Okay, so I'm the noobest of the noobs. So here it goes. I'm planning on launchin a "test" site with Geocities (here comes the noob bashing...) becuase I don't want to pay for hosting right away, since I'm not that great at this web master thing. So okay...here goest the one thousand questions of the noob. 1.) What size or pixel do you make the layout in (i'm using photoshop). It seems that I can't fit anything most of the time in it. What Size??? 2.) I'm thinking of starting with a one box layout, just like a one box blog or something stupid like that. How can I update it daily without messing with the HTML everytime I want to update it? 3.) Also, what is the process??? I start with the photoshop (making the layout) Then slice it, and then import it to dreamweaver (this is where I'm stuck I guess). Is this the right process?? 4.) Also, where can I find an extensive dreamweaver tutorial (that will teach me how to code, make an expandabel box, and save it for the web?? 5.) After I save for the web, do I really need to go into dreamweaver or... 6.) Not to be annoying, but how do I upload a site??? How do I upload it in Geocities for that matter??? 7.) Now, to update a site (like if you are making a site that talks about news and gossip about Britney Spears) Do I need to go into the html it'self to update a story, or....what??? I'm really sorry for all the question but I'm as lost as a blind person alone in a city (don't ask), so I need help like crazy. I would really appreciate it if someone helped me, and I'm sure this would help upcoming newbies. Thank You.
1) i do mine at around 760 pixels to fit into 800x600 browsers 2) use a script like a CMS or blog script or a script that is run by use of templates. 3) im not a photoshop user (when it comes to templates) so idunno 4) for an expandabel box use css - http://flooble.com/scripts/expand.php?op=get 5) once u made the files and uploaded, you can continue to use dreamweaver to edit pages (locally) and upload or edit them via your sites control panel (file manager) 6) geocities has an upload button (i think) and the other way is via ftp, you can get a free ftp client if you search (dunno if geocities allows ftp??) 7) if using a cms or blog u can edit invidual post without having to touch html
Since you are starting out, I would say go with a CMS and get a nice template that would suit your needs. That will take away a lot of the problems you have. If you do make a layout, you will need to slice it using ImageReady I think. For uploading, there should be a file uploader in Geocities. For updating/adding a story, when you're using cms just go into the control panel and add. There's no need to edit the html every time you update.
I agree... get a good HTML, DHTML/CSS book or visit turtorial sites online like www.w3schools.com and get a basic grip on design principles. I don't think starting any sort of major site or one that you will have users relying on you is wise for someone who has trouble even figuring out how to FTP files. Not being mean, just saying you should get a solid understand of things before you jump into the webmaster role. Make up some person pages, experiment with layout techniques and then start in with databases and scripting. Crawl, Walk, Run....
What is CMS. Thank you for all your help. LOL. I'm crawling, I'm crawling. I did use blogger at one point, but was not satisfied with it. I'm going to go ahead and venture into reading html books, and futhering my skills in photoshop. Also, how is this Dreamweaver used???
A CMS is a content management system, the most popular ones being mambo, php-nuke, joomla and postnuke. Just google is for more info, or try this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system
Better yet, go here and you will not only get the low down on a LOT of CMS packages but you can even see them in action (with default settings of course): http://www.opensourcecms.com/
There are thousand page books written on the subject. If you have a specific question about an aspect of dreamweaver I am sure someone could help you but asking how dreamweaver is used is a bit like asking how do you build a house.
1.) Does dreamweaver host your page??? 2.) How do you update your blog??? Via a computer program, or directly in the html. 3.) What is the standard size of a layout??? 4.) Are there any dreamweaver tutorial websites???
Malik04, I think you're going about this the wrong way. I'm sure people here will help you out as best they can, but you seem to be approaching website building from a completely beginner's level. Every question you ask leads to answers you don't understand, resulting in even more questions. Considering this, it might be best if you took a simple course in website design, or crack open a "beginner's guide to website design" type book before even considering building a site. What you are asking, I'm sensing, goes beyond the scope of anyone here to fully help you. You are basically in need of being handheld through this process, and that is impossible given the interactive (or lack thereof) nature of forums. I bet you if you bought a "beginner's guide to website building" (or a similar book) and read it over the weekend, 90% of your questions will be answered, leaving very specific questions that you can then return here for answers to. Good luck.
most shops sell web design magazines or beginner guide. and even companies like geocities (if that who u r starting with) have a fully loaded help section (thats how i learnt) i would also stay away from sites like piczo that let u build site (you type in box or add a picture and drag it where u want it, because altho u can made a half decent site u are not actually learning anything from this. try searching for a beginners guide to HTML on google, and also understand that dreamweaver is software to help you code your pages and design the look of the page. One you know html a little move to dreamweaver and make some simple HTML pages.
ImageReady is used for slicing. Photoshop, Image Ready may be used in conjunction. These might help as DreamWeaver tutorials giuciao.com/books/sort.php?by=Macromediamembers.aol.com/agcog/dw.rar
In closing, Malik, I would say not to give up. It just seems overwhelming at first, what with the designing, the hosting, the FTP'ing, the image placing, etc, but once you peel back the layers, website design is really simple, and your best asset to tackling it is the knowledge that it's not that hard, it's just strange at first. Great website design, now, that takes time.
Thank you. I should start simple (I wanted to do this and that, and learn this, but I didn't think about it at all. I just wanted to make things) Yeah, extremely overwhelming. But now I know that it takes time. At first I wanted to do everything, have lots of buttons and things, but I didn't know a thing (I know ver very very basic html). That's probably why it seemed so overwhelming. But now I'm learning. Thank you to everyone who replied to this thread. It sucks not knowing anything and not having anyone helping you out.
Hi, I recommend you start with local pages, on your own computer. You can navigate to any local file through your browser by using File->Open or typing file:/// followed by the path of the file into the address bar. To start learning the code, check out our references page: standards.spiralmindsinc.com/reference.php there are lots of tutorials listed there. Start with HTML, and once you're comfortable with that, add some CSS. I don't recommend using a generator like Dreamweaver for a couple of reasons. One is that you don't know any HTML yet, and Dreamweaver isn't going to help there. Second is that they tend to spew out bad code. I strongly believe you should always hand-code HTML and CSS. It's really very basic stuff. Once you've got making and using local HTML files under control then you can look at using a web server. A web server doesn't have to be on a webhost, it can be run on your local computer. I recommend Xampp as it is very easy to install and includes 3 common web server products: Apache, PHP, and MySQL. This is software you will find powers most websites on the net. apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html Once you've installed it just navigate to localhost in your web browser and you should see the web server page. This is a file located in the /htdocs directory of your web server installation (c:/program files/xampp/htdocs ?). Basically this is like viewing a local file, except that all traffic is going through the web server software. This handles requests and serving the responses and is what makes dynamic pages (such as this forum) possible. You should be comfortable with how a web server works. Finally, you can look at remote hosting. This is exactly like running the web server software yourself, except it is done on a server in a hosting facility so you don't need to worry about that side of it. At this point you should have a functional and accesible website Hope that helps you a bit - P
I don't think a geocities account supports CMS. ( PHP and CGI are not available in the free hosting there) The image size should also be less than 500 pixels wide because there is a huge ad frame on almost one third page displayed. Then if you want a gossip site going on, you will have to change the HTML itself each time you want new text with geocities because you don't have PHP options in the free hosting. FTP is also not available in free hosting. To change files, you will have to make them on your computer and then upload using the "file manager" in your yahoo geocities account. Good thing is that you can upload 20 files in 1 go while many other free hosting offer like 1 or 5 files in 1 go. After manually changing a file, you cannot edit it with the page wizard of geocities. So keep using the page wizard until you know sufficient html. You can also create a free blog account with some blog service. That will be good for your purpose. regards jeet