Help on starting a web site

[Button Monkey]

At the moment I am using Xara Xtreme but would like to take a crack designing websites for clubs im involved with.I've checked out the Webstyle Xara has to offer and it looks as slick as the rest of the software they offer but... im new to this and know nothing of the code side. I need to know what to use to get my pages working,do Xara do anything to handle the code side? I have seen a prog called Xtivity which handles the code, has anyone got feedback on this or what works well with Webstyle.Many thanks for all replies B.M.

[Big Frank]

You'd be better off posting this question in the Site design and publishing forum: http://www.talkgraphics.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

Some Xara features and products, like menu maker, will create integrated Images and HTML code, but Xara don't produce a website design package.

I use Dreamweaver which is neither free, cheap or for the faint hearted, so I'm afraid I can't help you out with this one.

[The Alien]

Hi and welcome,

Building your website does not have to be very hard
I learnt enough HTML to build sites with in 2 weeks, and I was no code expert at all. I suggest you start too by learning HTML and you'll be designing pages in no time!
A very userfriendly (also newbie-friendly) site that teaches HTML and more is webmonkey at: http://www.webmonkey.com/
(Navigate using the menu on that page. Under Authoring > HTML basics etc.)

HTML is the basics that you simply need to know, whether you want to write whole series of HTML pages, or if you just want to make minimal changes to an existing page (you need to understand the code in order to make those changes). So I strongly suggest you learn HTML, cause it'll get you where you want faster and it's not even hard.

Later, you can see if there are other languages (CSS, Javascript, php, asp) that can help you better achieve your goals.
If you got any other questions, don't hesitate to ask

[Quotepro]

I suggest you sign up with Blue Voda, www.bluevoda.com
You do not need to know a lot about coding, as most codes have been done.
If you really would like to lear codes, a good site is to go to www.tizag.com
It is a site with full tutorials on html, css, php,

[stlewis]

Another tip; I know they are old fashioned, but those book thingies are good too.

Although it is a bit of a fiddle, building a site with CSS to position elements, rather than using tables, would be a good thing to do, and would save from from Bad Habits. Just make sure you try your site in several browsers, including slightly older versions.

As well as tutorials, you can always look at the source code from your browser, or save a page to your hard disk and then look at it.

Good luck.

[bcire68]

One of the fastest ways of learning the basics of HTML code are by using a WYSIWYG website designer like MS Publisher.

Please don't slam me. I know that there are problems with actually designing your page with WYSIWYG designers but for learning HTML code they can actually be quite good. Especially in addition to a book on HTML

For example: In publisher you can build a site just like putting together a word documnet and then by highlighting the various individual elements in your web page and clicking on the code tab, you can see the HTML code used to create the element you highlighted. It is very nice to be able to compare and contrast the code used to create the same web page element in various ways.

Just a thought...

Eric

[Big Frank]

One of the fastest ways of learning the basics of HTML code are by using a WYSIWYG website designer like MS Publisher.

MS PUBLISHER IS NOT A WEB DESIGN APP

It creates terrible bloated HTML code with MS-only CSS tags. Stay away from Publisher, Word, Excel, anything Microsoft related if you want to learn how to create standards-compliant web pages.

MS PUBLISHER IS NOT A WEB DESIGN APP

[David O'Neil]

I agree with Frank. An option that is much better, and was free at one point, was Netscape Navigator used to have a middling WYSIWYG editor, that you could see the code from. The code wasn't that great, either, but it was _heads and tails_ above the output of MS's crap output.

PS - I'll throw in a free plug for a great minimal editor I came across - Alleycode. I have nothing to do with it, I just like it. You will have to know HTML, though.

[The Alien]

I wouldn't use anything MS related to code HTML either, and I believe neither would Eric. He was talking about a way to learn HTML and not necessarily code it

That being said, there is 1 exception to the statement I made about MS programs. It's called MS Script editor and it's a part of the MS Office package (filename: MSE7.exe for Office XP, maybe also for other versions).
I've used it and it doesn't add any junk code, although I need to say that I never used the wysiwyg mode, but rather the HTML mode. So maybe it will add junk code in wysiwyg :shrug:
Still, upon saving your file, there's no junk code added like in MS Frontpage.

I use MSE7 at my work, cause I have no priviledges to install/run other software that I download from the net. And since we've got Office installed, it's a good option. Otherwise, I'd use Evrsoft's 1stPage 2000 (NOT 2006). It's not wysiwyg, but the interface is just what I need. Who needs wysiwyg HTML editors anyway?
2000 does contain a trojan in one of its instant scripts, but your scanner should pick it up and remove it safely; not much concern there as you won't need any of those bloated scripts either

[Bob Hahn]

You try this out... Nvu