I've been doing basic web design for over 10 years. I learned how to code HTML back in college when my friends first learned it in their classes. While it's not very difficult to learn, it can take a while to learn how to make something that's very pleasing to the eye. There is tons of information on the web for doing so, though.
There are may WYSIWYG editors on the market to help you make a website. Most of them are terrible and the create horrible web pages. Dreamweaver is a pretty good one albeit is expensive and more program than the general web usually designer needs. What I found to be a pretty decent program is EZgenerator. It comes with plenty of nice templates that you can customize to your hearts content as well as tools to create calendars, streaming mp3s, blogs, etc. It's what I now use to publish all of my websites. While they aren't the most artistically refreshing pages ever created, they serve their purpose and do their job.
Anyone make their own website?
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theshaggyfreak
- Posts: 89
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 4:32 pm
- Location: DC Metro
- Contact:
this is a timely topic for me
just recently I spent a few days messing about with wordpress and Joomla as possible contenders for making a site for my girlfried - her main thing is she wants to be able to easily update it as and when
I wasted hours with Joomla trying to figure out how to change the look because i didnt actually realise all it is about is the content and you hae to do the actual design of the templates somewhere else
basically a real bad case of RTFM
problem is with that is alot of the support documentation is quite geeky and aimed at web developers, so I had to wade through loads of crap I didnt really understand to get to the bit that told me what I wanted to know
plus all the stuff with server permissions and trying to figure out whether the control I've been given over my server space was what I needed to allow Joomla to do it's thing
with wordpress I had similar problems - not with the set up just my design
the look is basically the bit I struggle with - there is definitely a reason designers are designers and I dont really expect to be one in a weekend
So I didnt mind going in alot of depth because I'll be doing digital media in a degree soon so it's like preparation, but I think for her I will settle on wordpress and just work a bit more on the design in photoshop etc first
just recently I spent a few days messing about with wordpress and Joomla as possible contenders for making a site for my girlfried - her main thing is she wants to be able to easily update it as and when
I wasted hours with Joomla trying to figure out how to change the look because i didnt actually realise all it is about is the content and you hae to do the actual design of the templates somewhere else
basically a real bad case of RTFM
problem is with that is alot of the support documentation is quite geeky and aimed at web developers, so I had to wade through loads of crap I didnt really understand to get to the bit that told me what I wanted to know
plus all the stuff with server permissions and trying to figure out whether the control I've been given over my server space was what I needed to allow Joomla to do it's thing
with wordpress I had similar problems - not with the set up just my design
the look is basically the bit I struggle with - there is definitely a reason designers are designers and I dont really expect to be one in a weekend
So I didnt mind going in alot of depth because I'll be doing digital media in a degree soon so it's like preparation, but I think for her I will settle on wordpress and just work a bit more on the design in photoshop etc first
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theshaggyfreak
- Posts: 89
- Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 4:32 pm
- Location: DC Metro
- Contact:
Doh, I just noticed your on a Mac. Alas, EZgenerator is PC only. It's one of the few applications I'll have to keep a PC around for (or use bootcamp) when I finally complete my switch over to Mac.jesso wrote:Thank you very very much stephen, excellant info. Ill be sure to post the results! (Its for one of my bands, a wedding band embarasingly enough...)
Thanks shaggy freak, im gunna have a look at that site now...
jesse
I knocked my own site together in Illustrator, Photoshop and BBEdit:
www.zoozither.com
I still cling to the fast load time notion from the dial-up days of yore!
I also happen to like clean, 2D design, so it works out well for me.
www.zoozither.com
I still cling to the fast load time notion from the dial-up days of yore!
I also happen to like clean, 2D design, so it works out well for me.
Most of the pages on my site (linked below) are home-grown in straight HTML. I put these together in Notepad, mostly, and occasionally do some maintenance in Visual Studio - but that's just another glorified text editor, really.
There's also some VBScript ASP to handle dynamic content on a few pages, but I don't think you want to get into that - very geeky and not supported by all ISPs.
If you want to do it from scratch like this, do a google search for an HTML reference/tutorial and learn how to make forms, bodies, tables, images, hyperlinks etc. You'll get much cleaner sourcecode this way, but you will be reinventing the wheel big-time. Only advisable if you want to make a serious hobby of it.
There's also some VBScript ASP to handle dynamic content on a few pages, but I don't think you want to get into that - very geeky and not supported by all ISPs.
If you want to do it from scratch like this, do a google search for an HTML reference/tutorial and learn how to make forms, bodies, tables, images, hyperlinks etc. You'll get much cleaner sourcecode this way, but you will be reinventing the wheel big-time. Only advisable if you want to make a serious hobby of it.
I used to write HTML for a living after in high school and built most of my web sites in a plain text editor or Dreamweaver. Eventually I gave in and am now using iWeb for the most part. It creates bloated code and you're quite limited in your design, but why bother? I have better things to do than worrying about HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Flash is quite fun, my design partner and I just replace our website when we want and try new things. Can be a bit overwhelming, but if you're into dabbling with computers, it's worth a go, and you spend more time designing than trying to fathom code out.
www.kandledesign.com
k
www.kandledesign.com
k
http://www.myspace.com/formatk
http://www.karlsadler.com
http://www.kandledesign.com
Artist & Visualist
MacBook Pro C2D 2.4Ghz, 4GB RAM Live 7.0.14, OSX10.6.2, Launchpad, AkaiMPD24, Akai S20, Oxygen 8, Presonus Inspire, Rode NT1a/M3, Shure SM58
http://www.karlsadler.com
http://www.kandledesign.com
Artist & Visualist
MacBook Pro C2D 2.4Ghz, 4GB RAM Live 7.0.14, OSX10.6.2, Launchpad, AkaiMPD24, Akai S20, Oxygen 8, Presonus Inspire, Rode NT1a/M3, Shure SM58
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hislifenotmine
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:25 am
response to info_warfare
>>you
..me
>>Are you kidding? First, if these people had the skill they wouldn't be here asking how to do a web site.
.. i wasnt commenting on the apparent lack of html coding skill of the person/people asking for help. i was refining clarification on a boundary of what i consider "intellectual property" to be. apparently the full meaning of my point wasnt clear.
>>And I know plenty of people with all the best "web building" tools in the world that still do crappy web sites, so yes, it takes much more than just having the tools.
..i agree that it takes more than just "web builiding tools" to create a relevant work of art using a website as the means of expressing or presenting what ever the content is about, it takes skill to do something worthy of association with the term "intellectual property" (example: squarerootof-1, ie james tindall), however, i contend the "rightclick, steal, change, upload" method only applies to html code that does not include anything done with dreamweaver, flash, javascript, ect. yes, it takes an impressive intellect to display a command web publishing in general (including javascript, flash, ect.), and that is exactly my point. strait html, is too generic to be associated with intellectual property, especially since there are so many programs that let you design a websites without knowing html coding. sitting down, writing generic html code and expecting to be respected for it is like wanting respect for making it a point to cut hair ONLY with scissors, and NOT clippers.
>>But according to your backwards philosophy,
..whoa, someone sounds little uptight about html. is this meant to be insulting? if its not, then please forgive the progressively condecending tone that this reply takes on as it progresses.
>>I should then be able to just take your song that you've created and put it out there as my own (with slight modifications.) What's the differwence between that and taking someone's website that they created with their skills?
..if we are goign to discuss intellectual property thieft of web publishing in the context its metaphorical representation as intellectual property thieft of music, then the analogies should be apropriate...
by my "backwards philosophy", you could only take a house beat (you know which one im talking about; "boom tsk boom tsk boom tsk boom tsk") that house beat that is soooooo generic, that i LOOP 1573 times, you could take THAT, change it a little bit, and call it your own. that would be the proper analogy of taking html code that i can either have a program generate for me, or, if i happen to see a page that already has a basic html layout that i find apropriate, with the color scheme almost cool, the paragraph brakes all there, the "a href"s all already on the page, text centered...because that beat requires NO skill. it requires no creativity. its just a loop of a generic bass drum, generic snare, genereic hihat, in a generic pattern.
>>In other words, it is obviously not an easy thing to recreate a web site without some measure of skill, regardless of the tools you have,
..i would say its not and easy thing to recreat a website thats worth a damn with out some measure of skill regrdless of the tools you have.
>>so you shouldn't blantly steal someone else's site.
..i disagree.
>>I don't think there is anything wrong with looking at the code to see how they pulled off a particular technique, but to blantly steal a whole site!? Not cool.
.. on an ableton site, complaing about stealing code from someonelse's site, something that you yourself have compared to intellectual property theift of music? im going to HAVE to assume that you ONLY use your ableton's midi capability for synth melodies, or triggering loops and samples that youve recorded of yourself playing live instruments. hmmm.
not cool...
>>you
..me
>>Are you kidding? First, if these people had the skill they wouldn't be here asking how to do a web site.
.. i wasnt commenting on the apparent lack of html coding skill of the person/people asking for help. i was refining clarification on a boundary of what i consider "intellectual property" to be. apparently the full meaning of my point wasnt clear.
>>And I know plenty of people with all the best "web building" tools in the world that still do crappy web sites, so yes, it takes much more than just having the tools.
..i agree that it takes more than just "web builiding tools" to create a relevant work of art using a website as the means of expressing or presenting what ever the content is about, it takes skill to do something worthy of association with the term "intellectual property" (example: squarerootof-1, ie james tindall), however, i contend the "rightclick, steal, change, upload" method only applies to html code that does not include anything done with dreamweaver, flash, javascript, ect. yes, it takes an impressive intellect to display a command web publishing in general (including javascript, flash, ect.), and that is exactly my point. strait html, is too generic to be associated with intellectual property, especially since there are so many programs that let you design a websites without knowing html coding. sitting down, writing generic html code and expecting to be respected for it is like wanting respect for making it a point to cut hair ONLY with scissors, and NOT clippers.
>>But according to your backwards philosophy,
..whoa, someone sounds little uptight about html. is this meant to be insulting? if its not, then please forgive the progressively condecending tone that this reply takes on as it progresses.
>>I should then be able to just take your song that you've created and put it out there as my own (with slight modifications.) What's the differwence between that and taking someone's website that they created with their skills?
..if we are goign to discuss intellectual property thieft of web publishing in the context its metaphorical representation as intellectual property thieft of music, then the analogies should be apropriate...
by my "backwards philosophy", you could only take a house beat (you know which one im talking about; "boom tsk boom tsk boom tsk boom tsk") that house beat that is soooooo generic, that i LOOP 1573 times, you could take THAT, change it a little bit, and call it your own. that would be the proper analogy of taking html code that i can either have a program generate for me, or, if i happen to see a page that already has a basic html layout that i find apropriate, with the color scheme almost cool, the paragraph brakes all there, the "a href"s all already on the page, text centered...because that beat requires NO skill. it requires no creativity. its just a loop of a generic bass drum, generic snare, genereic hihat, in a generic pattern.
>>In other words, it is obviously not an easy thing to recreate a web site without some measure of skill, regardless of the tools you have,
..i would say its not and easy thing to recreat a website thats worth a damn with out some measure of skill regrdless of the tools you have.
>>so you shouldn't blantly steal someone else's site.
..i disagree.
>>I don't think there is anything wrong with looking at the code to see how they pulled off a particular technique, but to blantly steal a whole site!? Not cool.
.. on an ableton site, complaing about stealing code from someonelse's site, something that you yourself have compared to intellectual property theift of music? im going to HAVE to assume that you ONLY use your ableton's midi capability for synth melodies, or triggering loops and samples that youve recorded of yourself playing live instruments. hmmm.
not cool...