Hi

 

Newbie to making a website:

1) Whats the best software (e.g dreamweaver, wordpress) to use and is it free and user friendely, also where can I get some more info on this software e.g. how to use it etc etc?

2) Within my site I want to have a place where people can have private chats e.g like marriage sites have them, is this something hard to do?

3) Want to have a secure way where people can use there debit/credit cards or paypal to make payments, again is this hard to do?

 

 

Thanks

Edited May 17, 201313 yr by sexydude

Wordpress and download some themes and edit them. Wordpress is easy to use. Or if you are pertaining to designing a website, you would probably need Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

The best software depends on the project, your skills, your budget. As you say free, that would rule Dreamweaver out. I would recommend a text editor to start off handcoding and get and understanding of the fundamentals.

 

There are many text editors out there but a couple would be something like Notepad++, Textmate, Coda2 (but that's not free) and my favourite, Sublime Text 2. The latter is also paid for but you can run an almost indefinite trial. To be honest, it's so cheap and worth it, that if you are likely to use it, buy it and support the developer.

 

WordPress is an example of a CMS that you could use for your project. You'll still need to create a website though, unless you wish to purchase a theme to edit, but it certainly helps to understand HTML, CSS and extra helpful to understand the PHP WP uses. Using WP as the example, you could purchase a theme to build upon, some plugins to help with chat, payments etc... Of course if you can code, you can do a lot yourself, but if you're new to it all, you might find it a little overwhelming.

 

Unless you have aspirations to become involved in web design, it might be in your interest to look for a theme that has the complete package for you, albeit not a bespoke design. There are sites such as themeforest.net that sell themes and plugins (there are many other sites, so this is just an example). The first hit I got for marriage/weddings was this theme. It might a starting point for you to build upon.

I think it´s important that you first learn the basics of making websites by following simple tutorials. (w3schools(dot)com or any other)

 

As for the software you want to use:

 

If you want the ability to design something, i always start with 'Wireframing' which is simply drawing square boxes and in there you say what you want it to be for, you can just use a piece of paper, a ruler and a pencil. When you want to use colors however, that's when you probably want to go online, you can get nice color combinations by going to:

 

www(dot)colorschemedesigner(.)com (i cannot post links yet since i am fairly new here.)

 

As for the coding, i use psPad, it's free software, and i've enjoyed working with it.

 

Most important i think is that you start with something, anything you'd like, and you start learning.

 

Good luck!

If you want to get into web design and learn to code then you can choose from a number of free text editors, even notepad with windows will suit the purpose but I would go for something which highlights syntax.

 

I can not say much about wordpress as I have never built a site with wordpress yet (that is next on my list).

 

If you want to learn web design, then HTML, CSS and a little bit of JavaScript would be a good start, if you want to the coding for chat I think as mentioned before you could look at wordpress or if you are feeling brave, you can find plenty of scripts which are open source but you would need to understand PHP.

 

There are plenty of tutorials out there, but I would recommend www.w3schools.com as a good starting point.

 

Also if you need help use this forum as its fully of some really good web designers who have lots of experience and alot of people with alot of skills in the different aspects of the web design field.

In a perfect world every one would take the high road learn everything by the book, Learn to walk before you can run, but sooner or later you have to jump in, I would recommend Joomla it is free has a few basic templates to play around with. Plus you will find a heap of free ones on the net. As an above post mentioned I would recommend Notepad++ also, but I think most CMS's have a built in WYSIWG Editor, I would try that.

 

Actually I think the first thing I would do is learn how to install a wamp server on your home computer, and then install either joomla or / WP on it.

 

Good luck let us know how it goes.

Dreamweaver, always dreamweaver... but you said free so you are forced to take another road until you have the resources to invest in Dreamweaver and Photoshop (note that a Creative Cloud subscription will get you ALL of the Adobe Apps for a monthly fee - a lot easier to swallow).

 

For a freebie starter have a look at Squarespace - it's a hosted solution and you should be able to achieve some customisation for your clients without having to invest too heavily in software.... but you will eventually need Dreamweaver when you get serious.

WordPress is the best option for creating a website since it will also allow you to manage your web pages in future. There are lots of free themes available which you can download and integrate.

 

Here is a beginner guide: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/wordpress/wordpress-step-by-step-beginners-guide/

 

Hopefully this will help you getting started.

 

Best of luck!

Well, for start you can start reading magazines and publications. There are more things involved in making a website:

- graphics/design

- front end development

- back end development

and some more.

 

First of all I would advise you to find the direction that suits you best and go for it!

 

Good luck!