Since other people interested in this I’m going to reorganize my previous postsOptions for getting your website built 1. Have somebody else build it
a. Pay a professional,
i. Ask to see portfolio, sample websites.
ii. Look for good design: easy to navigate, clean looking, reflect what you want
b. Find a student willing to work for free,
i. Beginners who want to build a portfolio or have a class project but don’t have content.
ii. They often look for non-profit not business content.
iii. You will need to be organized with your content up front,
they don’t want to get involved then have you drop the ball.
iv. They may want some control over the design since it may need to fit class criteria.
v. Could look at local college, or advertise on Craigslist.
2. Build it yourself
a. Type the source text yourself
i. This is easier than it sounds
(the average 3rd grader could do it but I doubt my Mom could)
there is a learning curve that takes time, gives you the most control.
It is a common misconception that you have to program to write a webpage,
but this is only needed for the fancy websites
ii. Overview of tools, learn in this order
1.
HTML is used for content:
Using frames and tables are antiquated methods for web page layout,
CSS is the current standard. (Tables still have very specific uses however.)
2.
CSS is used for design:
Here is a fun site demonstrating the relationship between HTML & CSS
http://www.csszengarden.com/ If you click the links you will see the exact same HTML with different CSS designs.
It is considered good design to compartmentalize the content & design like this.
3. Advanced tools like
JavaScript &
AJAX used to make a page more interactive or dynamic,
this is where programming logic may come into play
iii. If you are looking for a good book to get started I like
http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-HTML-CSS-XHTML/dp/059610197X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239816360&sr=8-1
It has great example projects to work on.
It's like taking a class in web design and may be a little time consuming
(600 pages but lots of pictures very visual),
very thorough and will teach you a lot of good habits from the start.
iv. If you just want to dive into a project there are many free tutorials on line.
It’s good to cross reference a few tutorials.
1.
http://www.echoecho.com/ 2.
http://www.w3schools.com/ 3.
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/ 4.
http://www.pageresource.com/ this is good for all levels and includes simple instructions
and sample code so you don’t have to write everything from scratch
v. Notepad++ is a free program to write website code
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm b. Use a visual program to “draw” the site, it will write the source for you
(this is WYSIWYG (wizzywig) what you see is what you get).
These are good if you are more visually oriented,
its normally a matter of dragging whatever elements you want to where you want them.
(So easy my Mom could do it.)
i. Here is a good place to start:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/06/25-wysiwyg-editors-reviewed/
Digg
