Website help and Advice

Gregory Hicks said:
Ok i thought or rather presumed that i would need to have linux software.....

What programs will i use then build it on linux, maybe i should stick to clickpic.........
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All websites use HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which is common to ALL sites and browsers - it is NOT a computer language which has to be specific to the computer.

The latest versions of HTML are XHTML (EXtended HTML) and HTML5 (designed for rich media) but they are ALL versions of HTML.

And if you go the Dreamweaver route that will produce a version of HTML compatible with the web.

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Gregory Hicks said:
Wh smiths in the morning then! To use Wordpress do i not need a Wordpress site? I guess the hosting is a blank space and i can put what i want on ther???
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http://wordpress.org/

Download it to your computer. Then follow the instructions. It's not something that you will be able to do in minutes and there will be times when you are very frustrated as things don't seem to work. But stick at it and you may find it very satisfying. Just take it slow and steady.

Good luck!

Graham
 
petersmart said:
All websites use HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which is common to ALL sites and browsers - it is NOT a computer language which has to be specific to the computer.

The latest versions of HTML are XHTML (EXtended HTML) and HTML5 (designed for rich media) but they are ALL versions of HTML.

And if you go the Dreamweaver route that will produce a version of HTML compatible with the web.

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Gotcha....so il get a hosting space then i will ................. Go geta few books lol
 
blue max said:
http://wordpress.org/

Download it to your computer. Then follow the instructions. It's not something that you will be able to do in minutes and there will be times when you are very frustrated as things don't seem to work. But stick at it and you may find it very satisfying. Just take it slow and steady.

Good luck!

Graham
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Top banana..... Many thanks will do this tommorow :)
 
Gregory Hicks said:
Wh smiths in the morning then! To use Wordpress do i not need a Wordpress site? I guess the hosting is a blank space and i can put what i want on ther???
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NO if you're going to use Wordpress you do have to make sure that your host company supports it or that it will cause no problems when upoaded to their site.

I don't know the reason but I often see hosting sites stating that they support Wordpress - not sure why since it produces HTML.

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Gregory why don't you create a simple web page NOW?

Here's how:

Open notepad and type in "My name is Gregory".

Now save it to your desktop as a text file called "Gregory" (no apostrophes).

As long as you can see it just open it - it's exactly the same as when you wrote it.

Close it.

Now repeat the above process but THIS time save it as "Gregory.html"

Now look at it and you should see the IE logo or something similar.

Open it - see the difference?

It's that .html which turned your text file into a web page.

Congratulations Gregory - you just created your first web page - :clap:

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petersmart said:
Far too technical Arad for a beginner to website creation.
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And if that's the case, the said beginner - yes, that's you Gregory ;) - needs to pause for a second (or maybe a couple of weeks). Understand what a website is, how it is constructed, how it is maintained and how you change it to do what you want it to do. You can ask far more sensible and productive questions then...
 
petersmart said:
Gregory why don't you create a simple web page NOW?

Here's how:

Open notepad and type in "My name is Gregory".

Now save it to your desktop as a text file called "Gregory" (no apostrophes).

As long as you can see it just open it - it's exactly the same as when you wrote it.

Close it.

Now repeat the above process but THIS time save it as "Gregory.html"

Now look at it and you should see the IE logo or something similar.

Open it - see the difference?

It's that .html which turned your text file into a web page.

Congratulations Gregory - you just created your first web page - :clap:

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Click to expand...

Then just add your social media feeds :puke: There is much to learn grasshopper!
 
arad85 said:
And if that's the case, the said beginner - yes, that's you Gregory ;) - needs to pause for a second (or maybe a couple of weeks). Understand what a website is, how it is constructed, how it is maintained and how you change it to do what you want it to do. You can ask far more sensible and productive questions then...
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Arad please remember we all had to start somewhere and what is simple to us NOW at one time wasn't.

This site is about HELPING other members if we can, NOT attempting to denigrate them with sarcastic comments.

If you find it beneath you to extend help in a courteous and civil manner then may I respectfully suggest that you say nothing at all.

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arad85 said:
And if that's the case, the said beginner - yes, that's you Gregory ;) - needs to pause for a second (or maybe a couple of weeks). Understand what a website is, how it is constructed, how it is maintained and how you change it to do what you want it to do. You can ask far more sensible and productive questions then...
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Agree with Andy

You will end up making all sorts of mistakes and bad decisions if you just rush into things without the basics of what it is you want to do and achieve under your belt.

Take a step back, and a deep breath, relax a little and then browse the web, look at some like minded websites, write down what it is you like/dislike about them.

Then form a plan of what it is you want from your website, what you want it to look like, what you want to achieve with it.

What ever you do don't rush into it as you seem to be doing, step back, relax a little and start with the basics and build on that bit by bit

And remember ask questions if your not sure about something - as the saying goes the only stupid question is the one that was never asked
 
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Bet he knows a whole lot more about it than he did when he first posted!

Sometimes you just have to dive in and hope you can figure out how to stay afloat. Trying to perfect the stroke before you have even got wet may not be the answer either. You may become demoralised and drown anyway :)

Guess we all have to learn from our own mistakes, but try to keep them to the minimum.
 
Wow some huge feedback there, one that completly confised me but i think it feed your ego trip very well!

Im on it and i will get my head around it, its just the basics that i need to no and understand so thats what i will do........

For now im of to wh smiths before exercise then back home!
 
petersmart said:
Arad please remember we all had to start somewhere and what is simple to us NOW at one time wasn't.

This site is about HELPING other members if we can, NOT attempting to denigrate them with sarcastic comments.

If you find it beneath you to extend help in a courteous and civil manner then may I respectfully suggest that you say nothing at all.

.
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Whether the presentation of it is deemed sarcastic or not, the advice I gave is still helpful. Stop asking questions as they trip off your head, go and read around the subject for a while and when you have some of the basics then come back and ask some questions.

For 99.9% of people, there is NO NEED to write a web site from scratch and doing so would be a complete waste of effort. CMS such as Wordpress can be customised far more easily - but to choose the right one, you need to know what it is you want to get your website to do.
 
If you want to learn HTML then this site will guide you & even supply you with onscreen demonstrations.

http://www.w3schools.com/

First you need to sit down & decide want you want your website to do.

It maybe helpful if you post that info on this thread then members can point you in the right direction.
 
If you decide that a Wordpress site is the way forwards then some hosts, like TsoHost I use based on recommendations here, offer an option called Fantastico.
This is essentially a button you press in their control panel which installs a working wordpress blog without you having to worry about manual configuration of things like the SQL database. It worked well for me.
 
Matt-P said:
If you decide that a Wordpress site is the way forwards then some hosts, like TsoHost I use based on recommendations here, offer an option called Fantastico.
This is essentially a button you press in their control panel which installs a working wordpress blog without you having to worry about manual configuration of things like the SQL database. It worked well for me.
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Is you website a wordpress site????
 
Gregory Hicks said:
i think theres a boo boo, how do i no what package i will need then and if it supports wordpress.

Basicly i want a gallary, a price list page, info page, a good cover page with photos and information thats about it.
http://order.1and1.co.uk/Hosting;jsessionid=428E8FA9EF046E67A7074FF1C3D70FF6.TCpfix145a?__lf=Static&linkOrigin=Home&linkId=ct.box.hosting
What does the PHP and that all mean?
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Like Matt-P says, and I agree with (as I use them too), go with TSOhost. Personally I prefer to have my domains with my web hosting company, but it's not essential. You will need to 'point' the domain at TSOhost if you decide to do that. Or move them over to TSOhost. You should be able to do it all online yourself, but this is one of those things that 1and1 make less than easy.

However, perhaps you are getting ahead of yourself. You don't actually need to host it anywhere until it is complete. You can work locally on your computer and only need to make the hosting decision at that point. Personally I think you are better getting something simple up, so that Google can index the page, so you have a chance of being found at some stage. Most people think that when the site is up, a quick google for something like 'photography in Cheshire', will bring them up as the first hit. It 'aint going to happen! But that's another topic entirely.

I do think you need to now spend some time finding your way around or all of this will just confuse you even more. Finish A, before looking ahead to Z.

Hope that helps and look forward to seeing your site when it's up and running.

Graham
 
Great thread, and some good fb. Iam just about to start my first site with Wordpress. But need a domain first!

Can anyone recommend a domain name for me please would like to use my name 'James White' in it somehow.

Also with Wordpress, I shoot a lot of photos of my neice, can you setup your site so you have say a folder with a password on it which you can give to family members and also they can download the photo in high res?
 
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Any of you guys on skype? 1and1 offer a £££ back 60 day scheme so im gna go with that!
 
There are many wordpress themes out there, many people will tell you that theres works great, that they've added a load of plugins or that they've tweaked the CSS to get it perfect.
Try Prophotoblogs, creates a great site, brilliant control panel and great SEO, mobile versions and everything you could need. Easily pays for itself in the lack of anything work you need to put in.
 
The problem is everyone has their own favourite software, programs & companies they like to work with, what you need to do is look in to each one & decide for yourself what you like.

Once you've decided let me know & I'll install it for you FOC if wanted.
 
My first advice is STAY AWAY FROM 1AND1.co.uk. They are one of the shi**est hosts going. When i first had a host i got conned in to a year deal. Id saying EzPzHosting.co.uk is the best, and ive been with them for a while now.
 
AboutLee said:
My first advice is STAY AWAY FROM 1AND1.co.uk. They are one of the shi**est hosts going. When i first had a host i got conned in to a year deal. Id saying EzPzHosting.co.uk is the best, and ive been with them for a while now.
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Gotcha, the mail package seems good there, im looking at namesco...........
 
If your looking to have a Blog, and Gallery you would need more then 1 MySQL Databases. Each script you install needs 1 MySQL Database. So you would need at least the Professional package from namesco.
 
I only want a gallary, no blogs! Not a fan of letting people know my life story. 6 pages, a gallary, and a facebook and twitter link.
 
Hi Gregory,

Just wanted to jump in on this one as a professional web designer/developer. A lot of the advice given here is great but to be honest, from your questions you just will be confused and struggling with a lot of it.

Wordpress and similar tools will just be a pain for a complete novice, unless your chosen host provides a installer for them.

My advice to you is start very simple. With a pen and paper.

Figure out what you want on your site, where you want to place images and text, and draw it out. Its far faster to do this than to try and mess around with lots of different technologies you are unsure of.

At your level, I would stay away from anything but a simple static site for now. Get your gallery working and leave the blog for a little while until you get comfortable with running a site. It's a bit more leg work in the long run but far less complicated. As you get confident you can try more advanced techniques to improve you workflow.

Read up on HTML and CSS and that's it. Don't get confused with all the other suggested tools/languages/products that have been recommended. At the end of the day the web is made up from HTML and CSS however its generated. www.w3schools.com is a good starting place

Use Dreamweaver to build the pages you drew out on the paper in HTML and CSS and see how they come together. The beauty of sticking with just HTML and CSS is that you can run the whole lot on your computer with out any fancy programs. Internet Explorer (or which ever browser you use) will open and display the files just fine.

Tweak them until they look how you want them and then upload them to your hosting provider.

If you get really stuck you can PM me and I'll try to help out.

Just keep things simple for now.
 
fully_baked said:
Hi Gregory,

Just wanted to jump in on this one as a professional web designer/developer. A lot of the advice given here is great but to be honest, from your questions you just will be confused and struggling with a lot of it.

Wordpress and similar tools will just be a pain for a complete novice, unless your chosen host provides a installer for them.

My advice to you is start very simple. With a pen and paper.

Figure out what you want on your site, where you want to place images and text, and draw it out. Its far faster to do this than to try and mess around with lots of different technologies you are unsure of.

At your level, I would stay away from anything but a simple static site for now. Get your gallery working and leave the blog for a little while until you get comfortable with running a site. It's a bit more leg work in the long run but far less complicated. As you get confident you can try more advanced techniques to improve you workflow.

Read up on HTML and CSS and that's it. Don't get confused with all the other suggested tools/languages/products that have been recommended. At the end of the day the web is made up from HTML and CSS however its generated. www.w3schools.com is a good starting place

Use Dreamweaver to build the pages you drew out on the paper in HTML and CSS and see how they come together. The beauty of sticking with just HTML and CSS is that you can run the whole lot on your computer with out any fancy programs. Internet Explorer (or which ever browser you use) will open and display the files just fine.

Tweak them until they look how you want them and then upload them to your hosting provider.

If you get really stuck you can PM me and I'll try to help out.

Just keep things simple for now.
Click to expand...

What!
As a Professional web designer - You would think that designing in HTML and CSS is a straightforward option. :wacky:

But it's a bit like me suggesting to someone who wants to take picture of their house for sale 'all you'll need is a full frame DSLR, a tilt and shift lens and a basic understanding of exposure and composition - shouldn't cost more than a couple of grand and take more than a week to sort. Oh, and don't forget to shoot RAW and you'll need to learn Lightroom and Photoshop to get the best out of them'. Rather than, 'Point your £100 P&S in the direction of the house on a Sunny day'.

A straightforward Wordpress install (once a host is chosen) is as simple as a software install.

Loading an all-in one template like prophoto is even easier. What you then have is professional hand-holding and a very easy to use menu system. Anyone could do it, no CSS, HTML or JAVA knowledge required. Drag and drop media uploads, and paragraph styles that 'just do it' as far as SEO is concerned.(y)

Once the hosting is sorted, anybody can have a Prophoto (or similar) site up within a couple of hours.

In the past I've spent weeks studying HTML and various other web technologies, and I could just about code a simple site from scratch (probably take me a couple of days) - but it would be completely rubbish compared to my off the shelf solution, in terms of usability, style, SEO or anything else of any importance. Notwithstanding - none of us have any idea what Greg's design skills are like, even if he learns to code brilliantly:thinking:

Let's keep it real, even if you already know HTML and CSS, learning how to make Dreamweaver make the best of it is a tough job. IMHO Dreamweaver is almost as complex as Photoshop; You can use it after a day, understand it after 6 months and master it after a couple of years (7 years in and still not an expert in Photoshop).

Not to mention the economics, Decent web design software costs more than a good template site. (Yes I understand that a website can be built in Notepad - by an expert). And a month of my time, even if I'm enjoying myself, is a cost item to me.
 
Stop feeding you egos! I asked for help and have got selected help i needed.
 
Lol sorry somepeople take it to far! Word press is the way forward for me i think buddy.....
 
Glad to hear it, shout up if you have any more questions.
 
Phil V said:
Let's keep it real, even if you already know HTML and CSS, learning how to make Dreamweaver make the best of it is a tough job. IMHO Dreamweaver is almost as complex as Photoshop; You can use it after a day, understand it after 6 months and master it after a couple of years (7 years in and still not an expert in Photoshop).
Click to expand...

But the point about hand coding is that you if you CAN code in HTML (in fact XHTML now) and CSS then you certainly DON'T need Dreamweaver.

Because then you can take virtually any design and successfully alter it to suit you perfectly.

And if you also use PHP (just a few commands can make coding much easier) - then constructing multi page sites becomes even easier.

And if things DO go wrong then at least you have the ability to look for and correct the mistakes.

And if you use Opera you can check your validation and if there are any errors W3.org also gives pointers to the errors.

And correct validation is now becoming more and more important as the media that websites can be displayed on become more and more varied.

In addition to which hand coding can produce really slimmed down code in contrast to Dreamweaver.

And as you go along you slowly acquire other tips and tricks of coding which can make it simpler to get good results.

Of course I don't expect Gregory to spend time learning coding if he wants to produce a website for business but once it's up and running a small amount of time invested in learning about XHTML, CSS and PHP would certainly not be wasted.

.
 
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