# create a website



## bboynumber1 (Jun 19, 2004)

hello,
I would like to learn how to create a website, and I need some good software that may help create one.
Thnx


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## deepdiver01 (Dec 23, 2004)

If you have microsoft office, you can use Front Page that is part of office.

It is quite simple to use initially. Only takes a small learning curve.


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## [ugly_cat] (Mar 11, 2006)

http://www.learningwebdesign.com
w3c.org

k


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## thecoalman (Mar 6, 2006)

You can try Coffeecup, it's a text based editor which is just code. It does have a WYSIWG (what you see is what you get)function which allows you to visually place images and text. What's nice about this editor is you can create your pages in the WYSIWG component and switch to the text component to see what the code looks like for the page you have created.

I use it almost exclusively but haven't used the WYSIWG part much. It's not free but it's not expensive either.

http://www.coffeecup.com/html-editor/


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

I recently started using FrontPage to edit my existing website myself, and have created a couple of very basic websites already (just for fun and learning). I agree with another poster, FrontPage is very easy to learn to use and has a very cool feature that allows you to "split" the screen so that you can simultaneously see the webpage your working on in html and code. I've learned a lot using that feature. When you highlight a section in the html part it highlights the corresponding code. 

I've become fairly proficient with FrontPage in a few weeks with no teaching or manual. Just experimenting.


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

For a free WYSIWYG Editor, you could get Nvu.

A few WYSIWYG Editors that cost money would be:

Frontpage
Coffeecup
Dreamweaver

The problem is, there aren't many WYSIWYG Editors that are free.

There are many many text editors that are free. So once you learn how to code, you might want to switch to one of them.
Notepad comes free with Windows. There are other free syntax colorized text editors like Crimson Editor.


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## bboynumber1 (Jun 19, 2004)

well i am trying to create my website, something like www.premiereservices.com
and i need to know how to do that?


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## haswalt (Nov 22, 2004)

well you need not only a program for coding the website but some way of making the graphics for it if you are planning on doing it all yourself.

The way i do a website is:

1) write a rough concept idea for functionality and with layout sketches. This is a good place to start as it gives you a record of what you are thinking at the time and helps you to have a structured plan of what to do.

2) start making the images. i find it easier to create graphics and then code them in rather than code the site and make images to fit. A god program t use for this s obviously photoshop and imageready, but if you can't afford these then fireworks is another good alternative or some of the more readaly available open source graphics design apps are not too bad. but don't expect them to do anything special for you.

3) code away. when i first started web design i looked all over the web for tutorials. some of the places i used long ago were: www.greycobra.com, www.developerfusion.co.uk (basically look on google, or try readin the threads on here as they often help).
A good app to use for development if you are a complete beginner is dreamweaver as it does most of the work for you. you could try using frontpage as it is part of office if you have it, but this can sometimes be a pain as it does not always code things properly for xhtml compliance and some server setups. or if you can learn quick enough from the tutorials and any books you find try using ultr-edit. this program is basically a simple text-editor with some added features quite useful for web coding.

4) set up a testing server and test after you make every change.

that is all you should ver need to create and complete a website.

then you will need to look for a place to host it.

contact me at [email protected] and i can sort you out for that.

harry


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## kevblah (Mar 10, 2006)

I recommend using Dreamweaver and Fireworks. 2 very outstanding programs that will get you on your way.


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## peril0us (Oct 13, 2003)

I recommend you use Notepad. With those fancy crap things you make the site, but you dont know how to actually make it. Also you can customize things and add in javascript and CSS. Its a learning process. Id also recommend the w3c tutorials. gl.


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## thecoalman (Mar 6, 2006)

bboynumber1 said:


> well i am trying to create my website, something like www.premiereservices.com
> and i need to know how to do that?


One way to learn HTML is view what others have done, that doesn't mean steal the code tag for tag either. In IE go to view>view source. That will give you the source code for the page. You can save the page to disk and open in one of the editors suggested above to further learn the HTMl structure and how it relates to what you see.



peril0us said:


> I recommend you use Notepad. With those fancy crap things you make the site, but you dont know how to actually make it.


Get a text based HTML editor. Notepad is fine for simple changes but a text based editor makes life easy.  Try Coffecup out as I suggested in that other thread. It has all the options notepad has (which are none  ) It simplifies many common tasks, you're still working in a text enviroment but with a boatload of tools specifically made for HTML coding.


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## cnelson04 (Dec 29, 2003)

I would go with dreamweaver and photoshop for graphics. personly i don't like fireworks as much cause i think its harder to find tutorials on the net for. -cnelson.


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## kevblah (Mar 10, 2006)

peril0us said:


> I recommend you use Notepad. With those fancy crap things you make the site, but you dont know how to actually make it. Also you can customize things and add in javascript and CSS. Its a learning process. Id also recommend the w3c tutorials. gl.


Good idea, except he's starting out new. If he used Dreamweaver, he could do what he wanted, and also see how it's done.


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## kevblah (Mar 10, 2006)

cnelson04 said:


> I would go with dreamweaver and photoshop for graphics. personly i don't like fireworks as much cause i think its harder to find tutorials on the net for. -cnelson.


Agreed...


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## Illumin8 (Mar 18, 2006)

I use* Namo Web Editor4*,its ultra-easy for beginners to use:up: yet its got all the advanced features you need as you learn more,for beginners you select site wizard,select a template from hundreds of different styled templates,tick boxes to work out your bitmap from various themes like business or personal homepage or photo gallery etc and your template theme is then themed to the style of site you want (you don't have to select every page tick the ones you want).It includes an easy yet comprehensive FTP client to upload your pages to your webserver,its so simple to use yet powerful when you know how to use it better,you don't need to know a single bit of html or css or any other script to get a pro-looking site up and running yet as you learn code you can create this way as well check out my site created in Namo in my signature its all in the one spot very easy to use and beginner proof(almost  ) my site is a webwizard site with some added hand coding and here is Namo5(I haven't used version5 it appears even more advanced ,I'm not sure whether this trial version is totally freeware or whether it expires after a free trial period,I'm sure a websearch will give you plenty of results BTW there are plenty of freeware webeditors available. :up:


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## haswalt (Nov 22, 2004)

i think the idea was ot create his own site not from a templates and like i said i would choose dreamweaver as it has the different views which can be very useful for a first time designer, as they help the understanding of using code, images and what code does.

harry


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## bboynumber1 (Jun 19, 2004)

hello,
I downloaded dreamweaver macromedia and it seem very difficult to use.
is there any easier way than macromedia?


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## kevblah (Mar 10, 2006)

You must be in the code view. Click on the Design tab and you're ready to go!


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## bboynumber1 (Jun 19, 2004)

i have dreamweaver 8 when i strat the program i have option of creating websire new or from samples, i dont see any design view


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## bboynumber1 (Jun 19, 2004)

any other good software suggested?


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

> The problem is, there aren't many WYSIWYG Editors that are free.


Free editors:

First Page 2006 
Alleycode
NVU
WebTide Free Text Editor
MPSOFTWARE - Designed for you
CoffeeCup - HTML Editor
WebDwarf
FreeSerifSoftware
HTML-Kit
MAX's HTML Beauty++ 2004
DHE WEB Editor 1.8
Homepage of Crimson Editor

That's TWELVE of them and I use four of them myself now. Try checking out the list here

MPSoftware is for


> Syntax highlighting and support for PHP, HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Perl, JavaScript, VB, C#, Java & SQL





> PHP DESIGNER is a powerful freeware IDE for coding PHP for both professional and novice alike.


In fact, I know more free editors than PAID, LOL. Liz


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## FatherCrowe (Mar 31, 2005)

bboynumber1 said:


> i have dreamweaver 8 when i strat the program i have option of creating websire new or from samples, i dont see any design view


Thats just the beggining screen, the sample pretty much do what they say on the can. They have preset things laid out liuke frames, tables etc.
From new is....from new. You will have a blank sheet. Make sure you are in design view and then use the tools at the top to add images text etc.
The thing I love about Dreamweaver is that you can use design view to put a site to gether quickly but then change to code view and see how it all works. I learnt HTML first and it great cos I can dip in and tweak things to how I like it.
There are a few sites offering free Dreamweaver tutorials......

Macromedia Site

Dreamweaver Tutorial

These two just happened to be at the top of my search in Google.


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

> The thing I love about Dreamweaver is that you can use design view to put a site to gether quickly but then change to code view and see how it all works.


What I don't like about DW is the price and you can do the same thing with almost EVERY FREE editor on the list I have. Liz


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## FatherCrowe (Mar 31, 2005)

southernlady said:


> What I don't like about DW is the price and you can do the same thing with almost EVERY FREE editor on the list I have. Liz


Hey I gotta agree, I was lucky to get mine paid for by work.  So I never really looked at much else.
I have heard lots about the free website (text editing) software being equally as good. If I hadnt had it paid for I would be using one of them. :up: 
There is so much free software that is just as good if not sometimes better out there but they really rely on word of mouth as the don't have the money such as people like Macromedia.

In short I concur!


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## bboynumber1 (Jun 19, 2004)

southernlady , what is the one you suggest from the list you gave me?


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## thecoalman (Mar 6, 2006)

southernlady said:


> What I don't like about DW is the price and you can do the same thing with almost EVERY FREE editor on the list I have. Liz


CoffeeCup is not free. BTW that's what I would recommend. Purchased it dirt cheap many years back and have upgraded it for free ever since. It's a one time purchase. They do have a free trial period if you want to give it a try.


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

> CoffeeCup is not free.


CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor



> southernlady , what is the one you suggest from the list you gave me?


Notepad, Nvu, and the older version of 1st Page 2000 which can be found here: http://www.tusafe.com/nonags/htmledit.html 3rd from the bottom of the list. 2006 annoys me. Liz


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## treydx (Jan 4, 2006)

A couple more free ones that you might not have thought of are by Microsoft.

Visual Web Developer Express and Web Matrix. They are both inclined towards ASP.NET, but they have syntax highlighting, drag & drop (just stay away from ASP.NET Web Controls), and WYSIWYG designers. 

My favorite text editor is "Syn". It is very customizable and has syntax highlighting. It deals with tabs well (tabs or spaces & smart indent) and can convert your line breaks for you if you develop and publish on different OSs. I hate trying to edit my Unix files in notepad b/c of the busted line breaks. 


And if you want to get on the bleeding edge of all of your favorite acronyms, try the W3C editor Amaya. It's sweet, but some stuff that it supports won't run on old browsers...and by old browsers, I mean FireFox 1.5 and Internet Explorer 6 & 7. Oh well! Legacy support is overrated anyway  Just kidding.


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

southernlady said:


> CoffeeCup Free HTML Editor


The confusion was that your original post said CoffeeCup - HTML Editor. CoffeeCup HTML Editor is not free.


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

> The confusion was that your original post said CoffeeCup - HTML Editor. CoffeeCup HTML Editor is not free.


There are four tabs at the top. One of which plainly states FREE Software and more. If I had been told there was a free program to be had at that site, that's where I would look first. Liz


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## thecoalman (Mar 6, 2006)

southernlady said:


> There are four tabs at the top. One of which plainly states FREE Software and more.


Wasn't aware there is a free version... Full version is a product you need to pay for though. Wonder how much it differs from paid version?


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## southernlady (May 6, 2004)

> Wonder how much it differs from paid version?


Since I've never used the paid version, I can't answer that. Wish I could tho  Liz


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