Website Help, please?

[Neil]

Can you guys tell me how to make a website? I have never made one, and I think I am going to need one for Maine Model and High Power Rocekts. I need to know everything about this. Thanks! -Neil

 

[PGerringer]

Woof... You have stepped your foot in it this time. There are bizillions of ways to build a website. My suggestion is to take a trip to your local bookstore and sit and read for awhile on html.

 

[Stones]

"View source"...
You might not understand that now but, it's probably one of the biggest tools out there that will educate you on building sites.
Top of your browser, under View.

 

[Neil]

EEEEK! Do I have to write all that!? Scary! That is a long thing! What is that, HTML script? Ill go to a bookstore sometime tomorrow.

 

[Stymye]

no need to type all that ........just..........cut and paste

 

[Neil]

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

How does all this work?

 

[KermieD]

Best thing you can do if you're starting from absolute scratch is to pick up a book called "HTML for Dummies". It won't tell you all you need to make a site like Fliskits or this one, BUT if you're starting from scratch knowledge-wise, it gives you a good foundation to work with.

 

[mtmind]

If you have Netscape there should be a Netscape Composer program in with it. To find out if you have composer you can open any page in navigator and go to File > Edit Page. This should bring up composer. Composer is basically plug and play, you'll get used to the program just as you would with any other program, but it's mostly What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG). You can put in you're pictures, links, text, etc. quite easily.

Often when you hit "View Source" on a page, you'll see a lot that isn't HTML. Anything between two < script > tags is probably javascript or something like it. I urge you as a fellow web surfer, "Do not think that you need any of this in your page." I have seen javascript etc. make pages more difficult to load and take longer to load far more than make them more user friendly. Try to stick to HTML unless you get into web building more than just your page or two.

I myself learned HTML before composers were available, so I do things Old School. Write the code and check the page when done, if there's something wrong fix it and check again just to make sure. If you would like help with the page I do web work for a small fee but I doubt you'll need it. Though HTML may look complicated, it's actually really simple because when they invented it they wanted it to be easy to use so anyone could put up a web page. It has gotten more and more tags added over time but the structure hasn't changed.

I hope this helps. Just let me know if you want any help with the page.


Peace

Mike

 

[Neil]

Another "for dummies"!!???!?!?!??!?!?! how many of those things ARE there!? They are pretty good, though. I am going to some plaza with a bookstore and a Staples (for mailing tubes.), and a Petquarters (Pooper Scooper and dog run for little golden puppy who we will be picking up in a couple of months). They also have an O'naturals (for to-die-for flatbread. That stuff is SOOOOO good). That should keep me busy for the house inspection we are having tomorrow!

 

[Stones]

test

 

[PGerringer]

The forum is written in PHP which generates html. When you do a view source on this site, there is a ton of html. Don't be intimidated.

 

[DavRedf]

Hi Neil
You really have asked this time. There are hundreds of ways but i expect you dont want to learn html etc so I would sugest a good web publishing program.
Try www.download.com and search ftp you will get a few hundred progs some of which will be free.
Hope this helps.
David

 

[Zippy]

Niel,

Windows comes with one of those html wizards so you don't have to know code. I don't remember the name of it since I uninstalled it to save space since I only use notepad for html. It's alright for basic pages but you'll get alot more control writing your own code. Web Design Insights is a good downloadable (free) tutorial for html and a few java tricks. Once you get a page written you have to upload it to your server, WSFTP is the preffered tool for that. Your a student so you should be able to get WSFTP-LE (light edition) for free. Most servers have their own utillity for uploading of course but experienced people much prefer WSFTP.

 

[PGerringer]

Youre referring to MS Frontpage. Real computer geeks use command line to write their html.

 

[eugenefl]

I'm not sure if Geocities still provides this feature, but if you are looking for a no-frills way to just get some pictures on line, check out their site. You get some free space and they should still have a site builder in it. All you do is follow the directions, point, click, and bam - you have a spot on the web.

www.geocities.com

 

[jflis]

actually, I *use* frontpage, though I mainly create in DreamWeaver. Frontpage has *one* great feature: Fast/Simple

If I want to throw together a quick page or a proto, I usually use front page.

In either case, I go to the hard code to tweak the design. DreamWeaver is cool because you can code DHTML.

I would suggest some kind of WYSIWYG software (like frontpage) to get started.

jim

 

[PGerringer]

I hear Dreamweaver is superior to FrontPage. When I was learning, I created my look with FrontPage then took a look at the source and edited it to make it "better". (or worse) Now though, I use command line stuff like, gulp, vi. That doesn't help ya though Neil, check out FrontPage.

 

[stevem]

go to this web site - plenty of tutorials show you how to do it just using Notepad and Internet Explorer.

Once you understand HTML and such you can always get a software package to make it easier. No matter what, you are going to want to learn HTML and possibly some JavaScript.

Web Page tutorials

 

[JeffS]

Here's a suggestion. Go to https://www.chami.com/html-kit/ and download HTML Kit. This is a full featured html code editor that is free. You can work in the "code mode" and then toggle to preview to see how it looks.

Then, if you're using internet explorer, go to a web page and then go to the File menu and click "save as". Where it says "Save as type" make sure it says "web page, complete". Once you've done this open the page in HTML Kit and play with it and look at the results. Here's where the books that others have recomended may come in handy. I might mention it's considered bad form to download someone else's site and plug your content into it without permission.

There is also a site called Open Source Design (https://www.oswd.org/) where you can download designs to use.

 

[jflis]

As far as formating your files and folders, I would also recommend that you do "good housekeeping" and keep folders logical and well labled.

For example, in your main folder (top level directory where your home page is), have a folder called IMAGES to keep all of the images for the home page on. If you have a section on your web site for (for example) your fleet of model rockets, create a folder called FLEET and inside of *that* folder place the web page describing your fleet AND a folder called IMAGES for the images of your fleet, etc, etc.

If you keep tinkering with your web site (and you will...), it will grow in size and complexity. It is THEN that you will be glad you set up good housekeeping from the start...

 

[KermieD]

Originally posted by PGerringer
Youre referring to MS Frontpage. Real computer geeks use command line to write their html.

Those are the same geeks who ended up reading "FrontPage for Dummies" in the economic recession while collecting unemployment for taking too long to write html!

 

[KermieD]

Originally posted by jflis
As far as formating your files and folders, I would also recommend that you do "good housekeeping" and keep folders logical and well labled.

For example, in your main folder (top level directory where your home page is), have a folder called IMAGES to keep all of the images for the home page on. If you have a section on your web site for (for example) your fleet of model rockets, create a folder called FLEET and inside of *that* folder place the web page describing your fleet AND a folder called IMAGES for the images of your fleet, etc, etc.

If you keep tinkering with your web site (and you will...), it will grow in size and complexity. It is THEN that you will be glad you set up good housekeeping from the start...

AMEN!!!

Psst...You IT types...this goes for writing code too. You think that the fact that makes your code unreadable makes you irreplacable just means that you won't get a good review at your next interview.

 

[Rocketmaniac]

You can go to Tripod https://www.tripod.lycos.com/ and you can build a simple website with very little knowledge of HTML.......

Here's what I have done.......

https://rocketmanic66.tripod.com/

 

[loopy]

I would avoid FrontPage, and I've heard alot about DreamWeaver. However, I would strongly recommend learning HTML and how it works. This knowledge will be invaluable in debugging things in your scripts, and will also give you just some basic knowledge about how computer languages work, especially tag formats. Personally, I do everything in either notepad or Visual Interdev - I work on a asp web application using VBScript to generate the HTML with javascript for client side forms validation. Highly recommend learning HTML so you know what you're doing with DreamWeaver. Alot of people call themselves web developers because they work with FrontPage, but they can't answer any questions about how to write a single line of HTML. Learn and love it.

Loopy

 

[jflis]

Originally posted by KermieD
AMEN!!!

Psst...You IT types...this goes for writing code too. You think that the fact that makes your code unreadable makes you irreplacable just means that you won't get a good review at your next interview.

Kermie, you'll appreciate this... This was the signature of one of our coders (he had this on a t-shirt too, at one point....)

"Don't comment code. If it's tough to write, it should be tough to read."

LOL

 

[n3tjm]

I don't like Frontpage because of all the Microcrap the software adds to the script... something that anybody but IE users may have problems with (and in some cases, IE users do have problems with it).

The Best Book that I have found for getting started is... "HTML for the World Wide Web with XHTML and CSS: Visual QuickStart Guide, Fifth Edition." I have the fourth edion, Ryan is borrowing it now... but you can quite litteraly start from the begining of the book, and by the time you end, you have a very good site... Very well written (and I assume the 5th edition would follow suite)... and very affordable.

 

[Neil]

Howbout those little templates on Publisher? I have been whacking away at one for a while, so I think Ill post what I have so far. It isnt much (yet), but it will get better, I promise. Also note my new logo! That is what my first kit release will look like! I need help naming it, so would you mind suggesting something? My dad wants me to call them "acadia 1", "acadia 2" etc. Going with the maine theme. He wants all the "acadias" to look the same, but get bigger with every one, and then move onto the "bigelows" or something. I dont really like that, but I cant think of anything else, so please HELP!!!!! Thanks.


OK. It wont let me upload the .pub. Here is the logo, though.
Ok. It wont let me do that because it is too big. Ill try to resize it.
OK. I had to make it so small it does not look very good anymore, but you can at least get the idea.

 

[Neil]

darnit. I forgot to include the pic. Here it is.

Gaaaaaaa!!!!! Just forget about it! Ill try to upload it to the CMASS server and you can see it there. Ill give you a link.

 

[Neil]

OK. Here is the link. MMHPR Logo

The nose cone got a little scrunched up in the process of uploading ETC, but you get the idea.

 

[stevem]

Neil, if I understand you are trying to upload a .pub file to a web server? won't ever work. - .pub files are proprietary files unique to MS Publisher and can only be opened by Publisher. If you are using Publisher to make web pages you have to use the Save As to save it as a web page with a .htm or .html file extension. I'll tell you that Publisher is a lousy web page genrator. It bloats the html code so bad it isn't even funny.

if I misunderstood your question I apologize.

Steve