I want to make a website for myself, something I have never done before. If I go to file, new, then there are three web page sizes. My question is which one should I use or is there another way I should be going about it....
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I want to make a website for myself, something I have never done before. If I go to file, new, then there are three web page sizes. My question is which one should I use or is there another way I should be going about it....
You can start out with a template and customize it. Or just have fun and make your own from scratch.
As for the three sizes, I would go with the 955px and make the page less deep.
It's a entertaining process. Just play around with it.
I would always suggest around the 955px width, you can go upto 1055px as well but try not to go any wider than that. As Gary suggested I would create your website from scratch, I have never used the templates but if you want to have a play around with one to see how everything works and then create one yourself from a blank page, just follow the basic design guidelines of:
Your site is 3 elements;
the header; your logo, your main message, your navigation menu.
the content or body area; all your text and photos.
the footer; contact details, and navigation links (simple) so that visitors don't have to scroll to the top again to navigate, perhaps a compact feedback form or even a twitter widget. This is the most neglected of the 3 elements but just look at some good sites and you'll see how effectively they use them.
keep body text a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 14, headings can be 20-24px
Keep to 1-3 different fonts, sometimes only one is required, just change the weight of the font (bold or normal) for instance for headings
Don't use too many colours, 2 to 4 are fine
Don't have too many images
Optimise all images
Give alt text to images (>web properties, >image, >image caption)
Don't group text
Don't have massively long pages, about 1400px to 1600px is a nice page length
Keep it Simple, have a look at the sites of apple or microsoft to see what I mean
Look at as many good sites as you can to get an idea about what is good practice
Don't go looking for animated gifs to add to the site, they look horrible
Use as much white space as you can, don't think that just because you have some space that you have to fill it with something.
Keep to a consistent look for the whole site
the hardest thing is getting used to the navigation, either make a navigation bar or just use plain text (can sometimes be more effective)
And as Gary said; enjoy yourself!:)