4/21/06

This article is intended for the people who are just getting started in building thier own website.

Webpage Building 101

 

In the last year, I've been a bum. At least, when it comes to working on my website.

What can I say? I didn't want to hire anyone, and I didn't want to use some hackneyed premade template. I didn't want the world to view my site and think "Oh, he uses the Frontpage website wizard!"

I've had the desire to design my own site since my horrible attempts at it in 1999 Geocities. I remember using the geocities webpage builder to make it. It had some pictures, some links,a counter and even background music! It was really simple, but boy was I proud of myself. I had, at last, become part of the internet. Last I checked, it was still online, but I won't say where.

Then some time passed, and I got some ideas for decent things to put online. I wanted to learn how to build pages the right way. But l had questions.

Lots of em.

Like:

- Which software should I use? - Do I still need to learn HTML? - Which books are the best for getting started?

Like many people first starting out, my compass was spinning. I heard some people were using a program called Frontpage. I heard other people talking about how great Dreamweaver was. Some other dude was raving to me how his wife used Adobe GoLive to make a website. And still other people claimed all you need is Notepad. (And they aren't wrong). Last but not least, there were the weirdos that claimed you can make entire webpages in Microsoft Word.

Well, thats just terrific. Do I really have the time to go though every piece of software and figure out which of these options is the best? The answer is no. So that's why, 6 years later, I uncovered some partial truths about where a good place to start is. I say partial truths so that I don't start biblical crusades over software loyalty. (You really dont want to upset those hardcore Notepad people)

So if I had a time machine, I could travel back to 1999, and tell my past-self where I should start and why. But since time machines don't exist yet, I deceided to share information I would give my past-self with the world.

Basically what my several years of research about software boiled down to were:

-Frontpage is messy with HTML. -Dreamweaver isn't.

However, my limited experience in making sites pointed me in the opposite direction:

-Frontpage is easy to use. -Dreamweaver's interface is overwhelming.

As a beginner, we are all probably familiar with Microsoft Word. That's what makes Frontpage so appealing at the beginning. It's as if you're working in Word. You hit the return button- BAM, just like a word processor.

Also as a beginner, I tried Dreamweaver. I found the interface overwhelming. It was just unfamiliar. On top of it all, it didn't behave exactly like a word processor, which lead to a lot of frustrations. Especially when I hit the return key. It seemed to go TWO lines instead of just one!

"GAH! I just want to do this!"

TIP: I found to only advance one space in dreamweaver, hold Shift+Return, instead of just hitting the Return key.

What exactly do I mean by Frontpage being "messy" anyway? Well it has to do with the HTML code. I've found pages made in Frontpage are impossible to decipher when looking at the HTML, meanwhile, Dreamweaver generates code as if a real person coded it.

(Yes, I read that software engineers and programmers spent 3 years developing the first version of Dreamweaver to do just that- make code as cleanly as if a person had manually coded it. Quite a problem, it's no wonder it took them 3 years to figure it out, but they did!)

Of course, as a beginner it's a different story for most of us. I won't lie. I don't even know HTML other then a few tags.

When I had to tackle the task of making a CDROM art-portfolio for application into my 3rd year college animation program, my computer guru roomates helped me code a simple HTML nested frame interface. (Whoa slow down you say! Don't worry if you don't know what that is.) If it wasn't for thier help, it would have taken me a long time to figure out HTML. Also as a result, I never forced myself to learn much HTML.

My first attempts at creating webpages were after reading Creating Cool Web Pages with HTML. This was not the place to start. It wasn't a bad book, but it's just not practical to hand code HTML now that Dreamweaver exists. When you rearrange files and folders in DW, the names and files pointing to other files are automatically updated. Manually tracking and changing them is just another time-wasting hassle that can be avoided in Dreamweaver.

 

But the good news is, you don't even have to know HTML anymore to make powerful, cleanly coded websites!

This is mainly becuase of one magic piece of software: Dreamweaver. I learned that Dreamweaver was the program I wanted to use when I started reading the Dreamweaver MX 2004 for Dummies book. It explained how Dreamweaver was designed and what made it different from other programs.

The first book I read was Dreamweaver MX for Dummies. The Dummies series of books are pretty good. However, when I finished the book, I was still unsure about where to begin with basic text formatting issues in frames and tables.

Other books followed including the shown Dreamweaver Visual Quickstart Guide. While they probably covered a lot more material then the reviewed book, they were very dry and not good for beginners.

Then, I struck the proverbial goldmine when it comes to being hands on with Macromedia MX H.O.T Hands On Training by Garo Green and Abigail Rudner. While the other books were merely bearable, this book was written in a fun and interesting style.

The thing the Dreamweaver MX HOT book will help you tackle is the interface. Since you are working on the same "mock website" throughout the book, it is also much more exciting and easier to understand then other books. And the chapters each serve as a good reference when the time comes to do something similar to your own site. You can read a complete review of that book here.

Well, there you have it. In short- the advice I have to give you is that Dreamweaver is the answer to all your problems.

I only mentioned Frontpage and Dreamweaver in the beginning since they seem to be the most accesible to people just getting into web design. Adobe GoLive is a program that I have yet to try, so I didn't mention it much, but if you are a graphic designer or someone who uses InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop extensively, it would probably be a good solution.

I hope I was able shed some light and point you in the right direction when it comes to getting started in building webpages. Now put on that hard-hat and start constructing!


-Doug

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