Web Site Tutorial

Absolute Newb Web Site Tutorial
Written by rmcgoo


If you already know how to do this, don’t read it. It’ll probably make you dumber.

How to make a website! woopdie doo

Step 1- HTML
HTML is the language used to build .html files, which are viewed in browsers(IE, Netscape, Mozilla). Understanding what the important HTML tags mean will help you understand later what some functions in web development programs do.
Links- http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/,<a rel="no....com.com/</a>, http://www.htmlprimer.com/

Step 2- WYSIWYG Editors
HTML coding can be slow, and unless you are very good with it, pages can really look outdated and unattractive. A WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get) is a GUI interface way to develop web sites. They keep all your files organized, and allow you to see what your page looks like while you work on it, without having to write HTML much, if at all. Plus- its easier for multiple people to work on the same project. They also come with tools that work with your site to speed things up, like ftp and spellcheckers.
Programs-Adobe Golive, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Frontpage
Links- www.adobe.com, www.adobexchange.com, www.macromedia.com, http://www.trainingtools.com/online/dreamweaver4/

Step 3- Graphics
Visual presentation can make up for content, seriously. A site with bad content can still look credible just because it looks professional. A sites graphics present the site just as much as clothes present a person. A lot of times, you can judge a book by its cover in terms of web sites. These programs make, and more importantly, compress graphics for quicker page loads.
Programs- Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Imageready. (cheaper->) Macromedia Fireworks, Freehand. 3d (pretty tough stuff) Alias Wavefront Maya, Newtek Lightwave, Discreet 3dsMax

Step 4- Server stuff

To get your site attached to a domain name, (whatever.com, org, net) there’s webhosting. Free webhosting is awesome for a beginner site, because you don’t need a lot of extras anyways. There are a ton of free web hosts, just google for free web hosting. They all suck, but they all have their own special benefits. Then there are web host providers that you pay for. Cheaper ones go for 5-10 bucks a month, and they go up from there. They all have their different options, but look for bandwith and disk space, most importantly. Once you learn more about web development, you’ll know what to look for after that. If you already know how to host your OWN server, then you probably knew how to do all this stuff anyway.

Step 5- Advanced stuff

Once your site is up, you’ll want better stuff for it. Here are some links to some sites offering advanced web development software, or languages. Google for flash, server side programming, databases, but by now, you’ll probably know what you want to look for.
www.adobe.com, www.macromedia.com, www.php.net

I know the AO community is pretty intelligent, but this was to give web dev newbs something to start off of. If you want to learn about security, you gotta know something about what you're securing.

you really didnt give much insight to actually building a site...it was basically just telling us tools...its a tutorial, so you might wanna put some effort in to it...an ok first



slick

Yeah, good point. I've always found that finding tutorials was easy, but finding the tools for what you want to do is the hardest part.

I don't do much web design, but for help in the past I have gone to www.webmonkey.com and think it is a very good site for web developers. Just adding to your list of links, you can never have too many references. Thanks for the links, I don't know if this qualifies as a tutorial though. You [edit]replacing never with rarely[/edit] actually tell us how to do anything, you just give us links that tell us how to do stuff. Thanks for trying though, it's the thought that counts.

http://www.javascriptkit.com is a very goos website for free javascripts. Makes a site look very good.

its a pretty useful if you have no clue what you are doing

You made some good references to wysiwyg editors but for people that want to learn to hand code you didnt make any references to the tools you would need for that. Personally that is how i make all my sites. Im not to fond of the wysiwyg proggies but if thats your preference go for it. But when you revise this i would put in the tools needed for hand coding and techniques.

PeacE
-BoB

Yeah it gives you somewhere to start, although i agree h3r3tic, further explaining would come in handy. But hey when i started designing i would have certainly used a couple of things on the tut.

WYSIWYG tools always make it easier for starters, but as time goes by you'll surely become a notepad fan. Once you know html you can use it amd the results are supper too.

u havent done much explaining do u. u have ony give sonething to start with.

Hello all..
When I first Started, Web Design, I would use Frontpage (yea I know..) anyway,I would get my basic site structure together, then I would Hit all of the "Toy Stores" for tweeks and eye candy. Here are a Few

http://www.scriptarchive.com/
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/
http://javascriptkit.com/

Hope This Helps

Cheers