Post by Simbelmyne on Dec 2, 2003 17:36:28 GMT
Day 1
Planning
This sounds obvious, but is always forgetten. Things to think about:
Building your first pages with Frontpage Express
To build a decent site without learning HTML, you really need a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get). I use Frontpage Express, which can be downloaded >>here<< in the form of an EXE file.
If you want to learn HTML, the code that forms web pages (HyperText Markup Language), which can be written in a program such as Notepad, I suggest you either:
1. >>Read these HTML primers from htmlgoodies.com<<
2. Get HTML books out from your local library. I used to read HTML books in bed, looking for one particular thing, and now even though I didn't intend to learn I can write HTML quite easily.
CSS is a different story. It stands for Cascading Style Sheets, is stored separately from your pages and can change the appearance of your pages instantly without lots of coding <font> tags. I can go over some basics now, enough to give you the idea. You can find all the elements >>here<< and learn to use them for what you want to achieve.
1. Open a document in Notepad.
2. The make-up of CSS is
html tag to affect {property: property-value; property2: property-value}
So here's a real example:
p {font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8pt; font-color: red}
Which will make all the text in paragraphs like this
3. Save the document in the folder where your pages are as name.css - if it saves as name.css.txt try saving as "name.css" - quotes included.
4. If you're using Frontpage Express:
Do View >> HTML and in between <head> and </head> add this code:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="name.css" type="text/css">
You should see the changes in the page!
Quick guide to Frontpage Express
The interface of FPX is similar to Word. You'll know about the "File" menu (New, Open, Close, Save, Save As etc.) and most of the "Edit" menu bar a couple of things:
Hyperlink - A hyperlink is a link to another page, file or place in the document. You highlight the text you want people to click on and click Edit >> Hyperlink or click the icon of a globe with a link on. You can select the type of link now: the ones you need to know are in a drop-down menu:
http: - the standard link. Look at the web address bar - you'll see most sites have http:// in front. Select this to add the http:// into the URL bar.
mailto: - An email link. If I highlighted the words "Mail me", did Edit >> Hyperlink, selected mailto: as a link type, and then when mailto: came up, typed me@myemail.com, it would produce this (go on, try it!):
Mail me
(other) - For a link to a file in the same folder. You should keep all your files in the same folder and remember, people can't see things on your hard drive.
Bookmark - a bookmark is a place in the page to jump to. If I selected the word "Bookmark" (in the middle of the page), did Edit >> Bookmark and named the bookmark bmk, that would make it a bookmark. I would then need to go to some text I wanted to point to that part of the page, hyperlink it (you know what to do) and clicked the "open pages" tab, it would list open pages. I'd click the page the bookmark was on, select bmk from the Bookmark: drop-down box and hit OK.
The View menu should also be familiar, apart from the option "HTML". You click on this to view the source code. I use this to edit the code with functions FPX doesn't provide.
Next part - the rest of the menus.
Planning
This sounds obvious, but is always forgetten. Things to think about:
- What sort of site will it be? A forum, a fanlisting, a general site - or any other ideas you have.
- What will the focus be? Meduseld is very general mainly LOTR stuff, but I know The White Tree has an RP focus (although it has lots of other great stuff
- What sections will it have? Try drawing a map of your site - lots of rectangles for pages and arrows to show links
- What will you call it? A place or object in LOTR, a quote from the books, a word or phrase to describe someone, an elvish phrase or word...endless possibilities.
- How hard or easy will it be to maintain? Forums will need mods, fanlistings will need updating and if you need to upload a page to your host every day, should you look for sites with site builders?
Building your first pages with Frontpage Express
To build a decent site without learning HTML, you really need a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get). I use Frontpage Express, which can be downloaded >>here<< in the form of an EXE file.
If you want to learn HTML, the code that forms web pages (HyperText Markup Language), which can be written in a program such as Notepad, I suggest you either:
1. >>Read these HTML primers from htmlgoodies.com<<
2. Get HTML books out from your local library. I used to read HTML books in bed, looking for one particular thing, and now even though I didn't intend to learn I can write HTML quite easily.
CSS is a different story. It stands for Cascading Style Sheets, is stored separately from your pages and can change the appearance of your pages instantly without lots of coding <font> tags. I can go over some basics now, enough to give you the idea. You can find all the elements >>here<< and learn to use them for what you want to achieve.
1. Open a document in Notepad.
2. The make-up of CSS is
html tag to affect {property: property-value; property2: property-value}
So here's a real example:
p {font-family: Verdana; font-size: 8pt; font-color: red}
Which will make all the text in paragraphs like this
3. Save the document in the folder where your pages are as name.css - if it saves as name.css.txt try saving as "name.css" - quotes included.
4. If you're using Frontpage Express:
Do View >> HTML and in between <head> and </head> add this code:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="name.css" type="text/css">
You should see the changes in the page!
Quick guide to Frontpage Express
The interface of FPX is similar to Word. You'll know about the "File" menu (New, Open, Close, Save, Save As etc.) and most of the "Edit" menu bar a couple of things:
Hyperlink - A hyperlink is a link to another page, file or place in the document. You highlight the text you want people to click on and click Edit >> Hyperlink or click the icon of a globe with a link on. You can select the type of link now: the ones you need to know are in a drop-down menu:
http: - the standard link. Look at the web address bar - you'll see most sites have http:// in front. Select this to add the http:// into the URL bar.
mailto: - An email link. If I highlighted the words "Mail me", did Edit >> Hyperlink, selected mailto: as a link type, and then when mailto: came up, typed me@myemail.com, it would produce this (go on, try it!):
Mail me
(other) - For a link to a file in the same folder. You should keep all your files in the same folder and remember, people can't see things on your hard drive.
Bookmark - a bookmark is a place in the page to jump to. If I selected the word "Bookmark" (in the middle of the page), did Edit >> Bookmark and named the bookmark bmk, that would make it a bookmark. I would then need to go to some text I wanted to point to that part of the page, hyperlink it (you know what to do) and clicked the "open pages" tab, it would list open pages. I'd click the page the bookmark was on, select bmk from the Bookmark: drop-down box and hit OK.
The View menu should also be familiar, apart from the option "HTML". You click on this to view the source code. I use this to edit the code with functions FPX doesn't provide.
Next part - the rest of the menus.
)
