Help required. Starting my own website

Thomas28 · 09-24-2007, 10:01 PM

I just joined here to pick your collective brains. I am creating a
website to sell animal training dvd's. I am not too bad technically but have never been trained in web design. I am wondering what is my best way of doing this, any programs that may help me. Im looking to do this myself. Any advice much appreciated.

Paul · 09-24-2007, 10:25 PM

If you're looking to do this yourself, I'd recommend that you practice a few times first; you can't just go and create a masterpiece without any prior knowledge.

What you'll probably need to do is, make sure you learn some (basic) CSS, and obviously the HTML side.

CSS, cascading style sheets, is used to theme the web page/site so that's a definite must for you. A tutorial site may help you with learning CSS and basic HTML. Also, if you have no prior knowledge on coding a web page what-so-ever, I'd advise you to read a HTML guide thoroughly.

Programs that could help you are possibly, Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop (for creating the web graphics), obviously they come at a price.

Thomas28 · 09-24-2007, 11:11 PM

Cheers for the advice, i might just have a look at maybe photoshop or dreamweaver then. I've just looked at a html and css tutorial site and looks like I might have to do a bit of learning. Thanks and anymore advice is always appreciated.

zkiller · 09-24-2007, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

Programs that could help you are possibly, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop (for creating the web graphics), obviously they come at a price.

It's actually Adobe Dreamweaver now.

But I agree. Your first step will be to learn HTML and CSS. However, those will only give the basic tools to create static web pages. So once you get those down you will probably want to learn a server side language, which will allow to have such things as a shopping cart, forums, etc. Examples for such languages are ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, ColdFusion and JSP. The most popular being the first three mentioned.

Another language well worth your time is Javascript. Javascript is a client side language, meaning it is executed on the users computer. It is used for such things as form validation.

a good site to get you started is www.w3schools.com.

Also, www.sitepoint.com sells some great books that could help you on your way. I have bought 6 of them so far and love every one of them.

If you have any questions, we will be here to help. Good luck!

zkiller · 09-24-2007, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas28

Cheers for the advice, i might just have a look at maybe photoshop or dreamweaver then. I've just looked at a html and css tutorial site and looks like I might have to do a bit of learning. Thanks and anymore advice is always appreciated.

Just as a heads up...

Photoshop is the industry standard for graphics.

Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor for web design/development.

Both are distributed by Abode and as such have a hefty price tag. An alternative to Photoshop would be The Gimp, which is a free open source application, distributed in various flavors to mimic applications such as Photoshop. When I first got started, I used JASC Paint Shop Pro.

Their are also alternatives to Dreamweaver, but I don't know of any good ones off the top of my head. Hopefully someone else will pitch in here.

Paul · 09-25-2007, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zkiller

Their are also alternatives to Dreamweaver, but I don't know of any good ones off the top of my head. Hopefully someone else will pitch in here.

I've noticed a few mentions, for a program called Nvu - maybe that could help.

web67 · 04-16-2008, 02:11 AM

i found dream weaver to be easier to operate than nvu

frinkky · 04-16-2008, 04:34 AM

Dreamweaver is easier to start out with, but to really learn, you should make sure you turn off the auto complete tags tool for a start. Because it can do quite a lot for you (not necessarily valid code either) people tend to see it as a shortcut - but inthe end if you cheat, you don't learn.

There are plenty of notepad variants out there that can colour code for easier viewing, simliar to DW that would provide a better program to learn XHTML/CSS.

c)solutions · 04-16-2008, 09:19 AM

Dreamweaver is quite easy to use and within the new CS3 suite is works very comfortable with all the other Adobe programms.

If you already past the stage of constructing sites in dreamweaver start to code them by yourself in something like notepad++ or phpdesginer.

Notepad++ is a for free an can be found at:
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net

09-24-2007, 10:01 PM	#1 (permalink)
Thomas28 New Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 2	Help required. Starting my own website I just joined here to pick your collective brains. I am creating a website to sell animal training dvd's. I am not too bad technically but have never been trained in web design. I am wondering what is my best way of doing this, any programs that may help me. Im looking to do this myself. Any advice much appreciated.

09-24-2007, 10:25 PM	#2 (permalink)
Paul New Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: England Posts: 20	If you're looking to do this yourself, I'd recommend that you practice a few times first; you can't just go and create a masterpiece without any prior knowledge. What you'll probably need to do is, make sure you learn some (basic) CSS, and obviously the HTML side. CSS, cascading style sheets, is used to theme the web page/site so that's a definite must for you. A tutorial site may help you with learning CSS and basic HTML. Also, if you have no prior knowledge on coding a web page what-so-ever, I'd advise you to read a HTML guide thoroughly. Programs that could help you are possibly, Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop (for creating the web graphics), obviously they come at a price. Last edited by Paul; 09-25-2007 at 04:36 PM.

04-16-2008, 02:11 AM	#7 (permalink)
web67 Silver Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 125	i found dream weaver to be easier to operate than nvu __________________ Keep Up to date about everthing Website Flipping Find out how to save thousands on your Mortgage Broker fees. Last edited by web67; 04-16-2008 at 02:49 AM.

04-16-2008, 04:34 AM	#8 (permalink)
frinkky New Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 15	Dreamweaver is easier to start out with, but to really learn, you should make sure you turn off the auto complete tags tool for a start. Because it can do quite a lot for you (not necessarily valid code either) people tend to see it as a shortcut - but inthe end if you cheat, you don't learn. There are plenty of notepad variants out there that can colour code for easier viewing, simliar to DW that would provide a better program to learn XHTML/CSS. __________________ Jon Warner The PixelForge 3d Graphic Design Web Design Hampshire Beginners Guide to Web Design from a2z - preview

04-16-2008, 09:19 AM	#9 (permalink)
c)solutions Bronze Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Veenendaal Posts: 28	Dreamweaver is quite easy to use and within the new CS3 suite is works very comfortable with all the other Adobe programms. If you already past the stage of constructing sites in dreamweaver start to code them by yourself in something like notepad++ or phpdesginer. Notepad++ is a for free an can be found at: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net __________________ We design... http://www.csolutions.nl

09-24-2007, 11:11 PM	#3 (permalink)
Thomas28 New Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 2	Cheers for the advice, i might just have a look at maybe photoshop or dreamweaver then. I've just looked at a html and css tutorial site and looks like I might have to do a bit of learning. Thanks and anymore advice is always appreciated.

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