A further question on the subject of developing, posting and maintaining your own personal website.
Is it necessary to have a separate application, such as WS_FTP Pro, for transferring files between your PC and your FTP site or are the necessary tools now incorporated into HTML editors?
WS_FTP Pro appears to be a most comprehensive package as it can connect to any system that has a valid Internet Address and contains an FTP server program, allowing one to transfer files between a wide variety of systems, including Windows, OS\2, and UNIX systems but, is it rather over-the-top for the personal user?
Alan
Building your own website
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
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- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
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sleekitbeastie
- Posts: 45
- Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2004 10:04 am
Have a look at NetObjects Fusion - now in version 8. It is an easy tool for building web sites without any particular need for technical expertise in HTML etc. It has an inbuilt publishing process (upload) which ftps your built site to your service provider. As a tool it hovers between the outright amateur cheapies and the horrendously costly professional software. Its biggest drawback is that it tends to make all sites look the same. That said, with practice it is possible to develop from the in-built formats and to construct excellent sites. You can actually get version 7 as a freebie and I don’t really see that version 8 is necessary unless you want to build an online shop.
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Dear all, particularly Tony, Rich, Paolo & Darren,
Many thanks for the comments and advice, which I am sure will prove to be very useful.
I think I should explain something. When in work my main occupation was that of a solicitor. For my sins I was also the managing partner and head of IT which meant that my office PC was packed with all sorts of applications, not that I used them all by any means. When I retired I “inherited� my office PC which means that I have MS Office Pro, MS Frontpage, MS Visio, MS Project Pro, MS OneNote, HotMetalPro, Macromedia Director Shockwave Studio, Dreamweaver MX6, Dreamweaver UltraDev, Fireworks MX, Flash MX, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Acrobat Pro, WS_FTP Pro, etc. etc. The list goes on and on, to the point of complete and utter confusion.
A few years ago, using HotMetalPro, I developed an “intranet� for my office. At the same time I developed an internal e-mailing system for 285 users, using Novell Netware. Once I got into HotMetalPro I found it fairly straightforward but a new version came along with a completely different “desk top� which I never became familiar with. Now I feel like a beginner again and I think that I might just as well adopt Dreamweaver MX and get on with its steep learning curve. That should keep me out of mischief during the winter months - as if I had nothing else to do!
On a bad and lazy day the thought occurs that I might stay with Listing Sites. “Not a good idea� I hear you say.
Darren, I too have acquired a “dummies� book, titled “Creating Web Pages�. It’s a pretty dry read but packed with useful information, when you can find it. I note what you say about the Dreamweaver generated code. I used to do the same in VBA and one can certainly get rid of a lot of unnecessary code, making programs a lot tighter. It’s very time taking though.
On a similar vein, I assume that one should avoid the use of animation and sound and always optimise objects and pictures to make a site load and run as fast as possible?
Using “thumbnails� in picture galleries sounds like a good idea, is it?
Do Meta files and “key words� have any significance for Search Engines these days or are they “old hat�?
Alan
Many thanks for the comments and advice, which I am sure will prove to be very useful.
I think I should explain something. When in work my main occupation was that of a solicitor. For my sins I was also the managing partner and head of IT which meant that my office PC was packed with all sorts of applications, not that I used them all by any means. When I retired I “inherited� my office PC which means that I have MS Office Pro, MS Frontpage, MS Visio, MS Project Pro, MS OneNote, HotMetalPro, Macromedia Director Shockwave Studio, Dreamweaver MX6, Dreamweaver UltraDev, Fireworks MX, Flash MX, Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Acrobat Pro, WS_FTP Pro, etc. etc. The list goes on and on, to the point of complete and utter confusion.
A few years ago, using HotMetalPro, I developed an “intranet� for my office. At the same time I developed an internal e-mailing system for 285 users, using Novell Netware. Once I got into HotMetalPro I found it fairly straightforward but a new version came along with a completely different “desk top� which I never became familiar with. Now I feel like a beginner again and I think that I might just as well adopt Dreamweaver MX and get on with its steep learning curve. That should keep me out of mischief during the winter months - as if I had nothing else to do!
On a bad and lazy day the thought occurs that I might stay with Listing Sites. “Not a good idea� I hear you say.
Darren, I too have acquired a “dummies� book, titled “Creating Web Pages�. It’s a pretty dry read but packed with useful information, when you can find it. I note what you say about the Dreamweaver generated code. I used to do the same in VBA and one can certainly get rid of a lot of unnecessary code, making programs a lot tighter. It’s very time taking though.
On a similar vein, I assume that one should avoid the use of animation and sound and always optimise objects and pictures to make a site load and run as fast as possible?
Using “thumbnails� in picture galleries sounds like a good idea, is it?
Do Meta files and “key words� have any significance for Search Engines these days or are they “old hat�?
Alan
do you know guys...the advice etc that has been given on the forum is truly fantastic...but I have to admit I am completely lost. Maisy emailed me - turns out she live near me so we're going to have a coffee soon and see if either of us can quite fathom out what to do!...but in the meantime is there a way of unravelling all the advice into bite sized easy to follow instructions?
I think I can do the words/copy, photos etc all OK - my main difficulty I see is where to & how to launch launch it, then the technical stuff you have all been talking about...will swop unlimited advice on making Christmas puddings, breeding cats, keeping chickens, dogs and goats...if that is any good to anyone!
I think I can do the words/copy, photos etc all OK - my main difficulty I see is where to & how to launch launch it, then the technical stuff you have all been talking about...will swop unlimited advice on making Christmas puddings, breeding cats, keeping chickens, dogs and goats...if that is any good to anyone!
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livinginitaly
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Italy (at last!)
- Contact:
As far as the wide choice of html editors goes, I really believe that after using dreamweaver for a while, you'll wonder how you coped with anything else.
Having fireworks too means that you can open, edit and resize images directly from the dreamweaver screen, the two 'packages' work very closely together.
Yes, there really is nothing quite like 'hand coding' to get the leanest, meanest, fastest loading web page and yes, i'll admit dreamweaver has been accused of 'bloating' up pages with 'unnecessary' code. But, ease of use more than compensates for this. Plus, dreamweaver may add a little code here and there but it doesn't 'change' imported code like HotMetalPro, which means it's relatively easy to 'manually' edit the bits you feel you don't need.
Regarding, FTP ...... you can do all this directly from dreamweaver with some quite nice advantages over 'traditional' FTP programs. For example, it logs any changes to the site since the last FTP upload, then it only uploads the pages or items that have changed. A nice feature for those of us that occasionally forget which pages we've amended
That said, i personally use AceFTP Pro, but that's because when your looking after over 300 sites it's nice to be able to continue working whilst your uploading.
As for images on websites, yes, optimisation rules! I believe it's been discussed on the forum elsewhere, but a general rule of thumb for jpg's is 72dpi with a maximum 'quality' of 80% (this is the normal export setting with fireworks).
For thumbnailed 'picture galleries' i'd probably recommend installing the free 'justso' 'behaviour' for dreamweaver, take a look here http://valleywebdesigns.com/vwd_jspwX.asp. Version 1 is still free, v3 seems to be aimed at the 'server side' users, never tried the 'album' versions.
Meta tags / Keywords are becoming less important, particularly for the 'major' search engines, mainly due to abuse by heavily SEO'd sites, that said i always include them along with the 'description' tag, because it provides people who wish to 'link' to you with your 'preferred' linking text.
Bet you're looking forward to your 'winter project' arn't you? .... you certainly seem to be taking on a stack of work (wireless network too!)
Having fireworks too means that you can open, edit and resize images directly from the dreamweaver screen, the two 'packages' work very closely together.
Yes, there really is nothing quite like 'hand coding' to get the leanest, meanest, fastest loading web page and yes, i'll admit dreamweaver has been accused of 'bloating' up pages with 'unnecessary' code. But, ease of use more than compensates for this. Plus, dreamweaver may add a little code here and there but it doesn't 'change' imported code like HotMetalPro, which means it's relatively easy to 'manually' edit the bits you feel you don't need.
Regarding, FTP ...... you can do all this directly from dreamweaver with some quite nice advantages over 'traditional' FTP programs. For example, it logs any changes to the site since the last FTP upload, then it only uploads the pages or items that have changed. A nice feature for those of us that occasionally forget which pages we've amended
That said, i personally use AceFTP Pro, but that's because when your looking after over 300 sites it's nice to be able to continue working whilst your uploading.
As for images on websites, yes, optimisation rules! I believe it's been discussed on the forum elsewhere, but a general rule of thumb for jpg's is 72dpi with a maximum 'quality' of 80% (this is the normal export setting with fireworks).
For thumbnailed 'picture galleries' i'd probably recommend installing the free 'justso' 'behaviour' for dreamweaver, take a look here http://valleywebdesigns.com/vwd_jspwX.asp. Version 1 is still free, v3 seems to be aimed at the 'server side' users, never tried the 'album' versions.
Meta tags / Keywords are becoming less important, particularly for the 'major' search engines, mainly due to abuse by heavily SEO'd sites, that said i always include them along with the 'description' tag, because it provides people who wish to 'link' to you with your 'preferred' linking text.
Bet you're looking forward to your 'winter project' arn't you? .... you certainly seem to be taking on a stack of work (wireless network too!)
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
tansy,
Ah! Yes! This forum has a place for “techi� IT and a place for Christmas puddings recipes. If all it ever does is introduce you to a neighbour for coffee then it has achieved something. That’s the beauty of it and that’s what I love about it! I think Paolo and all the members should be congratulated for making it and keeping it that way.
Alan
Ah! Yes! This forum has a place for “techi� IT and a place for Christmas puddings recipes. If all it ever does is introduce you to a neighbour for coffee then it has achieved something. That’s the beauty of it and that’s what I love about it! I think Paolo and all the members should be congratulated for making it and keeping it that way.
Alan
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livinginitaly
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Fri Oct 29, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Italy (at last!)
- Contact:
We just may take you up on the 'chickens and goats' offer once we finally get ourselves moved out to Italy. Though i have to say, i'm not really a fan of Christmas Pud!will swop unlimited advice on making Christmas puddings, breeding cats, keeping chickens, dogs and goats
In the meantime, there seems plenty of people here only to willing to offer 'free expertise'. Like you i'm geniunely impressed by the quality and 'friendliness' of the advice given on the forum. To continue on that 'theme', if you have any 'technical' questions it seems the best thing to do is just 'ask'.
Building your own website really is an 'uplifting' experience, the personal satisfaction you'll get the first time you tell someone to 'take a look at our website' really can't be beat by many things!
If it's advice on actually getting your website up 'online', i believe there are a number of us that can offer 'hosting' and 'domain names', again all you have to do is ask
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Tony,
Many thanks for all of that, and there was a lot of it.
It seems I am very lucky in the applications I have “inherited�. All I have to do is learn how to use them.
So, I don’t really need WS/FTP Pro, Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. I can do it all from within Dreamweaver MX - that’s great news!
The winter could be interesting, or busy, depends on the way you look at it.
Again, thanks a lot.
Alan
Many thanks for all of that, and there was a lot of it.
It seems I am very lucky in the applications I have “inherited�. All I have to do is learn how to use them.
So, I don’t really need WS/FTP Pro, Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. I can do it all from within Dreamweaver MX - that’s great news!
The winter could be interesting, or busy, depends on the way you look at it.
Again, thanks a lot.
Alan
Thank you all....livinginitaly - wait until you try real xmas pud...you'll be converted! Only since living in France have I had to resort to making mincemeat & puds...won't go back now!
re web sites....seriously, thank you all ...I'll try not to be a pain asking to many questions..this is my first go...my IT experience is limited to email, office work the odd brochures, advertisements etc.
It's just a matter of determination ...yes
re web sites....seriously, thank you all ...I'll try not to be a pain asking to many questions..this is my first go...my IT experience is limited to email, office work the odd brochures, advertisements etc.
It's just a matter of determination ...yes
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Christine Kenyon
- Posts: 623
- Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 10:58 am
- Location: Glenridding, Ullswater Valley, Lake District, UK
- Contact:
Hi, Tansy. I've just spent a few days at my mum's and have at last learnt the family recipe for my mum's recipe for yummy Christmas cake (and didn't appreciate it was nearly half a bottle of brandy that goes into it, not just a snifter!). Happy to swap recipes for your Christmas pud!!
I'm also lost when it comes to all the talk of HTML - although I do know how to find the code and edit it if necessary. I'm just a bit worried that I'll edit out a vital bit.
I've used dreamweaver for our websites, combined with fireworks for the photos, and love it! Mind you, I didn't try to teach myself. We enrolled for a local course - and are still in contact with the tutor who's more than happy to help with any problems. In all, we did about 10 x 2 hour sessions. This means we didn't cover moving graphics, sound and all those other things the forum members are telling us to avoid! It might be worth while looking out for a short course for whichever programme you're interested in.
Have fun!
christine
www.stybarrowcottage.co.uk
I'm also lost when it comes to all the talk of HTML - although I do know how to find the code and edit it if necessary. I'm just a bit worried that I'll edit out a vital bit.
I've used dreamweaver for our websites, combined with fireworks for the photos, and love it! Mind you, I didn't try to teach myself. We enrolled for a local course - and are still in contact with the tutor who's more than happy to help with any problems. In all, we did about 10 x 2 hour sessions. This means we didn't cover moving graphics, sound and all those other things the forum members are telling us to avoid! It might be worth while looking out for a short course for whichever programme you're interested in.
Have fun!
christine
www.stybarrowcottage.co.uk
Alan,
That's quite a haul you inherited there, you could take over the world with that lot.
I find Dreamweaver very useful because it is so much quicker than hand coding. If you just gave me Notepad I could eventually produce a website, but I'd rather do it with Dreamweaver then take out any extraneous code. I can well understand why proper designers turn their nose up at these editor programmes, but they are a godsend to us humble owners.
It's a good educational tool too, because as you make changes to the layout of your page you can see the effect it has on the code.
Dreamweaver is also handy if you want to steal an idea off another site and see how it's done. You just paste in the source code, and with the split screen mode, highlight the bit you like. The relevant html code is also highlighted.
I really enjoyed mucking about with Dreamweaver, Photshop and FTP to publish my first site, I am sure you will too.
That's quite a haul you inherited there, you could take over the world with that lot.
I find Dreamweaver very useful because it is so much quicker than hand coding. If you just gave me Notepad I could eventually produce a website, but I'd rather do it with Dreamweaver then take out any extraneous code. I can well understand why proper designers turn their nose up at these editor programmes, but they are a godsend to us humble owners.
It's a good educational tool too, because as you make changes to the layout of your page you can see the effect it has on the code.
Dreamweaver is also handy if you want to steal an idea off another site and see how it's done. You just paste in the source code, and with the split screen mode, highlight the bit you like. The relevant html code is also highlighted.
I really enjoyed mucking about with Dreamweaver, Photshop and FTP to publish my first site, I am sure you will too.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
Alan,
My two cents on these:
I prefer to have lots of pictures at full size on the page, with plenty of interesting text too. The idea is they can read the text while the pictures download. If they have high-speed connection, as increasingly people will, the full-size pics will load almost instantly if they are optimised.
My two cents on these:
Absolutely. Animation and sound are forbidden for members of this forum! Actually sometimes, very, very rarely, I come across a site that uses sound to good effect. AND, once I even saw a shimmering swimming pool that did look quite inviting. But best avoided in general.On a similar vein, I assume that one should avoid the use of animation and sound and always optimise objects and pictures to make a site load and run as fast as possible?
It does sound like a good idea, but I don't like them. It's asking the viewer to perform several actions, and the fewer actions that you ask of a visitor to your site, the better. I believe most people will just look at the thumbnails and whatever impression they give them will be what informs their decision - whether to stay on your site and contact you, or click on the 'X' at top right. I expect I am in a minority though.Using “thumbnails� in picture galleries sounds like a good idea, is it?
I prefer to have lots of pictures at full size on the page, with plenty of interesting text too. The idea is they can read the text while the pictures download. If they have high-speed connection, as increasingly people will, the full-size pics will load almost instantly if they are optimised.
The Title tag is important, the others less so. SEO experts tend to say don't even bother with the 'keywords' tag.Do Meta files and “key words� have any significance for Search Engines these days or are they “old hat�?
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
Great link from Tony
I think Tony posted this elsewhere - it's stayed in my bookmarks ever since! (Thanks, Tony)
"The World's Worst Website"
http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/main.htm
Answers lots of questions when you're getting started.
Rich
"The World's Worst Website"
http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/main.htm
Answers lots of questions when you're getting started.
Rich
Net Objects Fusion software
Hi,
I have came into the discussion rather late but benefiting from it. My information is primarily for Chris Radford, I also use 1&1 and have no complaint with them BUT the use of their Net Objects Fusion software may not be the best "long term" solution. I enjoyed building my first (amateur) site www.disney-villavacation.com with net objects and then found that Dreamweaver was a far superior software and the two programmes are not compatible, in other words "changing to dreamweaver = double work".
Best wishes to everyone with their websites.
Richard.
I have came into the discussion rather late but benefiting from it. My information is primarily for Chris Radford, I also use 1&1 and have no complaint with them BUT the use of their Net Objects Fusion software may not be the best "long term" solution. I enjoyed building my first (amateur) site www.disney-villavacation.com with net objects and then found that Dreamweaver was a far superior software and the two programmes are not compatible, in other words "changing to dreamweaver = double work".
Best wishes to everyone with their websites.
Richard.