I am really interested in designing my own website Can anyone help with advice ?

My wife is about to be made redundant.She has a small business which has potential which I would like to promote via a website.I'm about to purchase Dreamweaver 8 as I'm told its the best.Can a novice build a decent website with Dreamweaver or is it too difficult as my neighbour says.Does anybody know a more user friendly package or should I stay with Dream weaver(I've not bought it yet so I don't know how difficult it may be ).I would be greatful for Yahoo subscribers advice. Many thanksI am really interested in designing my own website Can anyone help with advice ?
Hello,





The answer in my opinion is DONT buy dreamweaver version 8 yet, dreamweaver is a VERY sophisticated web authoring program and its NOT for a novice user despite what other people might say to you. Its like buying a jaguar car before you've even passed your driving license. Dreamweaver will take you ages to learn from the ground up, No! there is no need to make life harder than it needs to be. Start off more slowly.





Take it from me I used to work in the computer and IT industry for over ten years and I am trained to MCSE level but now IT is just my hobby. I have built numerous websites over the years.





To build a new website from scratch use a simple program like Frontpage which is a Microsoft website building program (avoid MS publisher which is a DP %26amp; Web program). FrontPage will enable you to learn the very basic website construction methods, techniques and ideas, skills required. One of the best things you should look at is learning the HTML tagging language that most web pages use in the creation, get a good book on HTML %26amp; On Frontpage.





Once you have created %26amp; uploaded your first pages or first few websites then you can seriously move onto the more fancy and sophisticated programs like dremweaver and photoshop.





In other words people are in such a frantic rush these days, No!! learn the basics first and DONT be in a hurry. Build a good solid foundation for your websites and the remaining stuff will fail into place later on.





**My other advise would be!!**


Remember a website is a tool used to communicate a message, or to provide information or to convay meaning to other people.





**Its literally your shop front and it can potentially reach a vast number of people you wouldnt otherwise reach.





**Think it terms of who your potential audiance might be (who will visit your site and why?).





**And finally, DONT add trendy or fancy website feature's like flash animation. Why? because what matters most is Content, Content, Content!!. The sites content is what matters most.





Its the same as Hollywood films full of clever CGI special effects but that's all the film consists of but how utterly boring? why? because it there's No! story to the film, No plott, its utterly vacuous etc. Well its the same with websites.





Good Luck hope that helps?





IRI am really interested in designing my own website Can anyone help with advice ?
dream weaver is best but it takes time to get use to using it
I use Adobe products they are after all the industry standard. but adobes web site creation tool is InDesign. It took me probably 2 days to learn, and now im flying through websites. you can check out my first website ever made at www.PixelLogic.us


but i would be happy and willing to assist her with questions about InDesign. Dreamweaver is cheaper ($400) Indesign($600)


both are NOW owned by adobe. but after you use a special discount you can get Indesign for $185. but you'll also need a photoeditor. I use photoshop......but photoshop elements (comes free with certain scanners/printers) works just fine.





the book that i learned to make websites is called ';Learning Web Design'; -2nd edition by O'Reilly its a great book to learn the foundations of html





jlp.media@yahoo.com
Dreamweaver is the best you can buy, but it is extremely expensive, and unless you're a professional web developer you're unlikely to use more than 10% of the features. I AM a professional and I still don't use more than 20%.





If you've already bought it, I recommend buying the Dreamweaver Accelerated text book, it's a great resource for both a beginner and an advanced user who wants to brush up on their skills.





You would definitely benefit from taking a basic web design course at your local college. But beware... a lot of colleges stick to Microsoft training packs, which means a web design class would use the dreaded Frontpage. check before signing up.
Go to www.tile.net/ and scroll down the page to the appropiate link/s
You should be able to find a web designer course at your local college. They teach it in two ways, first with software, then the old fashioned way- which is a lot longer but I think its better as you get a better knowledge of how it works, good luck.
Search Site Spinner, you can download it free and try it for 30 days. It works great!
Dreamweaver is supposed to be the best, but can be an absolute sod to learn how to use properly.





Personally I prefer NETOBJECTS FUSION, which I think is about half the price....... and easier to use - though my copy was supplied free with my webhosting package from http://www.1and1.co.uk


I can usually knock together %26amp; upload a usuable website with it in less than half an hour.


It's basically a WYSIWYG package that allows you to knock together webpages like you would on a Desktop publishing package, and you can still use HTML, etc to fine tune the site as you learn.


To learn more about Netobjects Fusion, check out http://www.netobjects.com/





To see some of my efforts with it, check out:


http://www.john-duck.co.uk


%26amp;


http://www.ducks-ruswarp.co.uk
Try here:





http://www.geocities.com





Good Luck
Starting from Scratch ( www.w3.org ).





Study first.





Ask questions; when you have found diifficult to understand instructions.





Dreamweaver is another fine building software package.





Starting from Scratch ( www.w3.org ).
Hi, Yes a novice can put together a decent site, just rememebr dont get too flashy, clean and simple. It will load quicker and should give all the relevant information on the First page.





You can buy your own, dedicated domian name, Whatever @ whereever.co.uk, . com etc,. through various companies but I would recommend Fasthost. ( costs, depending on the extension, but .co.uk can be 拢10 for two years. It will include a dedicated email address for the same name.





As for building the site. I have been building websites for a few years. mainly for friends and relativesd at first, more recently as a supplemental income. I am looking at redundancy in 12 months and will hopefully turn it into a full time business. I have learned a litle about various webpage languages in that time but about 7 years ago came across a great web design site www.homestead.com that use a simple drag and drop system. It is such an easy process. It does cost but then you get what you pay for. Should your wife want to start selling through her site then you can add that benefit as you go forward. They do offer a 30day free trial. Best of luck and Enjoy.
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