How do I build a website? Any hints/ tips?

[Nic076]

Hi guys

I would like to build/ make (excuse terminology) a couple of websites. There is one for our upcoming tour business, my brother in law's business & also another site for family photos.

I don't know the best way to do this - so I/ should I do a course in web design? Can it be done without doing a course - what books & programs do I use? Are there any recommendations?

All sites will need to hold photos. We don't need a "checkout" facility, but may need a contact sheet where customers can email us.

In the last site we would like to upload a 100 old b&w family photos and send links asking for distant relatives & extended family to help identify the photos by looking at leaving comments about them. Not sure the best way do to this either.

Help Help pls

Any comments/ suggestions/ must do's or don't do's would be appreciated.

[jev]

That's a hard one. It very much depends on how tech-savy you are I guess - I've build my own site from the ground up using an HTML specification and an editor, but that may not be the way to go for everyone.

If you want a really professional site, don't do it yourself unless you have loads of time and are not afraid to learn.

[Nic076]

I am definitely not afraid to learn. I would like to think of myself as reasonably cluey and my role as a business and systems support analyst a couple of years ago gave me a lot of confidence with dealing with computers. While my role was not the programming, I was involved in business testing programs, so am not scared off by tech. I have heard of programs like Coffee Cup (I think) which is a step by step program to building a site, is/ are these types of programs any good?

[ricktas]

There are several/lots of programmes designed to help you build websites. You can even do it in Microsoft Publisher.

I think it really depends how professional you want it to look. If it was me, I would use Adobe Dreamweaver. I don't have any skills in that area either. Maybe your local TAFE/ Polytechnic runs short courses and you could do one or two first?

[peterst6906]

Like Rick says, Dreamweaver is a good program, although it's also expensive.

There are cheaper (and free) WYSIWYG/IDE options around and if you want to do more than static displays, it's a good idea to go broader than HTML/XHTML and also use CSS and PHP in your design (even some simple php 'include' functions can help make the page building process much simpler).

Mostly you can learn the basic coding online, just like with photography and photoshop. There are tutorials everywhere and then it's a matter of practice.

Definitely not impossible if you have a positive attitude towards it.

I just built my latest site over just a couple of days and from there I'm adding new features to improve it further (most of them at the momen are not visible on the site as I'm still building them).

You can see the site here: http://www.hotzonesolutions.com

In my opinion, you could learn everything necessary to build this type of site within a week or two.

Regards,

Peter

[jev]

Call me old-fashioned, but I would start with a simple editor and the specification of HTML and CSS - at least you know what all those great tools generate. NVU or a similar WYSIWYG html aware editor is a good help if you decide to go that route.

OTOH, my sister (not a techie at all) designed her own website for her HR business using google sites, simple yet effective.