Designing A Website
TychoCelchuuu
Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
Anememone Join Date: 2002-03-23 Member: 345Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">How Hard Could It Be?</div> Right. My mom makes and sells jewelry as a hobby, and she wants to move up into the next tier, so to speak. For this she needs a website. She is fluent in Microsoft Publisher and made the layout of every page that she wants to have; her only problem is that she doesn't know HTML or anything so of course she can't actually MAKE the website. She's offered me $400 (A huge amount for me, which works out for her because it's below what she'd pay most professionals) if I can make the website for her.
Unfortunately, the only coding experience I have is in C++ and Java. I might be able to figure out Frontpage (which we own), but that's no fun and I'll end up having to learn a nice chunk of HTML either way. So my question is: how much work would it be to simply code a website whose layout has already been designed? Can I just sort of mush it up a bit in Frontpage and come out with something presentable? Or am I going to have to read 8 HTML tutorials on the web and buy two books, then spend 2 weeks making the thing?
Alternatively I could find a really cheap website designer and pocket the difference...
Unfortunately, the only coding experience I have is in C++ and Java. I might be able to figure out Frontpage (which we own), but that's no fun and I'll end up having to learn a nice chunk of HTML either way. So my question is: how much work would it be to simply code a website whose layout has already been designed? Can I just sort of mush it up a bit in Frontpage and come out with something presentable? Or am I going to have to read 8 HTML tutorials on the web and buy two books, then spend 2 weeks making the thing?
Alternatively I could find a really cheap website designer and pocket the difference...
Comments
the syntax is really simple and it just comes down to cherry picking the specific codes as you need them.
If you invest about a weeks time into learning HTML and CSS from here
<a href='http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp' target='_blank'>W3schools</a>
youll have html and css as a skill for the future.
CSS is really worth learning, its just a style template that controls normal HTML
you can define an object in the master CSS document, then every time you refer to it in your html pages you call back the look etc...
well thats not a very good explaination, but css and html togeather really kick ****.
for example its relatively easy to do effects like images appearing anywhere (you can define exactly where things appear to the pixel and on what layer they appear) on the page from a mouse-rollover on any other image or text box, so you can make a solid looking site.
*edit*
<a href='http://www.sicnetworks.com/' target='_blank'>My Mates Site</a> uses the roll over thing on his menu at the left (looks funky).. the site is basically a really small html and small css file.
Frontpage is ok, but I found it fiddley and annoying at times, and its not as flexible as coding yourself.
While knowing C++ and Java may not help you that much on the syntax level, you should be able to grasp html very quick seeing the language is extremely simple compared to these two.
In any event, if you don't get around to actually learning html you should still be able to work it out through FP or DW's interface pretty easily. But I would strongly recommend you try to slim down the html output with <a href='http://tidy.sourceforge.net/' target='_blank'>Tidy</a>.
EDIT: I have to echo Melatonin about CSS, I learnt this language in a few days this summer (after working with html for years) and it's just awesomely powerful. You should check out <a href='http://more.ericmeyeroncss.com/' target='_blank'>this</a> place for some examples which you can sorta reverse engineer if you don't want to buy the book (that's the one I used to learn CSS). However you can go the quick and cheap way by using pure html and your mom would probably not see any difference.
If you use decent image compression and tiling you can make a very professional and stylish looking website if you chose the right colour coherency and so forth.
If you want the page viewers to die of a heart attack because you want alot of things moving around and drawing attention, then don't use Frontpage <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->.
Knowing what to do with Frontpage and what not to do can get you a very nice looking website, and in your case 400 dollars as well.
Jesus man, just make her the crappy page you're going to make and don't take her money.
Jesus man, just make her the crappy page you're going to make and don't take her money. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hey, it's money <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Best joke i've heard in ages!
Jesus man, just make her the crappy page you're going to make and don't take her money. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
First of all, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than paying a professional to do it, and she needs a webpage. She set the price, not me. I <i>know</i> that I don't know what I'm doing, which is why I am asking how much I need to know what I'm doing to be able to make a website. I don't want to just bang out a crappy page for the money; but that's really not my problem. As I mentioned before, she has done all the design (she does layouts for newsletters and stuff, so it's not butt ugly) and all I have to do is figure out how to either code it or get it working in Frontpage.
After hearing what everyone is saying about how easy HTML is vs. C++ or Java, I think I'll bonk around in Frontpage until I get something halfway decent, then learn some HTML and fix it. Any tips on tutorials aside from Melatonin's, which look nice after ~5 seconds of skimming?
from somewhere and not tell your mom ;-) Easy $400.
I think learning html is nothing too taxing (especially to someone
who knows C++) so go find a template... or learn something new. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
The best thing to learn HTML with is <b>Great Teacher Fam</b>. He might beat you with various implements throughout training but he's really very good and only has the health of the internet at heart <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<b>edit:</b> learning html taxing? XD
I hear there's a lot of good comedy acts at the fringe but I think you've got them beat!
X-|
The most important part of a website is the design. Making it is comparatively easy.
--Scythe-
Jesus man, just make her the crappy page you're going to make and don't take her money. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
First of all, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than paying a professional to do it, and she needs a webpage. She set the price, not me. I <i>know</i> that I don't know what I'm doing, which is why I am asking how much I need to know what I'm doing to be able to make a website. I don't want to just bang out a crappy page for the money; but that's really not my problem. As I mentioned before, she has done all the design (she does layouts for newsletters and stuff, so it's not butt ugly) and all I have to do is figure out how to either code it or get it working in Frontpage.
After hearing what everyone is saying about how easy HTML is vs. C++ or Java, I think I'll bonk around in Frontpage until I get something halfway decent, then learn some HTML and fix it. Any tips on tutorials aside from Melatonin's, which look nice after ~5 seconds of skimming? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, go look at websites.
Once you know how to write html, that's the easy part out of the way. The hard part is designing something that doesn't look like some drooling maniac headbutted their monitor 463 times to create the page.
The best inspiration you will find for website design is to look at other websites. Go surfing other websites of the same catagory you're designing for, get a feel for what kind of image everyone else portrays and what types of colour schemes they use. Once you have all that done, start planning the layout, either in Photoshop or by hand, draw it how you like it, then start creating the basic image layout for the page, a prototype for the design. Once you have those, then it's time to start working on the html.
Once you have the html down, don't touch Frontpage. That program is a cancer to web pages, it will no doubt screw up everything for any other browser than IE. Once you know what you're doing with html, use notepad or similar.
EDIT: [O/T] Ello Gemmy Gemcaek! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
um... on-topic part thingy... uh... html. yeah, there you go o.O
um... on-topic part thingy... uh... html. yeah, there you go o.O <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
*huggles gem* <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Oh yeah, on topic, use CSS. Using tables will make sure that any children you will ever have will be born without heads.
X-|
The most important part of a website is the design. Making it is comparatively easy.
--Scythe- <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Uh... Hypertext Markup Language?
<a href='http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/' target='_blank'>http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/</a>
well then, consider it a second endorsement. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I said that the layout is ALREADY DONE. My mom has DESIGNED THE WEBSITE. She used to do layouts for NEWSLETTERS so she KNOWS WHAT SHE IS DOING. My choice now is to learn HTML or use Frontpage or just forget it altogether or some odd mixture of all 3 with cascading style sheets holding the thing together like glue.
That said, I've been boinking around in Frontpage for about an hour. It won't let me do a fricking navigation bar and the "help" is not help at all. I'll keep trying. Anything to keep from learing CSS and HTML <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->