Trying to build a website for my small biz

[alliknowisnetworking]

I am trying to build a website for my small business that I am currently trying to get off the ground. I doesn't need to have a lot of bells and whistles.

I would like to create it myself. I know a little HTML but not enough. What sort of program could I use to put up a respectable website, but at the same time be easy enough for me to learn from.

To put it in simpler terms, what would be the best way to get into website.

"Users are like Prostitutes,..They need guidance"-Myself
A+,Network+,MCP+2000

 

[ecobb]

Your best bet would be to use Dreamweaver. You can download a trial version of it from Macromedia.

Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies, LLC

http://www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[dgillz]

I know zero about building websites, HTML, or any web programming language and I built my website in a couple of hours using register.com and their tools. You might check that out.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.gainfocus.biz

 

[tomed]

Have you looked into FrontPage? I know it's a dreaded MS product, but from what I hear it's a pretty good WYSIWYG web site tool.

 

[MasterRacker]

Pretty much anything you build with FrontPage will require a server with FrontPage extensions on it. Also, I'm sorry, but the templates provided with FP do not look "professional" to me for the most part.

Dreamweaver is great, but has a steep learning curve.

For a straight HTML editor, HTMLKit is excellent and also free.



[sub]Jeff
[purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day

I was not born cynical - I earned my cynicism through careful observation of the world around me.[/sub]

 

[GlenJohnson]

Go to a company like

http://www.register.com

and you can buy a domain name for a very good price, and they offer you free 3 page web site building which you can do easily. You don't need to know anything about building web sites. I use it, and it's really easy. Good luck.

Glen A. Johnson
"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
Groucho Marx
Tek-Tips in Chicago IL

 

[alliknowisnetworking]

Thanks for the tips everyone. The reason why I asked is I like getting my hands dirty when it comes to learning new things. If I had a choice I wouldnt learn HTML from a program that automatically put tags in for you. I would bang out tags all day until the point where I had enough knowledge where I could starting cheating.

"Users are like Prostitutes,..They need guidance"-Myself
A+,Network+,MCP+2000

 

[MasterRacker]

Using a tool like HTMLKit that can put in tags or complete tags for you won't slow you from learning HTML because you're still working in the source code and typing tags is just grunt work.

A WYSIWYG editor where you rarely even see the source code is what will slow your learning.

[sub]Jeff
[purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day

I was not born cynical - I earned my cynicism through careful observation of the world around me.[/sub]

 

[GlenJohnson]

Using registers tools you don't need to know ANY coding. It's choose a text box, type words into it. Pick a photo on your computer, click this box and upload it to your website. NO coding at all. Very easy to use. If you want to learn to code, though, you can still use them. I just like to happen to like them, I've used them for years. For learning code, try using frontpage. Easy to use, and you can do your own thing. Good luck.

Glen A. Johnson
"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
Groucho Marx
Tek-Tips in Chicago IL

 

[creativetype]

Hi

I took Dreamweaver in school and built my own website for my sewing business. It turned out nice, but it was time consuming for me. I would recommend it if you can learn the program.

My friend is a self taught graphic designer and marketing guru, she uses Front page and said she taught herself how to use it in 2 hours. She has many up and running websites including those for a bed and breakfast, insurance agency, and travel bureau.

However, a friend of mine has her own dance studio and she went to Geocities on Yahoo and posted her dance studio with several pages and pictures and in one season went from 12 students to 66. that's success I think and it was simply cut and pasting and simply drop and dragging images.

 

[robbieguy2003]

If you want to learn HTML as well get hold of dreamweaver. You can make a page (or a table, insert an image etc), then goto view >> Page Source and look at the HTML which generates the page.

Its a handy tool for learning HTML. Unfortunatly i learned in notepad

I wish someone would just call me Sir, without adding 'Your making a scene'.

Rob

 

[zutfen]

I use Notepad, and nVu (

http://www.nvu.com)

it's open source, amazingly user friendly, and has some great features... my .02

 

[MikaWhat]

Is better if you start using simple HTML in notepad, and after some time jump to a software like dreamweaver. That's how we started in the university. Once you got an idea of simple HTML is easier for you to use any program. For me dreamweaver is by far the best tool for this job. Not only for HTML but also for ASP with database connection! By clicking a button on dremweaver (e.g. create a table) you can see many lines of code which may take minutes to write in HTML. But is good if you know HTML in order to understand the code and maybe manually edit it.

 

[damber]

OK, thought I would add a couple of thoughts to the pot that may help you.

1. Decide what your objectives are. Do you want to learn Web Design/Programming, or just want to get a site up and running?

2. If you decide you want to just get a site up and running then find a WYSIWYG Editor/Dev Environment like Dreamweaver, Visual Studio, etc etc.

**If you are thinking of frontpage, consider the fact that many people, (in fact everyone I know) considers websites developed with Frontpage as 'amateurish' (and yes you can tell), and that's just the look and feel. The code it generates is messy, unnecessarily complicated and doesn't comply with many of the standards set down by the W3C, especially not XHTML.

3. If you want to learn how to develop web sites properly, or professionally, then start by finding and reading sites that provide tutorials and reference guides, such as:

http://www.w3schools.com/

(great site to get started with 'concepts', like DB programming/ CSS / XML etc)
and

http://www.devguru.com/

(great site for looking up what elements are avaialable, and what they do)

As you advance also try sites like:

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/

This will give you a flavour of what technologies are available to help you deliver the functions you wish and what can be done with these technologies. From this you should get an idea of what type of server technology you wish to use, such as ASP, PHP, JSP, CGI, etc. If you're beginning, I would highly recommend you keep away from CGI and JSP (unless you have extensive Java or Perl knowledge).

ASP and PHP are 2 sides of the same coin - both are quite widespread with 'learning developers' and both have a lot of support on the net (VERY Important). But be careful to check whether you web host can support the one you choose.

3. Once you have decided which technology you want to use, then look at the tools that will help you use it.

As many other people will tell you - learning a programming language is about getting your hands dirty, spending a lot of time and effort banging your head against a wall, and researching on the net - google and tech forums will become your best friend..! (But it really is worth it)

Notepad is too basic for a programmer - (although I have used it in the past) - but it is not far off the mark - UltraEdit,TextPad and the like are all really 'advanced notepads', and will help with indenting, color coding, etc etc.

I personally have never been a fan of WYSIWYG editors - to get a really good polished finish to a solution, you need to have full control over the code - WYSIWYGs try to do too much, or too little, or don't support XYZ feature - so you end up doing most of it yourself, and if you get into 'clicking mode' when you begin, rather than typing, you may find it tempting not to bother looking at the generated code, and 'make do' with the Apps coding techniques.. which are very constrictive.

My suggestion would be to download a free editor such as Visual Web Developer Express for ASP/ASP.NET:

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/express/vwd/default.aspx

And code by hand (although it has a WYSIWYG, don't use it) using the sites mentioned earlier to guide you through the process. The editor will give you type-ahead/autocomplete functionality, color coding so you can see what you're doing and a lot of other helpful functionality - as well as access to your selected Database. If you get really stuck, then you can click on an element in the toolbox, and it will add it to your page - here you can see the code that works, so you can modify and code manually in the future.

And of course, tek-tips has many forums dealing with specific web technologies... so if you don't know.. ask !

Hope that helps.

A smile is worth a thousand kind words. So smile, it's easy!

 

[spewn]

personally, and since you said you wanted to get your hands dirty, i would use notepad. it's ultimately all you need. i started with 1 book and notepad and never looked back.

(

http://www.peachpit.com/search/index.asp?searchstring=html&searchgroup=Entire+Site&searchtype=Title

- i had 4th edition!)

peach pit also offers a javascript book, and it's decent to have a reference.

to use your 'dirty hands' comment, think of a mechanic. he can take apart and rebuild an entire car. when he drives it and it makes a noise, he knows what it is and how to fix it. could he have this sense if he didn't build it from scratch? probably not. he's intimate (for lack of better word) with the vehicle now.

i think it's so funny when someone has a code or script that they 'created' in a program, only to find out it's not what they needed and now they can't alter it because they don't know how it works!

and remember, it doesn't matter how dirty you get as long as you clean up.

good luck.

- g