Some Questions

[ShadowLucario]

hey uhm i am planning on starting a website, and i am kind of new. so i have some questions, but dont make fun of me if they are obvious.

1. Should i type up the HTML or use Frontpage?
2.What is CSS?
3.HTML is a little confusing for me, ive got the basics down, but.. does anyone know a REALLY REALLY good tutorial?
4.Is there an easier way to type HTML?
5.How do you make layouts?

thanks

 

[.Aero]

1. I dunno
2. It's short for Cascading Style Sheet. It's like the backround and all that.
3. I dunno
4. I dunno

XD

 

[Lubricus]

1.Use HTML you can't do anything with frontpage
2. What Pipluper said
3. http://www.w3schools.com/ best way to learn
4. YOu could buy dreamweaver but you shouldn't spend the money until you have learned HTML
5. Use CSS and GImp or photoshop

 

[ShadowLucario]

1.Use HTML you can't do anything with frontpage
2. What Pipluper said
3. http://www.w3schools.com/ best way to learn
4. YOu could buy dreamweaver but you shouldn't spend the money until you have learned HTML
5. Use CSS and GImp or photoshop

k thanks, but how do i use Gimp etc to make a layout?

 

[Cherrim]

1. Should i type up the HTML or use Frontpage?
It's better just to type out the HTML. Unless it's gotten better, Frontpage gives you very messy and extraneous coding. Plus, you'll be better at it if you just do it from scratch.
2.What is CSS?
CSS lets you to customize web pages a little better than HTML. It allows for more flexibility in design. If you're just starting out, you probably won't need it, but it's always good to learn.
3.HTML is a little confusing for me, ive got the basics down, but.. does anyone know a REALLY REALLY good tutorial?
I don't, but once you've got the basics down, if you practise, you'll get it pretty quick.
4.Is there an easier way to type HTML?
Some HTML editors have auto-complete functions or shortcuts for the tags you commonly use. You could look into those. (I know Dreamweaver has auto-complete; it annoyed me, but if you want it, you could look into it.)
5.How do you make layouts?
I started out making layouts by copying other peoples' layouts and editing them. It...wasn't the greatest way, but looking at other code and comparing it to a working website is sometimes the best way to figure out how to do things. Draw out on paper what you want the site to look like, and then maybe look for free layouts that are similar and just try to get what you want from there. :x

edit: Also, GIMP is just for making the images. That's a whole other topic; you'd be better off checking the graphics forum for help on that, I think. :\

 

[Lubricus]

Well if he gets dreamweaver then he can add a layout from gimp or photoshop and you can put links on the images and put text on the image thats what i did. also Something I just thought of if you want to look at codes of peoples sites then use firebug for firefox or web inspector on safari and since you are a beggininer i suggest that you download safari for windows or whatever because it will show you where the errors are.

 

[Gecko]

1. Should i type up the HTML or use Frontpage?
Type it. Just forget Frontpage. Trust me, along the line if you're serious you will regret bothering with it when it's much more interesting, educational, and easier to understand if you type it yourself.

2.What is CSS?
Think of it this way: HTML tells the page what things are in your page (a picture (<img>) a link (<a>) a box (<div>)) and when you've placed all the things in your page (the order and precision make a difference) then you use CSS to decide what everything looks like. Where does everything go? Is the image all the way to the left? to the right? in the middle? how about only a little to the right? You can place objects inside the window wherever you want, which precise calculations. You can also decide what things look like. What color they have, size, background image, everything. So basically CSS is what you use to make your website look the way you want it to.
NOTE: You will get confused though as there are a LOT of styling tags in HTML. These are now considered obsolete and should not be used. Unfortunately not everyone knows this. In fact, most people dont by the look of the web today. 4 of the most grossly overused tags are: <b> <u> <i> and <br> (which is actually suppose to be typed <br />). If you want to learn more about this jump down to your next question.

3.HTML is a little confusing for me, ive got the basics down, but.. does anyone know a REALLY REALLY good tutorial?
http://www.htmldog.com/
it's short, sweet, easy. Read It ALL. If there are any questions afterwards, just ask here on the forums or me personally if you feel like (remember to use PM).

4.Is there an easier way to type HTML?
One thing that might help you is a text editor with syntax coloring to help you spot inconsistencies. This mean that the text editor with change the color of the text you type, marking tags in different colors. Like for example an IMG tag might be marked in red in some editors.
I use a very good free editor called "Crimson Editor" (just search on Google). It has syntax marking for a lot of different languages (by languages I mean programming languages and mark-up (HTML), and yes, even CSS) I use it all the time. Its the best editor that has all the features you need for free. It even has spell check, which you can activate if you're typing content and want it to be presentable.

5.How do you make layouts?
Go through the tutorial I told you about as to HOW to make one. But if you mean designing one, well, thats up to you. Unless you can find a generous soul who would sacrifice his or her free time and possibly money to do it for you.

Good luck. If you have any more question just reply to this thread.

 

[Craig²]

hey uhm i am planning on starting a website, and i am kind of new. so i have some questions, but dont make fun of me if they are obvious.

1. Should i type up the HTML or use Frontpage?
2.What is CSS?
3.HTML is a little confusing for me, ive got the basics down, but.. does anyone know a REALLY REALLY good tutorial?
4.Is there an easier way to type HTML?
5.How do you make layouts?

thanks

1. Type it out.
2. Cascading Style Sheet, commonly used in coding.
3. I could teach you.
4. Not really, but you can copy + paste the basic code then edit it.
5. It's complicated...Can't explain in one post..

 

[Geometric-sama]

With all these replies, I'm really surprised no one has offered an alternative to FrontPage and hand-coding. Frontpage isn't a good choice; its code tends to be really messy and horrible (its successor, ExpressionWeb, is fine though if you can get hold of it - it compares to Dreamweaver). Dreamweaver is the professional industry standard. The other thing you could try is Nvu, which is a free WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Not quite as powerful as Dreamweaver or ExpressionWeb, but perfectly fine for a beginner. Since you're just getting started, I wouldn't recommend coding everything from scratch by yourself, as some things are not intuitive. By working in a WYSIWYG and looking at the code (they should all give you "split views" - half preview and half HTML markup - these days) you'll be able to work out what does what, and become more comfortable hand-coding parts of the site. In addition, it's a lot quicker to get your basic stuff put together in a WYSIWYG editor.