ok i apologise if i sound like a complete numpty, but horse riding is my thing, NOT websites, but hey ho, im being made redundant and have fiddled with my own website with a wysiwyg FREE download. it does the job, my n my mates can have a look at comps and riding lessons n stuff, so i know im not exactly breaking into 'webdesign' per se. anyway - waffling lots!!

 

I would like to be able to make 'proper' websites, i think i get the basics, but i want to learn as i have a few friends who want me to do their websites:

 

riding club

motocross club

rossette making company

portable appliance tester

 

So i want to be able to make them a respectable website, and charge them for this (£50 or so) plus a monthly fee for hosting as well as charging for updates etc. i also want them to be able to change the details on like one or two pages, id also like to be able to add a forum.....................

 

Dont get me wrong, im ambitious and horsepoo.co.uk took off and in two months has had nearly 200 unique hits which is all word of mouth (probably vastly lame compared to you guys - but hey ive been doing this for two months and its all very exciting to me)

 

So back to the point (and yes i i waffle this much on the horsey forums) i need a good easy(ish) web design software, quite happy to pay up to £500 (is that an ok budget???) the only ones ive heard of are frontpage and dreamweaver. i dont know if there is a better one out there for what i need.

 

All advice graaaaatefully received, from a 'proper' web designer, to a numpty with ambition.

 

Im a quick quick learner, defo v. motivated and quite happy to get it wrong and learn from my mistakes.

ok i apologise if i sound like a complete numpty, but horse riding is my thing, NOT websites, but hey ho, im being made redundant and have fiddled with my own website with a wysiwyg FREE download. it does the job, my n my mates can have a look at comps and riding lessons n stuff, so i know im not exactly breaking into 'webdesign' per se. anyway - waffling lots!!

 

I would like to be able to make 'proper' websites, i think i get the basics, but i want to learn as i have a few friends who want me to do their websites:

 

riding club

motocross club

rossette making company

portable appliance tester

 

So i want to be able to make them a respectable website, and charge them for this (£50 or so) plus a monthly fee for hosting as well as charging for updates etc. i also want them to be able to change the details on like one or two pages, id also like to be able to add a forum.....................

 

Dont get me wrong, im ambitious and horsepoo.co.uk took off and in two months has had nearly 200 unique hits which is all word of mouth (probably vastly lame compared to you guys - but hey ive been doing this for two months and its all very exciting to me)

 

So back to the point (and yes i i waffle this much on the horsey forums) i need a good easy(ish) web design software, quite happy to pay up to £500 (is that an ok budget???) the only ones ive heard of are frontpage and dreamweaver. i dont know if there is a better one out there for what i need.

 

All advice graaaaatefully received, from a 'proper' web designer, to a numpty with ambition.

 

Im a quick quick learner, defo v. motivated and quite happy to get it wrong and learn from my mistakes.

 

As I said in the other thread, look at www.htmldog.com and www.w3schools.com and their tutorials. You do not need to buy software to be a good designer, you can get everything you need for free! Download Notepad++ and GIMP and have a go.

thanks, just assumed the 'shop bought stuff' would be easier for me 'at this stage'

 

nothing ventured...........

ok, see im stuck already!!!

 

i tried doing the tutorial that asked me to open notepad doc and type ' this is my first webpage' .html and it didnt work.

 

i couldnt find the file to open it on my browser?

 

any suggestions.

Have you got this sorted yet loop or are you still struggling?

You do not need to buy software to be a good designer, you can get everything you need for free!

When I teach new technologies, I cannot agree more: Notepad and you're away. It also acts to teach you about what is really going on "under the hood" with XHTML and CSS; software programs tend to hide these details, which is bad for a beginner. Once you get more familiar however, I highly recommend standards-compliant developer software. It does so much coding for you (in just the way you'd do it yourself) that it saves a huge amount of time, and importantly prevents lots of silly errors creeping in. The ability to see the rendered page and change the code simultaneously is a definite benefit: I found having to flick between notepad, browser and refresh was irritating when something didn't work! The good environments do standards-compliance checks for you too, rather than having to run your pages through the W3C validator all the time. The software I use also checks for known cross-browser compatibility issues and flags warnings appropriately so I don't have to spend hours figuring out why something doesn't work in IE, when someone elsewhere has already figured it out! It can be expensive, but it's worth the investment if you're going into the game professionally. If it's just a hobby, or for the purposes of learning effectively how it actually all works, do indeed go with the free options to begin with!

ok, see im stuck already!!!

 

i tried doing the tutorial that asked me to open notepad doc and type ' this is my first webpage' .html and it didnt work.

 

i couldnt find the file to open it on my browser?

 

any suggestions.

 

Open a browser window and then drag and drop the file that you created into the browser .

Cabbage i see gimp everywhere now. just a couple of months ago. I didn't even know about it but then it seems like every body was using it from icons to full webpages. I highly recommend this software anyway because it is free and easy to learn.

for a second there baloch i thought you were calling me a 'gimp' ha ha......

 

Having used the free software that has been available to me which appears to be a glorified powerpoint and i can make what i like where i like, having to actually 'think' about what i was trying to achieve is a big learning curve for me, so bear with me with the stupid questions.

 

Trying to translate web design into the world of horses, i suppose me using 'packages' is like someone going to riding school and riding a pony that follows the one in front of it. When you buy a proper horse, your riding turns to crap and the horse goes where it wants (beleive me i know!!)

 

Im not trying to make a career, i just want to make simple sites and i am struggling to understand the 'logic' behind the <h1 HEADING /> thingies.

 

We all have to start somewhere - i suppose im a bit miffed because i had got really comfy with my 'riding school' package

 

Not giving up though.................

for a second there baloch i thought you were calling me a 'gimp' ha ha......

 

Having used the free software that has been available to me which appears to be a glorified powerpoint and i can make what i like where i like, having to actually 'think' about what i was trying to achieve is a big learning curve for me, so bear with me with the stupid questions.

 

Trying to translate web design into the world of horses, i suppose me using 'packages' is like someone going to riding school and riding a pony that follows the one in front of it. When you buy a proper horse, your riding turns to crap and the horse goes where it wants (beleive me i know!!)

 

Im not trying to make a career, i just want to make simple sites and i am struggling to understand the 'logic' behind the <h1 HEADING /> thingies.

 

We all have to start somewhere - i suppose im a bit miffed because i had got really comfy with my 'riding school' package

 

Not giving up though.................

 

Stick with it, once you've got the basic concept down you'll be there in no time! I'm glad you've decided to drop the WYSIWYG package too (What you see is what you get, basicaly means you can draw stuff up and it'll code for you but it always breaks the code), making personal websites in WYSIWYG editors is fine as long as you're not looking to sell them or win any awards or anything.

 

It would be similar to me building a house on looks alone, sure I could mix some mortar and get some bricks but the end result would be a mess!

Hi,

Cabbage gave you probably the two best resources there are W3Schools and HTML dog, if you go to W3schools just start at the very begining and follow each tutorial nice and slow make sure you understand the theory then move on to the next, I would also suggest avoiding a wysiwig editor until you can confidently hand code, these editors usualy take the shortest route from A to B but in doing so throw out some really crappy code that will effect how your pages display across all the different browsers.

 

My other bit of advice is to cut out the double esspresso as you sound like your running at 200mph lol

Basic HTML tags:

 

<h1>Heading</h1> creates a heading. Goes right the way through to <h6>, h1 being the biggest and h6 being the smallest.

 

<p>Some text here</p> Creates a paragraph.

 

<a href="http://yourlinkhere">Click Me</a> Creates a link.

 

<img src="yourimagename.jpg" alt="yourimagename" /> Places an image.

 

There's obviously lots more to it than that, but there's a few tags/examples to get you started .

ahh, CCD that all makes more sense than it did before. i can cope with that.

I spent a lot of time as I was learning (and still now) looking at the source of other websites to try and understand how they achieved their look. It doesn't always work because of scripts (which I don't always understand) and sometimes you ppl don't allow you to see the css...but it is helpful if you can have a peek at a few.

 

It will also reinforce what you are learning. Bear in mind, just because a website is out there, it is not always good!

 

So to see the source code in safari or internet explorer you just right click and 'view source'. Can't remember how for Opera and Firefox (other internet browsers).

 

You will slowly understand what you see as you learn bits.

 

If you do decide to use GIMP for images etc, you're welcome to pm me for help as I have been learning to use that recently.

 

All the best; I remember being there not so long ago oh and er WELCOME!

I use both Dreamweaver and FrontPage, but was later told that FrontPage adds unnecessary code onto your pages. However, you can download free software, such as Microsoft Visual Web Developer, which is pretty cool, but the interface might look a bit advanced, not too sure how you'll find it. I suggest you look at the free software first that others have suggested and if you're still unsatisfied, then consider buying actual software.