Creating Websites

[SandboxMagician]

I spend hours and hours a day on the internet, but I know very little about more technical stuff.
I've always wanted to create a website, but can never find a good way of doing it. I have used those free tripod things in the past, but found them far too simple and restricted. Yet whenever someones tried to explain HTML and other stuff to me I've understood the basics, but dont think I could ever create a whole site using it.
Can anyone with more knowledge recommend any good websites or programs I could use to create a website of random crap? I want to make it slightly more unique than the ones you can get pretty much made for you.

Cheers.

[David Grohl]

as long as you know the basics of html you should be grand, try doing a search in yahoo or google on html tutorials and shit like that, theres usually loads of sites that you can get source code from, you can simply copy and paste it and tinker with it in notepad. if you go on a site and you see a layout or something you like, you can go to view then source on ie, it will display the html code and can be useful however i think it may go against some copyrights but since your using it for fun then go ahead. if you want to make a proper site, you could also try using dreamweaver or frontpage.

[ShyBoy]

key word: WYSIWYG editors. The best is dreamweaver MX, but that costs a lot (unless you illegally aqcuire it, but that's very wrong ;)) but there are plenty out there if you look (http://www.download.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=WYSIWYG&tg=dl-20&search.x=11&search.y=7&search=+Go%21+). This one (http://www.download.com/Web-Dwarf/3000-2048-7841876.html?tag=lst-0-5) looks promising :).

Anyway, after you have foudn that, you need to find hosting. There are lots of free solutions out there and it's about finding the best one for you.

[paperBprincess]

http://www.lissaexplains.com/

tis a kids guide to html. tres useful

[SandboxMagician]

Cheers for the info. My mates giving me a copy of Dreamweaver and I'm reading a bit about html. Hopefully this will help the summer hours of nothingness pass quicker on the net.

[Koenigsegg]

If you are trying to make a decent site I would advise reading up on VBScript and JavaScript and also ASP can be useful or essential if you have a database behind the site.

[Jaloux]

Also, just mess around. Make random pages (you don't need to be planning to use them) and try out a lot of different effects. The more you work around html the easier it becomes (both to remember which tags and what it means).
The more you learn how to use it, the easier it becomes to add knowledge.

I do "use" Dreamweaver, but write my codes there, mainly just to see if the tags I'm writing close and stuff like that.

But my main suggestion would be to not just read about it, but use it and use it a lot. First when I read about html it made my head hurt, but after checking other people's html files and trying to work my way through it on my own, it became all that clearer.

Have fun and good luck!

[Davy]

Originally posted by paperBprincess
http://www.lissaexplains.com/

tis a kids guide to html. tres useful

I was just going to quote this page. There are some interesting articles that can be found at http://www.webmonkey.com as well but the site can be a bit tedious in navigating so put yer browsing cap on :p

Oh god I see you're going to be another victim to wysiwyg editors...damn fool-proof software is that stuff but if there's any small things you don't know how to sort with DW your basically fuctd!!

I could tutor you on a 1-2-1 basis through MSN. I've got loads of experience and recently aced my college course which included Website design at Deistinction, and Advanced Dreamweaver at Distinction and Website Management at Merit. I also got E-Commerce last year at Distinction. Everything else was a merit/Pass! :p

So if your game, let me know. PM or email preferably. Why am I offering this? Because I will never really properlly use my web creating skills so I might as well pass them on! I finished college so I got loadsa free time on my hands now.

Spose I could tidy my room...or weed the garden or even find a girlfriend but I can't be bothered!!

[ShyBoy]

Best HTML tutorial on the web (http://www.w3schools.com/html/) - there are other tutorials there as well for just about everything, but I'm sure you won't need it all!

[Mr_Wobble]

Use WYSIWIG software, such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage. There are some other good, and cheaper, alternatives out there though.
It's useful to know how HTML works, so you can manually edit it when necessary.

You can read as many guides and tutorials as you like, but the best way to learn it is from someone else. I'd advise looking for some short college courses. There should be a few Summer School courses on right now, and evening classes coming up in September. Get local college prospectuses now. Sure it'll cost you a few quid, and most of the work will probably be as simple as following the instructions from handouts, or work books, but there will be someone there to ask and help/show you what's gone wrong when you make a mistakes. You can ask questions, and get instant feedback and help. That's how I learnt, and I'd highly reccomend it!