Web Design

[ghost]

I am thinking about creating my own website, but am pretty much a novice. I had some experience in an engineering course, but we just used C++ to make a basic page. I know there are various software applications to build websites, like FrontPage, Macromedia, Dreamweaver, etc.

Do any of you have experience building web sites? Is there some kind of referrence guide I could buy at a bookstore or something? What is the best way to approach my task?

 

[zzzz]

If you just want a personal website, you might consider a blog. Blogger, from Google, is free -- you don't even have to pay for webspace.

 

[dustin_c1]

Depends on what you want.

Is this for personal or professional use?

If it's for professional use, don't even bother trying to do it yourself, even if all you need is something simple. While you will be able to learn HTML in an hour, achieving a knack for attractive and professional design takes years and talent.

Will it be a static page (i.e. never changing) or do you need some functionality to it?

If you need functionality, look at getting an off-the-shelf or subscription service. If you want to learn how to develop functional websites and have the experience and ability to learn the technologies to do it.....well...you won't be asking here.

Do you want to tinker around and spend a lot of time on it, or do you just want to get something up painlessly?

If you want to get something up painlessly and it's just for personal use, look at Front Page. If you want to tinker around, take a bit of time to learn HTML and other relevant technologies and hand code the thing.

 

[ghost]

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[TexasOwnzYou]

look around for free templates out there that can give it a professional look.

 

[blacklab]

this is a good place to start:
webmonkey

 

[wherzwaldo]

FrontPage is a good place to start. I'd recommend really learning HTML/XHTML, though, if you want to do more than the average dinky stuff.

 

[schnarkle]

No offense, but I wouldn't recommend FrontPage. Microsoft is notorious for writing non-compliant html and throwing incredible amounts of useless crap in their code. If you want quick and easy maybe, but if you want to do it right use Dreamweaver. If you want to try something for free to get the hang of it this is good. NVU

 

[wherzwaldo]

FrontPage is good if you don't care about the code (which you should). That's why I said it's a good place to start, but learning HTML is a better option.

 

[sessamoid]

If you learned C++, then HTML won't be that difficult to pick up. It's not technically a programming language but a markup language, but the principles of syntax and logic are similar if much less complicated. Just learn HTML and bit of PHP, install any number of free weblog packages, and you're good to go.

 

[KaiserSoze]

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[pmg]

I like Dreamweaver as a site management tool. I know HTML/XHTML and style sheets, but for my personal pages Dreamweaver saves a LOT of time and makes it easy to propagate changes throughout a site.