Start Website from Scratch

Choclolate

Hi,

I want to start a website from scratch. Someting simple like a diary or photos etc.

I am good at using computers, but not a software designer or web designer.

Is there a website that brings you through the process ie - buying domains, software, hosting etc etc etc in a simple step process.

Its just something I want to do , but the information I am finding seems to be a little disjointed.

Thanks

strandroad

Get this book - it covers most of what you need, from design tools to coding and hosting:
http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Site-Right-Using/dp/0980455278/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1295348982&sr=8-3

Choclolate

Does this book start from scratch,

For someone without the terminology or skills.

I was hoping there might be an online help - dont want to start buyinbg books yet.

Basically I can buy a domain name, but dont know how to get from there to an online presence.

I am an engineer so have some though process, but no knowledge.

Choclolate

I was also looking at hosting - what is the best way to get your website hosting.

I intend to buy my domain name from Go Daddy or Blacknight. Would these be good to host and build the website.

I have been recommended Ipower Actnow.

One I get on the right road, I will be fine. But I assume if I get going with the wrong hosting compnay with no web builder support I could be in trouble.

How much should it cost me? I have no idea

flashforward

I think your going about this the wrong way.
Buying a domain and getting hosting for it is not something that should concern you right now (its not a difficult process at all though)
You have to be able to build a site before you worry about that, start learning HTML and CSS.
You dont need software or hosting to start building sites, notepad and a web browser will do.

Choclolate

I find that getting in the deep end is the best way to learn.

I hoped I could use the hosts web builder to set up the website and from their make changes as i learn code.

Good or bad way - what you think

flashforward

Choclolate wrote: »

I find that getting in the deep end is the best way to learn.

I hoped I could use the hosts web builder to set up the website and from their make changes as i learn code.

Good or bad way - what you think

I wouldn't call using a host web builder 'getting in deep', more like the easy way out.

If you want to use a hosts site builder you can have a site up and running in a few hours or less. But this site will look like every other one and you will be limited with how much you can change.

Learning HTML and CSS will enable you to create your own page as you want it and will leave you with much more flexibility in the future.

Its something that can be expanded on and if you really enjoy the development and design that goes into a simple site you can start learning the likes of PHP and SQL for building dynamic webpages.

Choclolate

Ok didnt realise.

I though I could use there webbuilder from the host to give me a base. Then go into the code and change from there. Doesnt seem to be the case?

Is there a standard page code I can start from and build from there.

I am starting from 0 knowledge here. I have done some reading and basics.

But if I had page 1 - I know I could build from there.

Any ideas - wont bother using hosts web builder if it is hard to change,

cormee

Have you considered googling 'design a website from scratch'?

Optimus Prime

Just checkout wordpress.org , for what you want to do i think this is the best way to go, plus its easy to setup once you have hosting. 10 minutes max.

Choclolate

will this be using code or is it just a shortcut where i will learn nothing

Optimus Prime

ah ok sorry about that, i thought you just wanted a website setup quickly, didnt realise you wanted to learn php, html or other. Wordpress will have a website up and running in a few minutes. It can be a good way to learn how it works though as you can edit the site yourself in the editor. its how i picked up a lot of stuff not knowing anything about web design.

Choclolate

Sweet,

LOoks like that is what I want then.

It will get me a basic page up and running in a code which I can lear to tweek.

Anything else would be a great help/.

lil_lisa

w3schools.com is a helpful way to get started on understanding html and css.They go through all the basics you'll need online for free.

Choclolate

Ill do that so

And to buy and host my domain - Blacknight - Go Daddy - does it matter.

Does it take long or once I purchase the domain and pay for hosting can I start building my webpage straight away online

Adam

hi chocolate, here's a quick breakdown for you:

1. you purchase hosting & domain (personally i like blacknight so why not them this will do just fine)

2. you will receive login details for your Control Panel on blacknights website. this will allow you to do all manner of things with your new hosting package. one of which is access your server (the hard drive your website will be stored on). you can do this through the blacknight website, or get an ftp client. either of these options will enable you to put your website out in the world.

3.you get yourself a simple text editor (i like editplus) and download it.

4. you open your text editor, create a new document. in that document you type

[html]
<html>
<body>

<h1>My First Heading</h1>

<p>My first paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>
[/html]

save the document as index.html.

5. you now go to your ftp client (or the blacknight website's file browser) and you upload your html file.

6. you then go to your browser and type in www.mydomain.com and bear witness to your first webpage.

---

that's your "deep end" step by step, it's far from comprehensive or informative, but it will do what it says!

if you want to save some money though, do step 3 and 4, and then instead of uploading your file to your web server, simply double click index.html from the desktop(or wherever you saved it). the file will openly locally in your browser and you will see the exact same thing, because the html is what makes the site work, and your browser can interpret that regardless of where the file is being opened from, be it your desktop or your web server.

after that, as people suggested, you could start at w3schools, here's the start of the html tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

after that you'll start learning some css, (cascading style sheets) which bascially works with html to allow you more control over the look and feel of the website. down the line, you might want to start adding interactivity to your website, which is when you'll get in to something like php, javascript etc. but thats one deep end you dont want to jump into until you get a nice handle on the previous concepts first.

hope this helped, best of luck with it all.

aidan_walsh

Please read the stickies at the head of the forum regarding discussion of individual hosting providers or registration services, OP.

Choclolate

Great thanks,

Ill let you know how I do and post the link up.

In relation to "Please read the stickies at the head of the forum regarding discussion of individual hosting providers or registration services, OP. ".

I understand the spirit of this, but fairly hard to discuss starting a website without mentioning Host services. They go hand in hand.

Choclolate

Do you have to pay for editplus. I am being asked for a registration code.

Is there a free one that I can use.

Thanks

Adam

Choclolate wrote: »

Do you have to pay for editplus. I am being asked for a registration code.

Is there a free one that I can use.

Thanks

no, just click evaluate, it's a 30 day trial but after the thirty days it doesn't prevent you from using it, dont ask me why!

BopNiblets

Notepad++ is a free alternative.
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Choclolate

last thing i need is choices

aidan_walsh

Choclolate wrote: »

Great thanks,

Ill let you know how I do and post the link up.

In relation to "Please read the stickies at the head of the forum regarding discussion of individual hosting providers or registration services, OP. ".

I understand the spirit of this, but fairly hard to discuss starting a website without mentioning Host services. They go hand in hand.

Never the less, the rules are the rules and they're that way for a reason. I'm happy to allow discussion of high level hosting topics, but anything provider specific must go to the provider in question.

BailMeOut

Choclolate wrote: »

Hi,

Someting simple like a diary or photos etc.

how about a blog? Wordpress, blogger, etc.. are great and really easy ways to do this. No need to reinvent what is already freely available.

I use blogger but I hear wordpress is really good.

professore

Are you a techie by nature ? Or just want to learn to produce a website like a MS Word doc ?

IF you're a techie you will want to learn something like PHP to produce database driven sites. If not, maybe Dreamweaver or something like that is your best bet.

Choclolate

Just want to learn something new.

Would like the idea of actually learning the coding (not even sure the name of the language).

I assume you can copy paste large pieces of code from somewhere on the web also.

Is it hard to learn - nothing too fancy.

Remember "Rules are Rules" so dont mentions any hosts

I am not in a major rush - but want to learn it.

lucideer

Choclolate wrote: »

Would like the idea of actually learning the coding (not even sure the name of the language).

You don't need a host or a live site to learn the language(s). There are typically two to four languages involved in making any website.

1. HTML or XHTML - this is the most important core language. Every site on the web is created in HTML or XHTML. If you right-click this page and select "View Source" you will see HTML. HTML and XHTML are called a "markup languages" - markup is the code that holds the content of your page (paragraphs, headers, etc.)

2. CSS - this is the second required language. You need it to style your page. It defines the layout, colours, fonts, formatting etc.

3. Javascript - this one's optional. It's a programming language (unlike HTML/XHTML/CSS) and is therefore a lot trickier to learn, but as I said it's optional. You can make a HTML/XHTML+CSS page and add Javascript later on.

4. Server-side - this is not only optional, it's a completely open choice. There are many different server-side languages, you can choose whichever you like. They are again, like javascript, programming languages (therefore fairly tricky to learn). PHP is the most popular (boards runs on PHP), but you should ideally have a good grasp of all of the first three (or at least the first two) before you begin learning about server-side stuff.

What you need:
1, 2 and 3 require nothing but a browser and a text editor (someone's recommended Notepad++ which is good - I personally recommend Notepad2, as it's faster, with a cleaner interface but still has tons of features).
4 (server-side) requires a server, but you don't necessarily need hosting for this, as you can easily install a server on your own computer. Apache-Friends XAMPP is a popular option, and is really easy to run for beginners. But it's still completely unnecessary if you're making pages with only HTML/XHTML+CSS (+Javascript).

Where to learn:
Someone above suggested W3Schools, which is ok, but not really the best resource (many people mistakenly think they're connected to the W3C because of their sly naming - they aren't). I'd sooner recommend some of these over W3Schools tbh:
http://www.htmldog.com/
http://www.opera.com/company/education/curriculum/
https://developer.mozilla.org/docs

No one source of tutorials/learning material is 100% up-to-date and complete though, except for the W3C themselves (who define the languages). Their pages can be a bit scary and over-technical for beginners, but if you ever want to check to make sure you're definitely doing something right, they're here:
XHTML: http://www.w3.org/TR/html/
CSS: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS/
Javascript (DOM): http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-HTML/
and the up-and-coming replacement where they've combined HTML and XHTML:
http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/