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Tips for Making my own Site?


Lee Mac

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Hi Guys,

 

I think this is the most relevant section to post this thread, as it is not really CAD related.

 

I am looking to make my own site to house my programs, but I have no clue when it comes to making websites...

 

I would appreciate any help anyone is willing to give regarding costs (hopefully not much ~ only a student!), companies, software, etc...

 

Many thanks,

 

Lee

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You can obviously start with a WYSIWYG editor such as Adobe Dreamweaver. That costs money and can actually do a lot right out of the box, but for starting out you can use something like Nvu.

 

I suggest learning the basics of HTML which quite honestly is not hard at ALL. especially since you know Lisp. Once you learn one language all the rest are easy to pick up. And also CSS, which is the way you style your page. :)

 

Any other questions you have when you get started, let me know.

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Well, for my site, I used Adobe Dreamweaver and hosted it on GoDaddy.com.

 

I was able to learn Dreamweaver, build my site and get it hosted before the 30 day trial period expired so it didn't cost me anything to build it. Well, it wasn't totally free. I did purchase a training dvd and there was some cost to get it hosted, but overall I think the total cost to get my site up and running was less than $200.

 

I ended up buying Dreamweaver after the trial ended, so I can update and do site maintenance, but the price is only $400, so it won't break the bank.

 

I've moved your question to the "Web Building" section.

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You can obviously start with a WYSIWYG editor such as Adobe Dreamweaver. That costs money and can actually do a lot right out of the box, but for starting out you can use something like Nvu.

 

I have seen Dreamweaver back at school, but not used it all that much - I shall look into this "Nvu".

 

I suggest learning the basics of HTML which quite honestly is not hard at ALL. especially since you know Lisp. Once you learn one language all the rest are easy to pick up. And also CSS, which is the way you style your page. :)

 

As for the HTML, I've dabbled in it only in created articles in the FAQ here - so not really much experience, but it doesn't really seem too hard to pick up.

 

Any other questions you have when you get started, let me know.

 

Cheers StykeMan, good to know you're only a post away :P

 

Well, for my site, I used Adobe Dreamweaver and hosted it on GoDaddy.com.

 

Nice site btw :thumbsup:

 

I was able to learn Dreamweaver, build my site and get it hosted before the 30 day trial period expired so it didn't cost me anything to build it. Well, it wasn't totally free. I did purchase a training dvd and there was some cost to get it hosted, but overall I think the total cost to get my site up and running was less than $200.

 

May I ask, is the hosting the majority of this $200? I wasn't sure how much hosting was in general, and prices seem to vary quite a bit on the net.

 

 

I've moved your question to the "Web Building" section.

 

Cheers Dude :P

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I am looking to make my own site to house my programs, but I have no clue when it comes to making websites...

 

Have you though about using a blog or CMS? Many people who just want a website and don't want (or need) to learn about web building use something like WordPress. Very simple to set up and free. All you'll need is the hosting.

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As advanced as you are in LISP Lee, web programming will be a doddle. Take some time to learn CSS, its the most commonly used web based programming. Also, it give you alot of design freedom. If you combine it with photoshop and explore all of its potential, your site designs are unlimited! :) Let me know if you need any help with the whole process buddy, I just finished making my friend's fathers site for his company.

 

Oh, and definatly get yourself Dreamweaver. With it, you could train a chimp to make a good looking website, and there's thousands of tutorials online.

 

Z

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May I ask, is the hosting the majority of this $200? I wasn't sure how much hosting was in general, and prices seem to vary quite a bit on the net.

 

They have different packages available and the pricing varies depending on the amount of storage space you require. I just renewed my contract and the particular plan I'm on is $84 a year. Check their website, because they're always having special offers.

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Oh, and definatly get yourself Dreamweaver. With it, you could train a chimp to make a good looking website

 

Of course, if you want a website that looks as though it were designed by a chimp, that's a good approach. :D

 

Personally, I'd advise rather more caution in your approach to web design than some of the other contributors to this thread. It's true to say that XHTML and CSS are simple languages - in terms of their syntax. But good web design is about how that code is used. A site created in Dreamweaver may look good superficially but the generated coding will make you look like an amateur (or a chimp!).

 

There are basically two approaches here. Basically, you need to decide whether you want a website and you don't care about the art of web design OR you decide to become a web designer and create beautiful websites (both inside and out), taking into consideration accessibility, usability, findability, semantically correct markup, web standards compliance etc. etc.

 

What most people don't realise is that there's more to web design than meets the eye (literally).

The choice is yours - chimp or champ :)

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Wow, this thread has given me a lot of food for thought...

 

I initially wanted to get a site up asap, so that if users needed a particular LISP, I could just straight away direct them to the correct place - instead of having to dig around on here trying to find a LISP I posted eons ago...

 

But, that said, I still want to do it properly. I am in the process of trying to learn C++, which hasn't really been dented as far as the amount I have learnt, as I can't resist returning to LISP all the time. But, if CSS and HTML is as easy as you say it is to learn, I may just look into that. After all, I'm no chimp.. o:)

 

Thanks for the info guys,

 

Lee

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have downloaded and had a quick play around with Nvu, but tbh, I am a bit lost as to what to do.

 

Should I create all the pages for my site and then look into Domain Names and hosting etc? I had a look at 123-reg.co.uk, but wasn't sure if this was a trust-worthy site to use - if any of you have had any experience with them, just shout :)

 

But, even as far as the actual page creation goes, I am getting nowhere in particular - I have made some Title-text and put an image in the middle of the page, but that is about all I can seem to do :(

 

Any help/advice is very welcome at this point :P

 

Lee

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Start using Tables, first. They are

tags, and embedded is your table rows and table data
. This will essentially give your layout a "grid" to work off of. Here's a link to get started:

 

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_tables.asp

 

Then move on to blocks after that, which is a

tag. This is where the fun really begins, and you can start nesting blocks and tables and CSS Layout rules in here. But for now, just learn tables, and learn how to insert images, use text, etc. :)
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Start using Tables, first. They are tags, and embedded is your table rows and table data
. This will essentially give your layout a "grid" to work off of.

 

 

NO!

 

Please DO NOT use tables for layout - use CSS for layout.

 

You have a lot of background reading to do but you could start with my Webpage Design course notes here: http://www.coursestuff.co.uk/DESI1046/

 

At least some of the links on that page will take you to some sound advice. :)

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OK - so I have Styk's quick and easy option, or David's professional and better long-term solution...

 

I did see Tables in Nvu - but I didn't think to use them for my purposes.

 

I shall take a look at your webpage Design Site David - looks like a ton of info on there :thumbsup:

 

Thanks for the advice guys,

 

Lee

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Of course, if you want a website that looks as though it were designed by a chimp, that's a good approach. :D

 

Hmmmm, I'm a bit offended by that comment. :x

 

I'm no web design professional, nor do I care to be. Dreamweaver does everything I need it to do for my own personal use. I couldn't give a rats ass about how elegant the code looks. Who's going to see that? All I need is a place to post my artwork. I don't have the time or patience to learn how to build a site from scratch, and I would much rather spend my time creating the content for the site, than sitting with my nose in a book trying to learn how to build the site. And I'm not going to pay some web geek thousands of dollars to do something I can do myself with this simple program. Dreamweaver works, and unless you plan on doing web design for a living, I don't see the point of learning all that coding.

 

So I guess I'll just pick up my chimp looking website and be on my way. :glare:

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In addition, it's probably worth getting hold of a good reference book to start with. I recommend this book for absolute beginners or this book if you feel a little more confident. I reckon you'd do better with the second book but check them both out. Both are excellent and describe the right way to go abouty designing a website.

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So I guess I'll just pick up my chimp looking website and be on my way. :glare:

 

It's horses for courses. But as this is Lee's website and he's a coder, I kind of assume that he'll care about all that stuff. How likely is it that Lee would want to write a verbose and ineficient LISP routine? To the user it makes little difference - who's going to notice the extra milliseconds? But there is a beauty and satisfaction in creating good code. It's the same with web design IMHO.

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NO!

Wow, David, a little harsh. Tables are the very basic of sites. I do not use tables hardly at all anymore, but I recommend everyone give it a shot before diving into CSS. Crawl before you walk.

 

And for the record my best friend who's a fantastic web designer still uses tables a lot, because they work good in cross-browser support and still work good with PHP/MySQL.

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