personal website

[GEPPETTO]

Hi,
this one is to who has achieved his proper website.. I explain better.. let's say I want to make my website..
Do I have to learn html language or not?
I know there're websites where you can make your site, but I don't know if they have any limitations
:?:

Is there someone who has created his site who would give me advices about the creation and domain ?


Many thanks

Gabriele

 

[dedee]

Hi,
.. let's say I want to make my website..
Do I have to learn html language or not?

Gabriele, you certainly do not have to learn HTML in order to create a usable website.
I use an application called NVU. It is free and I've found it easy to use. I can FTP the completed pages to the domain from within the NVU application.

My website is plain and simple but of course unfinished. It is hosted by my Internet Service provider, Zen, as part of my standard broadband package, hence the rather unremarkable domain name.

I suggest you choose an application, give yourself plenty of time and have a play. All of the web building applications will allow you to preview your pages on your PC and when you are ready to publish there are plenty of people around here will give you constructive comments if required.

Good luck

Andy

 

[suprasport]

i have made quite a few websites and learnt some html from scratch, and to be honest it is not that hard as you get templates that just need filling in with your own content, but there are also hosting companies that provide easy to use web building packages free of charge i think one of them is freeparking and that reall is as easy as it gets, but you cannot upgrade afterwards to start using html as they do not support it, alltough it does pretty much everything you need for a basic site anyway.
If you want to use html within a template there really is only a few html codes that you need to learn to get a basic site up and running and even then with a decent template that is exactly what you are after then its just a matter of changing the content.

try this one with the wizz page builder
http://www.freeparking.co.uk/default.asp?f=14

or have a look here at the templates you can use on an html hosted site.
http://www.templatesbox.com/category/all-website-templates/index.htm

 

[Argee]

Fashions change - in Web site building, just as in another field. A while ago, tables were the "be-all and end-all" in content positioning, now Cascading Style Sheets are felt to be "cool," or - at least - they were when I last bothered to look!

One thing is for sure - with so many sites on display, ease of navigation and speed of loading are the two most vital factors in getting an audience nowadays. If it doesn't load quickly, it won't be waited for, simple as that. If it's to load quickly, there needs to be less code to parse, not more.

Because speed means lean code, this needs - at the very least - an understanding of HTML, if not ability to edit it. This is, however, NOT rocket science, it's a VERY simple markup language. Using drag and drop programmes will get the job done, but it will often be a bloated, slow-to-load, second-class job that doesn't comply to Web standards. Time taken to learn basic HTML will not be wasted.

Must stop sitting on the fence.

Ray.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes you definitely need to know html. It's not difficult and anyway in the end it becomes essential, whatever programme you use.
If you rely from the beginning on a web-design programme you may be able to get some pages up quickly but you will get bogged down as you progress and find editing and re-design increasingly difficult.
However you could learn html in conjunction with a simple programme like Andys suggested NVU, or Netscape composer.

cheers
Jacob

 

[GEPPETTO]

OK WW's,
I'll learn HTML.
You convinced me. It'll be a way to expand the mind

Cheers
Gabriele

 

[ByronBlack]

If you want a usable and accessible website, then learning HTML or even better: XHTML 1.0 is pretty much essential, any program is going to use horrible propietry code that will hinder the loading and accessibility.

Argee

CSS is not just about being 'cool' or the in-thing. It a proper way of marking up code and seperating content for presentation which is essential for a website to be accessible to everyone. Blind people have a mare when it comes to sites using tables because this does not help their screen reader software read the content. Tables were never invented for layout, they were invented for tabular data only.

Thats why it's important to learn some basic XHTML and apply some basic CSS, not only will the code be leaner and load faster, but everyone including search engines will be able to scan your content a lot better. Not only that, if you want to make a change to the presentation, you only do it in 1 file, and not have to refer to each page where a change is needed!

 

[mr]

Erm
What Byron said
xhtml, css & notepad - that's all you need.
Mike

 

[wizer]

i agree too, but its a steep learning curve these days. I gave up web design when CSS broke out. A couple of years ago took some time to learn it. Its certainly not easy and if you only have the intention to have a small website then there are other options out there than starting from the ground up.

 

[ByronBlack]

Wizer, the CSS community is very rich nowadays and you can get many free CSS layouts to get you running so all you have to do is add content and pictures, it's a great way of getting a solid working layout for free that you can then use to learn from and build upon.

When I get more time, i'll post some links to some good free CSS layouts.

 

[mr]

there are other options out there than starting from the ground up.

Reasonable options might include. Wordpress, Textpad, Joomla, Expresssion Engine - depending on your needs. Google will find all of these.

Cheers Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Erm
What Byron said
xhtml, css & notepad - that's all you need.
Mike

Yup.
I've just got going with Xhtml. Didn't realise it was so easy as it sounds sorta super technical.
Sorry folks another excuse to plug Pamelas site which is now Xhtml and CSS 100% compliant according to http://validator.w3.org/
Well it was last time I looked.
For domain names and hosting I use http://123-reg.co.uk which seems cheap. Not the very cheapest but a good efficient service IMHO.

cheers
Jacob

 

[ByronBlack]

Mike

You make a good point about the various free blog software, I've used Wordpress quite extensively for a number of corporate clients and is very flexible, so this could be an option, but I think maybe quite difficult initially foe geppetto to get up and running and used to the blogging system, but it's definitly an option.

 

[wizer]

Wizer, the CSS community is very rich nowadays and you can get many free CSS layouts to get you running so all you have to do is add content and pictures, it's a great way of getting a solid working layout for free that you can then use to learn from and build upon.

heh that's what i meant

But I guess I also meant that something like a CMS or Blog would be better\easier in the long run.

I use Gallery, Drupal and Wordpress and find them all to be great

 

[mr]

Yes, not exactly the up and running straight away option, but even for a complete newbie, once past the installation hurdle, it should be reasonably easy to get something acceptable out of one of the open source cms systems over the course of a couple of evenings which can then be built on. Having said that I've only ever played with the things on my local machines, I keep meaning to set up a blog as a means of playing with them properly but then never manage it My last blog died about 4 years ago suffering from a case of terminal boredom on my part. I have great admiration for those who can maintain quality publishing on a regular basis.
Cheers Mike

 

[GEPPETTO]

Hi,
bacause my nature I like to understand things from the beginning, therefore how I said I'll try to learn html basis and not to use fre auto-software :? .. excuse me again I have another curiosity..
:lol: Wrongly, i thought most simply, it would only have been necessary to rent a domain.. but I understood it doesn't be enough you have to rent space on the web. I have a few space onto my ISP, hence I could use this one. The only inconvenient is the URL: it's so long. I have even understood one could use a Domain Redirect Service to have a more suitable URL.
The question: Do someone have this service? Pro and con?

Many cheers
Gabriele

 

[gidon]

Gabriele
Try Google Page Creator:
http://pages.google.com/
This will get you started. In this day I don't think you need to learn HTML to create a webpage. If you want to get into to web design properly then at some stage you will have to understand some of the harder stuff.
Cheers
Gidon

 

[mr]

Pro - your website has a domain name making it easier to find.
Pro - depending on how you set it up you can use your domain name for email
Con - it costs a little bit more. Though not a lot if you shop around for the best price on domains.
Con - setting up domain forwarding adds a little bit of complexity. Setting up a DNS server to resolve the domain name more complex yet. However you may be able to ask the provider of your webspace to look after this for you, though you may have to buy the domian name from them for this.

Cheers Mike

 

[Anonymous]

Gabriele
Try Google Page Creator:
http://pages.google.com/
This will get you started. In this day I don't think you need to learn HTML to create a webpage. If you want to get into to web design properly then at some stage you will have to understand some of the harder stuff.
Cheers
Gidon

But if you don't do html from the beginning (which isn't difficult) then you are forever locked in to some off-the-peg system. OK if you just want a blog. When you finally get around to html you won't find it at all easy to get your site back to reality.
There are plenty of very simple sites like http://www.amgron.clara.net/index.htm with very little styling, which could easily be styled later with CSS.
I'm just on a new learning curve myself. With hindsight I'd say the best thing for beginners would be strict XHTML only, and then to add styles when you've got the hang of it.
Then having got control of the basics you can use programmes like Dreamweaver etc (if you really want to), but staying well in control.

cheers
Jacob

 

[Steve Maskery]

Gabriele
I use a domain forwarding service and find it excellent.

My website's "proper" address is http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steve.maskery, but that's a bit of a keyboard full, so I have stevemaskery.co.uk which is forwarded to the site proper. I also have workshop-essentials.com and a couple of others which are redirrected in the same way.

Mine are all managed by homepageuniverse.com and the redirection and email forwarding are all all handled as part of the basic fee. Not all providers offer this as standard, though, so check. I bought one domain from Verio, it was a little cheaper to buy from them (just a few quid) but then I found they wanted £120PA to redirect it! I had to wait 60 days to transfer ti to homepage universe.

On the original point, I can certainly vouch for the pitfalls of NOT learning HTML. My site is a collection of edited templates and it's very clunky indeed by today's standards, and too big and difficult to put right easily.

Byron
Any CSS links will be very intereting to me too.

CHeers
Steve
Anyone seen my mozzy net?