficult. but if you just want text, a few link and a gallery then it's ideal i find
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: roukan on June 15, 2008, 06:29:27 pm
Well, there are plenty of free, basic webpage builders like Geocities or Angelfire, and as Brandy Man said Freewebs. I've used all three and been most happy with Freewebs. But if you're looking for something with maybe a little more options for free, 100WebSpace is a good place too. I'm not very good at helping people over the internet set things up, but if you can find a friend who knows enough HTML to work with a free webpage template, 100WebSpace can give you a lot to offer.

This is the site I made on there using a basic free template and just adding some images of my own - just to show you what you can do:
http://vampirelupus.100webspace.net/

But if you don't know anyone, I'd recommend something like Geocities for complete beginners as they offer a Web Page Builder which is very user friendly.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Firehazard on June 15, 2008, 08:58:41 pm
Looks like you're looking not so much for a place to host it as advice on creating it.  So, first off... go see what your library has as far as books on HTML/XHTML, the languages used to create Web pages.  I personally recommend Paul McFedries' Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Web Page & Blog for its down-to-earth, aimed-at-beginners tone, but if you're generally tech savvy, any book on the subject will do.  Even if you plan to make your site using some type of third-party utility like Expression Web or Dreamweaver (note: I do not recommend even touching Fireworks; it's like a Web design program for kids or something), it helps to understand what's actually going on under the hood of programs like that, because there's a lot they can't do, or will do incorrectly.

After you've got that down, bookmark the W3Schools website (http://www.w3schools.com/) for reference material you can access anytime.  They stay up to date with all the HTML/XHTML standards so you'll know you're getting the most relevant information.  They're invaluable to me when I need a CSS (advanced design) cheat-sheet.

Then, of course, there's the rest of the Web, which can show you how to do all the cool stuff that's not immediately obvious how to do.  Like, suppose you want to create a box on your page that has rounded corners, but isn't a specified, set-in-stone size all the way around.  Just Google "rounded corners CSS" and see what comes up.  There's no end of tutorials out there for cool stuff like that.  But of course, you have to know what CSS is and how it works to get much out of them, which is why the book is so important.

Finally, there's Furtopia's own Web design support forum, which the Web design savvy among us visit with some frequency and will gladly provide troubleshooting and tips even if your site isn't hosted by Furtopia.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Kaloth on June 15, 2008, 09:01:55 pm
As fire said I started of reasearching and learning HTML. After HTML I moved on to CSS, (Helps alot for multipage formatting.). W3schools was invaluble for me. Also if you go to view and then source, you can see the programming that other sites use. It can be hard to sift through sometimes.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: T-Fox on June 16, 2008, 10:12:02 am
Since you can host it already, if you have Microsoft Frontpage, or a similar program, you can always use that.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Siege on June 16, 2008, 11:59:36 am
Mods, please move this topic to "web design support" so I can really open Pandora's Box and discover all sorts of details about desired page layout and site structure.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Siege on June 16, 2008, 10:27:43 pm
Ah, thanks.

So, Mange. You say you're looking to sell badge commissions and bodysuits. Would you want those things to be separate on the website, or are they all just various kinds of commissions?

Do you want a gallery of past works? (That might entail using a script to create and/or display your gallery.)

Do you want things visually floating in space, or positioned somewhere specific?

I would recommend you get a sheet of paper and (keeping in mind the 3:4 aspect ratio of a typical computer monitor) draw the layout you want to use, making boxes and lines to represent areas and items. If you want more than one page, then draw a box encompassing your page design, and draw a line leading to another box where you draw the layout for that page. You can make your web page(s) tall, just keep in mind that that means a viewer will generally have to scroll down to see the bottom of the page.

When the drawings make sense visually and the pages (and their links to each other) are reasonably organized, it's much easier to create a web site with the layout and structure you want.

As for recommended books, I'm relatively familiar with HTML, but I've also been using "Spring Into HTML and CSS" (since that looked to be the most up to date book my library had on the subject). The "Teach Yourself in 24 Hours" books are good if you want lots of leading. "For Dummies" and similar beginners' series are worth checking into. It all depends on how you learn best.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Firehazard on June 17, 2008, 07:47:48 pm
Having read both For Dummies titles on creating Web sites, I'm going to step in and disrecommend them.  HTML for Dummies reads like more of a technical manual than a Dummies book, and Web Design for Dummies focuses on using Dreamweaver and *shudder* Fireworks and has almost no info about the innards of Web sites.  At least, that's how it was last time I checked.  They might have improved since then.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Richard K Niner on June 18, 2008, 07:33:58 am
Isn't Fireworks a graphics editor?
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Siege on June 18, 2008, 12:40:06 pm
Yes, but. Fireworks is a dumbed-down Adobe product for working with graphics and simple Flash objects. And if you've ever worked with an Adobe product, you'd know that they're already mostly dumbed-up and typically hard to use, imposing an upper limit on efficiency. Adobe just doesn't design their user interfaces very well.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Richard K Niner on June 18, 2008, 11:18:21 pm
Well, it's an Adobe product now...  It came with Flash when they bought Macromedia.  (The latest version I used was part of Studio MX.)
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Mange on June 19, 2008, 06:50:06 pm
Ok..how can I put this and make it seem like I'm not a dummy...

Well heck I am a dummy. I know -nothing- about computers. That's what the husbands for. I turn it on, check e-mail, yadda yadda. Thats it. I'm lucky I know how to re-size images...*chuckles*

So yes....good advice from everyone! I need blonde terms..
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: Kaloth on June 22, 2008, 08:42:42 pm
I think maybe you should research HTML. No matter how you make the webpage you will probably need to know HTML. You could always try using Microsoft Frontpage as well.
Title: Re: Help needed with making a website..
Post by: NeoFur on June 23, 2008, 05:14:54 am
Ok..how can I put this and make it seem like I'm not a dummy...

Well heck I am a dummy. I know -nothing- about computers. That's what the husbands for. I turn it on, check e-mail, yadda yadda. Thats it. I'm lucky I know how to re-size images...*chuckles*

So yes....good advice from everyone! I need blonde terms..

LOL...it's time for some learning...

Furtopia does some fine free web hosting.
http://www.furtopia.org/application.html

If you need to set up a gallery try the PhotoFrame.
http://photoframe.sourceforge.net/

There are lots a free html tools to be found online.
You could also try looking on CNet.