need a good program to make a website

[crowdaddy00]

i have office 2000 with frontpage. should i use that? i have earthlink as my ISP so i have 10mb of free webspace. i figured i might as well learn how to make a webpage. i was going to try their click n build program but that looks to simple. i want something that will give me options and a lot of control over what i put on the website. plus, can anyone recommend a book or site that teaches the basics on website building? thanks a lot people

[DrZaius]

Hi crowdaddy00,

http://www.htmlgoodies.com (tutorials)
http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/ (program)

[Battery Powered]

If you want full control,

! NOTEPAD !

[ssahl]

That's true, but not everyone knows HTML good enough to use just that. I have used frontpage and it works good, the only problem you will have (if you consider it a problem) is that people that have a Mac and view your web site it will look funky. Dreamweaver is also a pretty good program. If you want some really cool graphics Flash is the way to go, this program is a little harder to use though.

[Christoph]

VIM is also a free tool and very good!

If you want to spend money and need a WYSIWYG Editor - Dreamweaver MX is supposed to be very good!

Christoph

[tx2Step]

Do a search to find a download for a little program called Dida. While it isn't a fancy WYSIWYG, it is simple and easy for beginners to use and you'll learn more about what the code actually does than with some of the other more complicated programs.

It also doesn't add all the tons of BS that isn't necessary that some of the programs do. In the beginning I tried them all, every freebie out there. Plus some high dollar programs too. When I started using Dida I learned more about coding than I had before and before long began writing my own code, still do. And study cross browser coding well. Many things that appear nice in IExplorer look like heck in Netscape and vice versa.

Best thing is keep it simple. Dont shoot for the moon until you are able to see the stars.

If you can't find the Dida program let me know and I can probably email it to you. Think I still have it in files somewhere zipped up.

Texas2Step

[HackinCowboy]

I agree with Christoph, if you're going to buy a nice editor I'd go with Dreamweaver. Frontpage is decent, but it seems to have poor programming structure.
If you're looking for a good book, Sams Teach Yourself is a good one for beginners. Also, O'Reilly makes some awesome books, but they're typically more advanced.

[crowdaddy00]

thanks for all the replies. i was looking at Dreamweaver MX. it looks pretty good. i will try out all the suggestions here to see which one i like. i got one more question though. is 10mb good enough to make a website with? thanks again all

[sUsHIboI]

notepad.exe
10mb's plenty for just html & images, and since most hosts wont allow you to put anything else besides that there... its plenty. Any free hosts that allow PHP out there btw??....

[HackinCowboy]

10MB is doable for just a small personal site. If you plan on storing data or other info from users on your site then you might want to get some more space. The pages themselves will generally be small, so just keep an eye on your image sizes. You don't want large images anyway since users on slower connections will have to wait a while for the page to load.

[mairving]

If you want to learn how to code, then start with HTML goodies and Notepad. Notepad works but it doesn't give you any advanced options. Dreamweaver is the best WYSIWYG editor out there but it comes at a hefty price. I tend to prefer Homesite, which now comes bundled with Dreamweaver. It is preferred by a large percentage of hand-coders and has some pretty good features to it.

As far as the size of the site, it really just depends on the content. I have some small sites under 10mb and some larger ones over 100Mb. One of my largest size wise is a site that I did for my son to show his granny pictures of him. It is up to about 60Mb's with all the images and videos.

[ryanatalie]

Any free hosts that allow PHP out there btw??....

try: http://www.free-php-hosting.com

[Christoph]

10 mb should do it for the first steps. Once you feel comfortable you switch to either a free hosting company or get a good domain name and a good web host. If you choose a host make sure you test how fast they respond to your pre-sales questions and if they maybe offer a web control panel. PHP and MySQL should be standard now for most hosts and should not cost any extra money.

Christoph

[Pif]

If you keep your site focused, 10mb should be plenty starting out. If doing anything with images, remember that by converting the images to 72 dpi (screen resolution - instead of 300 dpi from a digital camera), you'll save a bunch of space.

I use DreamWeaver, TextPad and notepad. Some decent beginner sites are WebMonkey (http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/) and Builder.com (http://builder.com.com/). If you're looking for a book, try O'Reilly's HTML & XHTML Definitive Guide. Well worth it, IMO.

-Pif

[crowdaddy00]

thanks for all the help guys. i'm still deciding what to make for my website. i have a friend who has Dreamweaver 4 and Flash 5. i think i'm going to give Dreamweaver a shot to see how it is. thanks again all

[setfree]

I would recommend a program called SWiSH. It is a program that allows you to do flash animations but it is very easy to use and the cost is only $50.00. You can get more information and see some examples at www.swishzone.com

[GrungeSea1967]

If you do decide to learn and write your own HTML I would suggest HTML-Kit by Chami. That's what I use and I think it's a great program, and it's free.

http://www.chami.com/html-kit

[jmatt]

http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.html

Powerful Web Site Workshop

Arachnophilia is CareWare ( Free )