Creating a Website

D

Daggertooth

Guest
Hi all,

I need some information on how to create a web site. I've already picked out sutable names for it, like www.sfbguild.org or somthing like that anyway. I'm just not sure how to do it.

This would be for my Scofield Frontier Base Magic Guild That I'm trying to put together. So far there arn't many staff that play magic, but enough to warrent a web site. Over here the Provo club seems to dominate many of the tournies. I want my Guild to rivel them. :D

I would like to model my web site after this site and MTGnews. You know, a well organized front page with news and a link to forums. Which mean I'd like to have access to the VB bulliten, legaly of course. Does that mean I have to contact Ed?

Anyway, I'm very computer illiterate so any help will be much apreciated.


Thanks
Daggertooth
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I asked this question (how to build a website) a while ago and got some helpful advice in coding HTML. Check out HTML Goodies for a beginner's course in coding HTML. It was pretty helpful.

Plus it goes into more complicated stuff, like php (I think what a lot of our scripts are in) and XTML and stuff. It's a good starting point at least.
 
D

Daggertooth

Guest
Thanks spidey. I just went throught the introduction. Not bad.

I also looked at the Front Page HTML coding. Very scary.

What I need now is a web site to play with. Do you know where I can get one. Not something where I have to memorise a huge link to get in. Something simple. Perferably in the .orgs.

Thanks

Daggertooth
 
A

Almindhra

Guest
The best website to tryout is www.webmonkey.com ...They have a lot of info there for the newbie to the pro...

Try it out and write back what you think of it, please.....
 
R

Ransac

CPA Trash Man
Can I be an admin on your site? I was one on nodnarb's site and I feel I was pretty good........until no one showed up anymore.


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
D

Daggertooth

Guest
ISP? I'm not sure. I don't have internet conection at home so I use the schools. My guess it would depend on the computer I chose for the day.

As for being a moderater, I'm not sure. This will mostly be a private site for a rather small group. I doubt It'll get much traffic. But lets just talk of trying to get a web page going first.

Thanks for all the help
Daggertooth
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Then I have no idea where you can get webspace for a page... unless someone else helps, better try a search engine.
 
M

MrXarvox

Guest
there are a multitude of sites out there offering free web page space (with banner ads of course)... www.namedemo.com is one... can't think of any others
 
D

Daggertooth

Guest
Hmmm, this is tough. Especialy since I'm not sure whats what. anyway, here's what I've found.


www.angelfire.com
Q. Why should I choose Angelfire.com?

1. You get everything you need to build on Angelfire for FREE
2. Up to 50 MEGS of space for your site
3. Easy for beginners, and good for pros too
4. Full FTP support - for easy uploads
5. Add polls, forms, and cool Javascripts from our Script Library
6. Play our games, or put them on your site
7. Free design help from our HTML Library
8. Free htmlGEAR account for more cool page add-ons
9. Choose pop-up OR on-the-page ad - and customize it
10. Millions of other builders have their great pages on Angelfire
11. Etc., etc., etc. . . .


www.brinkster.com
Cost: FREE!
.NET Framework Beta-2, Mobile Internet Toolkit Beta-2
30 MB of Space, No Ads on Your Site
ASP 3.0 Support, MS Access Databases
Web Based File Mgr, ADO & FileSystemObject


www.geocities.com
Membership Brochure
Join Yahoo! GeoCities and receive...

Page-Building Tools

* Free disk space - 15 megabytes
* Yahoo! PageWizards - just answer a few questions and we'll create a great-looking web page for you
* Yahoo! PageBuilder - our flexible and powerful drag & drop editor - no HTML coding
* Site Statistics - get comprehensive reports to track your visitors - automatically!
* Pre-built templates - layouts to customize with your own personal touch
* Short URL - easy-to-remember web page address
* Easy-to-install Add-Ons - search box, Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Presence, stock quotes, video poker and slot machine games, news headlines, clip art, guestbook, page counter, email forms, countdown clocks, and so much more
* FTP access - transfer files using your favorite FTP program
* File Manager - create, edit, upload, delete, and maintain your files in directories and subdirectories

Community

* Member Pages Directory - choose from thousands of categories to list your pages, increase your traffic, and connect with others
* World Report - monthly newsletter with the latest GeoCities news

Help

* Online Help - comprehensive FAQs and tutorials
* Yahoo! Experts - GeoCities Experts can personally answer your questions

And Much More

* Access to the entire Yahoo! Network - one password for free Mail, Chat, Clubs, Messenger, Games, Photos, Personals, Auctions, and more
* Make money - opportunity to join our free merchant affiliates program, Pages That Pay


www.namedemo.com
is not free anymore.


I'm looking at angelfire just because of the 50 MB. And full FTP support wow!!......hmmm, whats FTP? obviously I need help to know what the best is. I don't mind having advertisments on the site, but I really hate popups.

Oh, and guess what!! they've got the internet on computers now.


Daggertooth
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Well, I guess if you don't mind the ads, angelfire might be the way to go. 50 MB is a lot of space though; it depends what you plan to do with your site. If you're going to have lots of pictures, videos, or sound files, then it would make sense. If it's like this site, with mostly text, brinkster might be better (for no ads).

FTP is File Transfer Protocol... how you get your files uploaded to the site so it recognizes it.
 
D

Daggertooth

Guest
Thats cool, I'm not sure how relevent FTP is for my site, but I suppose I could use it. And yes, as of now it is planned to be primarily a text base site.

Although I may like to add graphics and other whatknots as I learn how to do things.


One problem I've been having. I've been practicing trying to load up HTML documents. Here is what I do:

1st: I got to file and pick open
2nd: I browse for my practice web page


<html>
<title>testing</title>
<hr>
This is how You do this. <b>at least</b> <I>I’m pretty</I><tt>sure.</tt>
</html>

3rd: I click on that little button that says "open as a web file"
4th: I say okay, and this is what I get.

"Internet explorer could not open HTML.htm as a web folder. would you like to it's default view instead."

Whatsup with that?

Daggertooth
 
A

Almindhra

Guest
FTP is great...Its a program so you can upload your files without logging into the webserver and taking forever to put your files in there...

If you need some help finding it maybe go to www.zd.net ...And if you don't understand it, just give me a hollah...
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I can't remember, but that HTML Goodies site tells you how to save and look at your web pages. Basically, I think you have to be sure to save it as text (.txt) but look at his first lesson to make sure.
 
A

Almindhra

Guest
Maybe try saving it as and HTML file, and name it something other than HTML.html...Name it index.html, that will be your default opening page...

And I took a class with some basic HTML and did a little work on the stuff on my own, if you need help you can always IM me: doeminique, or email me at almindhra@dragonmount.com...
 
M

Mikeymike

Guest
Daggertooth, You are missing the <body> tag in your document. The browser will not disply anything onscreen w/o a <body> tag. The browser sees that tag and basically says "OK, this is where I start displaying the document content".

The code should look something like this:

<html>
<title>testing</title>
<body>
<hr>
This is how You do this. <b>at least</b> <I>I’m pretty</I><tt>sure.</tt>
</body>
</html>

You should see the Title at the very top of the browser window
Inside of the body tag you can include all different types of page properties such as background color, link color, margin sizes, etc.
I don't remember what the <tt> tag does.
Make sure you save your documents as '.htm' or '.html', otherwise a browser won't be able to understand them. Down the road if you turn to more web-programming applications, (creating search engines, forums, database accessing sites) you can save your files in some different formats such as '.php', '.asp', or the dying '.cfml' but those are all different variations of databasing AND html languaging.
And don't worry about XML until you get a firm grasp on HTML.

As stated, both HTML Goodies and Webmonkey are great sites to get some initial tutoring.

Some suggestions:
Another tag you should try to familiarize yourself with is the <head> tag. This is where some of the 'hidden' attributes of the document are going to go, such as you keywords (or 'meta' words) and any Javascript or DHTML commands.

Learn good table (or <table>) structure. I can't stress this enough. Good tables make for a much, much cleanly designed site both on the front and back ends of a web document. The great thing about tables is that you don't need to know every command in order to create a table, but the more commands you learn the better you can take advantage of it. Make sure you understand Row and Column spanning too (relating to tables).

Learn about FTP programs and their functionality. When you are ready to publish your site, you will need to upload your files to the host site, and FTP programs allow you to do so. They aren't complicated once you understand exactly what they are trying to do (which is simply to transfer files from your hard drive to files on a webserver hard drive). Go to CNET.com, Downloads, Internet, FTP, and read some reviews. CuteFTP is extremely popular, but I'm more comfortable with FTP Voyager and the dead-simple WS_FTP.

Download the 30-day trial of Macromedia's Dreamweaver 4.0. It is an HTML editor similar to Front Page, but it doesn't clutter up the code with its own proprietary tags like Front Page does (which you saw already). I've used both, and personally I strongly feel that Dreamweaver is more user friendly, more instinctive to learn, and MUCH less obtrusive than MS Front Page (which tries to do everything for you and assumes what you're trying to do). Dreamweaver also allows you to quickly insert Flash, Javascript, and Shockwave files directly into your document.

When creating a document in Dreamweaver, always refer back to the code so you start to understand why certain things look the way they do, or why they don't look the way you want them to. These editors do make web design much easier, but they aren't all knowing and WILL NOT give you perfect results all the time, especially with sloppy table design. No editor is safe from these issues, and the more comfortable you get with HTML the more you'll understand what I'm talking about (and how to fix it manually).

Be careful of default values. If IE or Navigator don't see a value specified (such as margin size or cell padding) they will assume what that value is supposed to be. If you just create a table in dreamweaver, not only will it have about a 1/4" buffer between itself and the browser edges, but the cells will even be spaced apart slightly. Its very annoying if you don't know what to look for as it totally screws with you design layout. Specify sizes as much as possible, it takes a little longer but it leaves less to chance.

In terms of the free hosting options (to be honest I've never used one myself) I would recommend brinkster first b/c A) they have no pop-up ads and B) 30 MBs of space should be plenty (unless you are uploading tons of multi-media files which I doubt at this stage in your web programming career). Angelfire gives you much more, but you've got to deal with the adds. Thankfully they do let you incorporate the adds directly into your page, which is much less offensive to your site viewers.

Sorry, this is a lot to swallow. I hope it gets you in the right direction. If you have any questions feel free to PM me directly.

-Mike
 
D

Daggertooth

Guest
Thanks for all the help guys. I'm learning alot and might be able to create the website soon.


Here is one script I'm having problems with.

<FONT SIZE="+2" ALIGN="CENTER" COLOR="GREEN">Will this work?</FONT>


Basic right? Well, the size works as does the color. But the Alignment does not. Is it in the wrong place? I can't see anything else wrong with it.


Daggertooth
 
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