Question for Troy

[Bluebeast]

Troy,
Being that you have put this site together and maintian it, what do you suggest as a good way to learn about website buidling, etc. Do you use Go Live software or something else. I'm a teacher at a school that only has a "static" webpage and I would like to create a website for the school that has pics, a calender, etc. It doesn't have to be extra fancy or anything...just something the parents can access when they want to get info about the school. Any suggests?? Thanks!

[RD]

Troy,
Being that you have put this site together and maintian it, what do you suggest as a good way to learn about website buidling, etc. Do you use Go Live software or something else. I'm a teacher at a school that only has a "static" webpage and I would like to create a website for the school that has pics, a calender, etc. It doesn't have to be extra fancy or anything...just something the parents can access when they want to get info about the school. Any suggests?? Thanks!

i am not troy, but I can answer this question.  You can use microsoft publisher to develop a simple website to go ahead and put up on the school's server for either your classes or the school in general.

here is a website that I put together for teaching social sciences by using microsoft publisher.

http://studentaccess.emporia.edu/~hancock_jamey/

I do know javascript and basic html as well as flash, but due to the project I could only use microsoft publisher.  Its easy and will fit your needs accordingly.

[Bluebeast]

Thanks RD. WHat if I want to create a site for the school and have a page each for each of the teachers who would like to have their own page on the website?  Would Microsoft Publisher work for that as well and can you put gifs on with MP? Thanks again.

[RD]

Thanks RD. WHat if I want to create a site for the school and have a page each for each of the teachers who would like to have their own page on the website?   Would Microsoft Publisher work for that as well and can you put gifs on with MP? Thanks again.

Do you see how I have each subject link on the left side of the website?  You can do the same thing with faculty webpages.  i.e. make a oval link named "faculty", then when people click on that webpage, it will open up a webpage that can have thumbnail pictures of your faculty members with their names right next to them and are hyperlinked.  Then when you click on their pics or names another webpage will open up showing that faculty members biography.  Its all about making sure your hyperlinks are set up properly.

And yes, gif images can be placed in MP.

[Troy]

"Static" means that the page is straight HTML - as opposed to a "Dynamic" page which is usually data driven (and much more work to code). This forum is dynamic as the content on the page constantly changes. You can put pictures, text, menus, links, movies, and sound on any of them. I am old school in a way: I don't recommend using any tool or WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors when you are first starting out. Unless you are in a massive hurry and really don't want to learn what is happening then using Notepad - or any plain text editor - to write HTML is very beneficial. Learning how to create, edit, load, and troubleshoot your own pages comes in handy down the road when one of your "tools" screws it up. There are lots of great tutorials on the web that can teach you HTML and site building techniques. Once you learn the basics then the rest is just combining different pieces to make them more complicated (and better looking/more functional).

You can add gif, jpg, or png images to nearly any page. Just use the

Code Select Expand

<img href="someimage.jpg" /> tags. If you want a page for each teacher then you'll need to make many pages and figure out how to make links to those pages. You can then combine the links to make menus so people can navigate around your site.

FYI - I do NOT use Go Live for anything. I may use Homesite, Dreamweaver, Visual Studio, NetBeans, or Eclipse based on the project, the client, or how I feel. The benefits of these programs really aren't apparent until you are at a much higher level so figuring out how to use them can be more hassle than hand-coding pages.

Here's the site for the standards organization that controls many web technologies. Lots of in-depth info:
http://www.w3.org/

More Helpful Links:
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/lessons.html
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/primers/html/
http://www.w3schools.com/html/

Troy

[Vainglory, Esq.]

I agree with Troy - if you really want to learn, start out with notepad and a good tutorial/book.  This will save you a great many headaches later when your program doesn't do what you tell it to do.  This is actually very common - for example, Frontpage loves to mess with tables.

When you're done with that, and you feel like you can graduate on to a program to help you build more complicated website more quickly, I found that Dreamweaver is the best.

[bull]

Duh. 

[8WHEELER]

I helped start a friends web site 5yrs ago, got it going and then I went      
Still don't really understand what the heck I am doing  

Keep up the good work Troy...........

Dan

[Telvis]

I would love to learn HTML. I have built a few simple websites with Frontpage but have no real knowldge of code. Can you guys recommend a good manual to start with?

[RD]

I would love to learn HTML. I have built a few simple websites with Frontpage but have no real knowldge of code. Can you guys recommend a good manual to start with?

a good website anyways, www.htmlgoodies.com

[ChgrSteve67]

Keep it simple.

Most people and businesses including schools have Microsoft Word loaded on thier PC and are comfortable using it.
If others want thier own page just have them created it in MSWord and then do a Save As and save it as a HTML page.
All windows systems have a built in FTP client or create a share for them to copy there pages to.

Done!

BTW Most Microsoft applications have this feature as well.

[Troy]

Keep it simple.

Most people and businesses including schools have Microsoft Word loaded on thier PC and are comfortable using it.
If others want thier own page just have them created it in MSWord and then do a Save As and save it as a HTML page.
All windows systems have a built in FTP client or create a share for them to copy there pages to.

Done!

BTW Most Microsoft applications have this feature as well.

And the major problem I have with that is the absolutely hideous code they produce. Yes, it's easy to build but a nightmare to troubleshoot/repair. Not to mention that none of the code is standards compliant and you're sticking it on the public web. It may or may not (most likely not) work correctly for anyone viewing the site in other browsers or on machines running any operating system other than Windows. I'll agree on ease of use but the whole process suffers from the same, if not more, drawbacks as many software programs that attempt to do too much (think) for the user. Heck, I can't get Word to create outlines the way I want and that's one of the things it is supposed to do. In my opinion, if you really want to learn it's a bad idea to go that route. It may be ok for a hobby site that only friends and family see but it has too many flaws for real web sites - even low traffic ones. The FTP functionality of IE works pretty well in most circumstances though.

Troy

[Bluebeast]

Thanks for the advice guys. I hope to begin working on the site in late Sept. Hopefully this will give me enough time to read the tutorials and begin the process. If I have any questions later on down the line, I just might ask them if that's alright?!