Design your own site
So you think you have the time to design your own site. Or do you want to make oodles on money making other people's sites? Before you decide to take the plunge…
So you think you have the time to design your own site. Or do you want to make oodles on money making other people’s sites? Before you decide to take the plunge here is a brief idea of what you are getting into.
There are three things involved in setting up a website
- Design - Creation
- Hosting - Putting it up for everyone to find
- Promotion - Making sure that a whole lot of people find it
learn about web graphics. click here
all about theft and burglary on the net, click here
WYSIWYG design tools, an intro
Creation
A website is made up of text, images and things that fly. What you have to do is
Learn HTML or get WYSIWYG web design software
Learn how to use Graphics Software like Paintshop Pro Learn how to steal effectively
HTML
The language you use to make the browser see sense is called Hyper Text Markup Language. It is actually quite easy, though web designers would like you to believe otherwise. This is how it works, if you want a line of text to look like this The cow jumped over the moon then you would have to write it like this -
<font size="3" color="lime"> The
cow jumped over the moon </font>
So you can basically design an entire site in a text editor like Notepad … most of this site has been made using Notepad! If the code above made sense to you or you are thinking of becoming a professional web designer, you should put in the extra effort of learning HTML, the best place to start www.webmonkey.com
WYSIWYG Design Tools
You can also use a WYSIWYG (pronounced wizziwig, WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get.) design tool like Microsoft Frontpage or Hotmetal Pro or Arachnophobia…. the list is long. These tools allow you to place text and images without any prior knowledge of HTML.
tip - Fire up your favourite word processor and check if you can save your documents as HTML Documents. This should be under the Save As option in the file menu. I know for certain that Word 97 allows you to do this.
www.tucows.com has a list of some very good, free design tools. They are part of a mindboggling collection of software available for download, all rated. The more the cows the better the software.
Graphics Software
A webpage also has images, sometimes even text is actually an image … why? One of the limitations placed on web designers is that there is no gaurantee on text being displayed the same way on every computer, it depends on the whether the person accessing your site has the required font, that he hasn’t turned off designer specifications in his browser, that his screen resolution is the same as yours etc etc.
So you make an image, it usually is a good idea to display your logo and site name as an image. That is why knowledge of a Graphic Design tool like Paintshop Pro is a must, Paintshop is shareware and is available at www.jasc.com
If you are thinking about professional design then you will need Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks.
www.webmonkey.com has a very good tutorial on Photoshop, as the basic features are similiar for almost all graphic design tools, it is a good place to start. For advanced Photoshop the best place to go is www.ozones.com
Theft & Burglary
One of the most important things in web design is the art of stealing effectively. Whenever you visit a website you like, it is a good idea to check out the source code.
It is one of the best ways to learn some neat tricks, pick up some good JavaScript to add dynamic capabilities to your page and improve as a web designer. Just remember to give credit in your source to the person / site you have taken it from.
Avoid stealing images! It is just not a good idea, a lot of work goes into creating images and it is good to show some respect. Remember, there are lots of places where you get free images, like the Microsoft ClipArt Collection, www.microsoft.com
Burglary DIY In Internet Explorer, choose Sourcein the View menu or right click and choose View Source. In Netscape Navigator choose Page Source from the View menu or press Ctrl+U
Originally published on naren.8m.com, my first website, in 1999; recovered from the Wayback Machine.