Website 101

Step 1: Choose your weapon. There are a variety of programs and learning tools available for HTML editing (HTML is the coding of a web page). As a beginner, your first pick should be a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor. Dreamweaver (macromedia.com) and GoLive (adobe.com) are the luxury class. They come with luxury price tags as well, though. Other options range in price, power and ease of use. There are many shareware (cheap or optional donations) and freeware programs for Macs and PCs. You can find these at Tucows.com or other software download sites. With these you can “drag and drop” graphics, links, tables, text and other web content and see the results as you go. Other options include handy new "content management systems" that let you create a web page right in your web browser by cutting, pasting and uploading graphics from your computer. Blogger.com is one of the easiest, as is WordPress.org. For a full explanation of HTML and other web “how to’s” go to: www.davesite.com/webstation/html. Or, you could also see: YwamWoodcrest.com/webclass for further information.

Step 2: Get graphical. Almost any graphics program that creates “.JPG” or “.GIF” files will work in a pinch. In general, the JPG format is for photos or complex graphics. The GIF format is usually for buttons or graphics with solid colors. The high roller programs in this category are PhotoShop (adobe.com) and Fireworks (macromedia.com). Photoshop Elements is a solid and less expensive alternative. Again, like the HTML editors, there are many cheap or free ones out there for downloading. Have fun and try emulating the design styles you see on professional sites.

Step 3: Upload. This gets trickier unless you’re using the simpler content management systems. Otherwise, you need to find a server--a computer with space for your website that "serves" your page to people on the internet. Pro ones are: Earthlink.net and Aplus.net. Free ones like angelfire.com and geocities.com are not recommended because they include obnoxious ads and pop-ups and make any site look like trash. Each of these sites that offer web space have “FTP” information—detailed instructions on how to upload your files to their servers. When your files are uploaded to the server, go online to your site and check it out. Test it in both Internet Explorer and Netscape/Mozilla browsers. It may not be pretty, but it’s a start.

With time, you can study and adapt to a professional level of web design. You could also just do it as a hobby that will span the globe. If you have a half-decent computer and a message, there is nothing to keep you from starting right now.

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posted by Jeff @ 9:00 PM