Building a website

[Perton]

I am planning on building a website and have several questions:

1) What is the best way to build a site? Is it best to use web page design software or learn HTML?
2) How many pages make a good site?
3) How many MB does an average site take up? Should I get more space so it can become bigger later?
4) Is there any other advice regarding building sites?

[mairving]

Answers:

1. The best way is to first learn HTML. Once you learn HTML, it really doesn't matter that much what tool you use to create pages. I personally like Homesite but many others prefer Dreamweaver and EditPlus.


2. It depends on the site. If you have a lot of content, you need a lot of pages and a database to pull the data from. If you don't have a lot of content, you don't need that many pages. Try to avoid having pages that are too long and cause too much scrolling.


3. That is also hard to answer. If you have a lot of pictures or a database of some mpegs, it can get pretty large. If you mostly have text, then it won't take up much space at all.


4. The main thing to consider is other people. Many people design their website according to how it looks to them on their monitor with their resolution with their browser. So just remember that not everyone uses or looks at your website the way that you do. Generally you are safest designing your site for a 800x600 resolution. You should test it to see how well it works in Netscape and Opera.

[Hot Rod]

I agree with mairving.

1. Learn HTML and then maybe use some other programs to enhance your work.
2. Try to avoid too much scrolling so if you can break it out into multiple pages...do so. Just make sure you include links to all pages on every page of your web site. It makes for quicker navigation by your visitors.
3. Like mairving says....depends on what you use. Pictures use up a lot of the space.
4. I would also recommend 800x600.

Another tip....try to include a consistent look throughout the site. For example, don't make one background blue, another one yellow, and another one red. Try to use the same background, generally the same font, same style throughout the site. It gives it a cohesive feel and it helps the visitor to tell if they are still on the same site or not.

[homer15]

adding to hotrod's tip: look into making a cascading style sheet (.css). in that, you can put formatting for everything, and keep a conistant look on every page. you link you pages to the stylesheet in the section. doing this will save you a lot of coding time.

[erucader]

A great site to check out is www.HTMLgoodies.com

It has beginner tutorials on HTML that can get you started quickly. I learned the basics of the language in one night from this site.

btw, Dreamweaver is a great program if you can afford it and learn it

[Force Flow]

1) The best way would be to learn HTML. If you don't want to learn HTML, you can use Microsoft FrontPage. It's a good place to start. You can create pages using a GUI and see how it's done in HTML. Or you can also make pages with HTML in FrontPage. I use a mix of both.

2) It depend how much info you have and how you want your site organized. Helpful hint: make pages with multiple links to each other, so you can get to them more than one way.

3) This question has been taken care of.

4) Yes, organization is very, VERY good. In fact, it's great! It makes a site easy to navigate and user friendly.

Avoid putting lots of moving and flashing graphics on a web page. They are annoying.

Try to make the page fit on various screen resolutions. Use tables for this.

Make you pages consistant. Take a look at this site for an example: http://commandchamber.net/

Use your creativity!

Good luck and have fun!

[AzCoastie]

Check out "The Tool" under "html" at Pokey's Web Site. Will help you learn html!