Is Creating A Real Website A Very Difficult Job? Need Help!

iancovenant

Jul 21 2006, 03:37 AM

I have read all the tutorials, listened to countless advice about creating a webpage, tried to understand the very difficult alien language of HTML, tried everything for twenty-four hours and still I cannot make a webpage. I figure creating a real webpage is one of the hardest of things to do, this is why so many people go to the atrocious made easy myspace.com or pay other people to make a website for them. Seriously speaking, not to criticize anyone, but I find making a website the most frustating task I have ever had to undertake. I feel like I need to take up a one to two year course just to make a webpage. When I heard about how Trap17 was the best webhost, I was astonished, they sure do have the best resources, but for a noob like me using those resources to create anything has become mission impossible.

DarkPsycho

Jul 21 2006, 03:56 AM

why don't u get a free template instead of making your own, for now altleast.
that'll give u some time to learn HTML, I recommend w3schools.com

BooZker

Jul 21 2006, 04:05 AM

I can help. I just need to know how much you know. I learned just from reading. I never really used the internet for help. I am still learning everyday, but what do you need help with? PM me and i can help get you at least started.

Mjay06

Jul 21 2006, 06:08 AM

Open your cpanel, go to pre-installed scripts, then Fantastico & install Xoops. I recommend this particular script as from experience it is the easiest to navigate/setup. If you are just playing around for now, I recommend you set up a sub domain (cpanel/site management tools/sub domains), & install it there.

Xoops works on a 'modules' system, where you can install pre-coded sections of website (forums/arcades etc), & quickly get a working website. You can find a huge selection at www.xoops.org/modules. They are extremely simple to install - you just ftp them to public_html/your site/modules, & activate them from the Xoops administration menu.

I found this to be an easy way of learning the basics of ftp use, & will give you a good lesson in navigating the cpanel file manager.

Once you have mastered the basics of using the cpanel, you will find it much easier to upload & get your own coded webpages online.

beeseven

Jul 21 2006, 06:47 AM

I'm sorry to say this, but if creating a webpage and learning HTML are so hard for you, you might want to look into skills that don't involve computers...

rvalkass

Jul 21 2006, 07:18 AM

I managed to sort of self teach myself HTML, with no books or online tutorials apart from looking things up in W3Schools when I was first learning. No offence or anything, but if you are a slow learner, your best option would be to get a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. If you have Microsoft Office then you probably have FrontPage which is a WYSIWYG editor, or you could look through the Freebies section of this forum and on the Internet for one. I wouldn't advise going and buying a copy of Dreamweaver at this stage.

Then start with the basics. These programs work a lot like word processing software, so go ahead and type some text. Then switch to the Code or HTML view of the program and look at how it has been done. Probably something like this:

CODE

<p>
Some random text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
</p>

Go back to the Design or WYSIWYG view and try to change the font on your text, then look at the Code and see what has happened. Try changing size, colour, bold, italic, underline etc. Take it one step at a time, and take notes if you want. When you work out that, for example, to make something bold you do this:

CODE

<b>Bold</b> Not bold. You can also do this: <strong>Bold</strong> Not bold. They are exactly the same.

You could note that down in a format you understand, on cue cards or something. Then you have your own reference of what you think is useful, organized in a way you understand. Then move on to more difficult things such as trying to make some text a link, or inserting an image. Tables are probably one of the hardest things you will come across, and your best bet if you ever need tables in a page would be to use your WYSIWYG editor in Design mode to draw the tables as this simplifies the whole process.

These are some links to freeware WYSIWYG editors, but I have not tried any of them, so they may not be to your taste. They all do pretty much the same thing, so it's a matter of what looks best for you and fits how you want to work. There's no harm in downloading a load, seeing which you like best and removing the rest.

WYSIWYG Web Builder
List from DirFile
Nvu WYSIWYG Editor

If you need any help with HTML then feel free to PM me, email me or get me on MSN Messenger.

BooZker

Jul 21 2006, 07:44 AM

Yah you could use WYSIWYG editors, but in the long run they will slow you down. You won't have as much control as with let's say notepad or dreamweaver. I suggest just making simple web pages such as a webpage with a title a heading and some text and links until you get the hang of basic HTML.

master_bacarra

Jul 21 2006, 08:15 AM

well, it usually depends on the contents that you're making. using html isn't that difficult. actually it's the most basic stuff you need in creating a website. it's like A-B-C. i bet a 10 year old can make his own website on his own. actually, when i came to this forum, i found some members who already have created some cool websites, and they're just 12 or 14? i mean i've learned html when i was 15 and created a php-based webpage/blog just last year, and i'm already in my college years.

really, it's just easy. if understanding a basic stuff is difficult for you, then don't do it. if it's frustrating for you to just even try, then don't. we have a quote here that says, "if you really want to do something, the motivation to do it will make you look for ways to accomplish it no matter what. excuses are only made by those who don't want to lift a finger".

and that's the reason why they made those personal webpage stuff like friendster or myspace, to make life easier to people who don't have the technical know-how, or at least to those who complain that it's difficult to learn.

Dagoth Nereviar

Jul 21 2006, 09:41 AM

Are you any good at photoshop, or imageready? Because that's what I used to make the layout of my website (Click sig below) and then used imageready to "splice" (Cut it up, basically) and it made all the code for the layout, I just then put in the links/text, and it's done

If you want more info/tutorials, PM me and i'll be glad to help

And if you're no good at photoshop, or don't have it, then I guess this was a pointless post

fffanatics

Jul 21 2006, 03:02 PM

My advice is to go out and buy a book on html. I got mine like 5 years ago for $19.99 at the local bookstore and just started reading the chapters and after each one i used the new material on my website. This way, i didnt just read how to do it but i learned how to actually implement it and as i got farther in the book, i didnt have to use as many of the references on how to do things. Plus, using this forum, you can start a webpage and then if you dont know how to do something or it is showing up wrong and you dont know what is wrong with it, just post the code in code tags in a new topic describing the problem and one of the many of us will help you out with it. Atleast you are learning how to do it yourself.

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Panzer

Jul 30 2006, 08:15 PM

W3 schools is great. I got 2-3 HTML books outta the local library, some of them are really good and show you step by step how to put the code together. Some of the good ones have a list of all the HTML codes at the back.

I suggest you get a book, everything is much easier and you dont have to be on the computer when your reading it. Also print out a sheet of all the HTML codes and mayby write beside them what each one does.

FirefoxRocks

Jul 30 2006, 04:16 PM

I started doing HTML when I was 8. Didn't publish it, just made pages of old weather information. Of course the pages weren't valid or browser compatible (only knew about Internet Explorer back then).

Basically, start with this code:

CODE

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Stuff in Title Bar</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Heading of Page</h1>
<p>Paragraph</p>
</body>
</html>

That is your basic template for (X)HTML. Later on, you can add stuff to it like images, tables, etc. A good site to check out is W3Schools or Web Development Lessons. They give you easy instructions to design websites.

I strongly recommend text-based editors, not WYSIWYG editors. Often, WYSIWYG editors produce code that is invalid or non-browser-compatible.

A good editor is AceHTML Freeware. It gives some features that are valid XHTML and also you can find some scripts that are useful there. You can preview your page in there also (it looks like the IE version of the page). Get AceHTML Freeware on Download.com.

Be sure to validate your HTML pages, you don't want them to be full of errors.

beeseven

Jul 28 2006, 06:28 PM

QUOTE(mbacarra @ Jul 21 2006, 04:15 AM)

it's like A-B-C. i bet a 10 year old can make his own website on his own. actually, when i came to this forum, i found some members who already have created some cool websites, and they're just 12 or 14?

I created my first full website from straight html in seventh grade which would be... 12 or 13. I had done some stuff before that though.

Dragonfly

Jul 25 2006, 05:53 PM

Hi there!

Do not try to go too fast. I would recommend you to go slow and before you do anything else especially designing your webpages firstly just learn the simplest language of web that is HTML. I would like to recommend you pagetutor.com Firstly, just learn the simple code and then once you understand the code properly you can start using Frontpage (it comes with default installation of Microsoft Office in most of the versions) or Dreamweaver. Using any of those two designing software you can design easily but you must first understand the code itself. If one understand HTML php and others also can be learned on top of that and it becomes easier too.

It took me about a week to master HTML from pagetutor.com and that's how I started some 4 years ago.

All the best.

lawmatchmaker

Jul 25 2006, 03:55 PM

Why not use a free content management system, they will give you the free templates to modify, you can add your own stuff later, saves alot of time than creating a template from scratch.

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