Websites

[Leigh]

Just entertaining the thought at the moment. But I'm considering creating a website. Does anyone have any advice how to go about doing this that doesn't involve studying web design in grown-up school?

Cheers

[Baby_Rhino]

just buy a good book  :D like websites for dummies or something simple like that

[Edge]

Datalas may be able to help. :D

[Colin 009]

You should be able to setup a website through you isp mine lets me have my own site and it can be done with the software they provide.

Haven't had time to set it up yet though. :roll:

[suzota]

or go to one of the free web space sites.
they normally have templates you can use to design your site.

www.freewebspace.com

is one.

[Tigger]

First questions....

What do you want the site to do ?
What features would you like it to have ?
Where will it be hosted, and are there any special requirements which come out of the above ?

As with so many things, planning is important.  Try and get as complete a picture of what you want the site to do... that will guide whether you want to start writing some code, find an off-the-shelf package to use or start with a template, etc.

[Leigh]

Thanks, mainly looking for a website to use as an online gallery for photgraphic work, paintings and sculptures. I'm guessing the features would be a gallery with the facilities to purchase pieces of art. I don't know anything about hosting so not sure about that.
Just at the idea stage for the moment, not sure if it would be worth doing

Cheers

[smog]

Just to add..... I own a large adult website and have found over the years companies are becoming less inclined to host adult material, so if you intend to have adult material on your site ensure the company you choose to host it allows such material on their servers.

Also remember that your website needs to be listed just about everywhere and anywhere if it is to be found by search engines, in addition to this be aware of copyright law in respect to pictures and permissions to post online.

There are free website places around but you usually pay the price with ad's everywhere or you may have 'pop up' type ad's for all to see everytime they view your site, you get what you pay for and the cheapest option is not always the best way to go in some cases.

Best advice i could give is look around, plan your site and ask as many different people as you possibly can about managing a website.

Had so much more to say on the subject in respect to HTML and whatever but it's late and i need to sleep.

PM me for any further information if you wish.

[suzota]

my web site www.surreyzuki.me.uk is done on dreamweaver which i find easy to use.

i pay to have it hosted on www.easyspace.com and you get a free domain name with them.


but design it on paper first to get all the links to the content right as it can be a nightmare if the links dont work right.

[Leigh]

Thanks for your help. If I create my own website I think I would need to find some software to help me. Don't know the first thing about HTML other than its confusing me  :?  I've heard of Dreamweaver, is that about the best software available? I'm used to working with Photoshop, Maya and other graphic packages so its only the code side of things I would find difficult.

Copyright and permision wouldn't be an issue as its my own work. I suppose adult material is debatable with art but wouldn't consider any of my work as adult

Cheers

[gords]

Don't know the first thing about HTML other than its confusing me  :?  I've heard of Dreamweaver, is that about the best software available? I'm used to working with Photoshop...

HTML really isn't that difficult to learn the basics - gets a beginners book and work through it.

DreamWeaver is Professional quality, but also suitable for beginners/occasional users.

ImageReady comes with PhotoShop (CS2 ?) and can be used to create web pages directly from a PhotoShop image.

As was said elsewhere recently - do not use Word!!!

It would be worth your while to learn at least a little bit about HTML if you want to create your own web site. It pays to know what's actually going on and what it possible :)

[Horness]

Thanks for your help. If I create my own website I think I would need to find some software to help me. Don't know the first thing about HTML other than its confusing me  :?  I've heard of Dreamweaver, is that about the best software available? I'm used to working with Photoshop, Maya and other graphic packages so its only the code side of things I would find difficult.

Copyright and permision wouldn't be an issue as its my own work. I suppose adult material is debatable with art but wouldn't consider any of my work as adult

Cheers

Dreamweaver now comes with the option to have more of a beginners "Home Site" mode, or the more hardened "Developer" mode, depending on experience.  Seeing as it writes most of the code for you in the background, you only need to know the basics.

I have the Macromedia Studio MX For Dummies guide in PDF format.  If you want to download it (9.7Mb), I'll put it on my server, otherwise, PM me your address and I can put it on a CD for you, along with some other tools/guides that may be of use.

Horness

[gords]

i pay to have it hosted on www.easyspace.com and you get a free domain name with them.

You pay and and still get an EasySpace banner appear on your site?  :?

It's a good idea to look carefully at the T&C's of the various hosting companies. I recently had a customer who had to pay their ISP £45 + VAT to allow their domain/hosting to be transferred to us :shock:

[Leigh]

Thanks everyone, some great advice and directions for me to look into. I have Image Ready but never really looked into it so I'll take a look this evening.

Is Dreamweaver an expensive program? I know some can be, any links to cheapo ones would be gratefull received

Cheers Horness, I have a high speed broadband so thats quite a small file size to what I'm used to

Thanks again

[Tigger]

Thanks, mainly looking for a website to use as an online gallery for photgraphic work, paintings and sculptures. I'm guessing the features would be a gallery with the facilities to purchase pieces of art. I don't know anything about hosting so not sure about that.
Just at the idea stage for the moment, not sure if it would be worth doing

Cheers

Right...

You are looking for something that will allow you to have a shopping cart facility on the site.   So, that takes it beyond the realms of standard html and some of the off-the-shelf creation packages.  (Although you can still use these to create other pages of the site and some of the look & feel)

There are any number of bits of shopping cart software about which may or may not do what you need.  I'll be totally honest and say that I can't recommend one since I don't use any :-)   A quick google will probably reveal something.  There is plenty of choice, so take some time and see what fits your needs and budgets.   Keep an eye out for English software as opposed to 'American'...  the tax calculations and terminology can be messy otherwise.

If you have artistic content, then I would say don't go mad with the design of the site itself, you don't want the content and presentation to be fighting with each other !


If you don't want the online purchasing aspects yet, then you can just crack on with something like Dreamweaver and build up some nice pages.   If you want something to produce online galleries of the work, then you can either do this manually, or once again, there are open-source packages which will do this sort of thing automatically.

[Lee337]

I use NetObjects Fusion 7 which is a drag & drop design program & fairly easy to use

The version I use was a freebie & includes a site wizard, templates and hints & tips and has a PayPal tool. I'm no expert in web design but seem to create ok results with it.

their site is at www.NetObjects.com

Mine, if you want to take a look is www.dirtyswine4x4.co.uk