How to create a website?

[merylsilverburg]

Hello everyone. While the rest of the world has advanced technologically when it comes to computers, I, unfortunately, am still stuck in the Stone Age.

I do not know how to create a website and I need to know how to because my sister is taking an online class where she needs to create a website for a presentation in her Marketing class.

I have gone online and did a search on how to do so and found a couple of sites, but I need some things explained to me, so please, bear with me and do not laugh:

I found out that you can create all your contents offline then upload them onto the host using the FTP or the ISP. Okay, I have no idea how to do this and what I should do so if someone can explain this, I'd appreciate it.

Also, if anyone knows any other good creating-a-site-tutorials or any good free webhosts, I would love to have them.

If anyone has any other helpful information, please, please share! I'd greatly appreciate any help given. Thanks in advance! :)

[kupoartist]

I found out that you can create all your contents offline then upload them onto the host using the FTP or the ISP. Okay, I have no idea how to do this and what I should do so if someone can explain this, I'd appreciate it.
You need an FTP client. I use SmartFTP because... well, it's free.
http://www.smartftp.com/
It's not the best but it's free and I haven't been bothered to find alternatives. Basically, when you have a webhost, you find out where the upload server is (something like "myfiles.hostname.com" or a million variations).

For actually creating stuff, I use Frontpage 2000, that came in Microsoft Office. It's an awful, awful program but frankly, anyone with any web-know-how will tell you that I have an awfully, awfully, coded website. (transparent tables are your friend! Make a background in your fave graphics package, cut it up into little pieces, do the maths and bingo! a functional website with some seriously unneccessary code).

There's a whole avenue which I don't know about. CGI, PHP, scripts and stuff. They make updating easy, but you host needs to be capable and you have to know what the hell they are in the first place (I hope i'll know one day! Updating fanlists is really hard).

[Harry]

Kupoartist already suggested a good free FTP client; you can use that or Filezilla (free) - both should do the job just fine.

Speaking of the code itself, as kupo said, you may use a program like Frontpage, that unfortunately creates code mainly targeted to IE users. Because of the nature of the website, we wrote all the code of PsFantasy.com using a tool like notepad in windows - but again, it all depends on your needs.

Also, there are many ways to write your code. Using html tables for the layout is still one of the most popular ways of writing html - while it's a deprecated way of writing html code, sometimes it's still the only REALISTIC way of doing things that must work also on older browsers - and considering this is a school project, and considering often school have browsers that can be even 4 years old, this is probably the way to go.

While this version of PsFantasy.com is made with this technique, it's still valid code (in the sense it follows current web standards); the next version will say goodbye to tables, but just because among our users just a little percentage (0.5%) still uses older browsers. Just think that a lot of the most popular websites on the net, including search engines, have "invalid" code, or "dirty" code - because they need it to be compatible with all browsers.

A last thing - I do not understand if creating the website, and learning html is part of the task, or if this is just needed for the presentation of the project. Because if you already have the content, and you "just" need to present it in a pretty way on the web (in other words, if teachers are not going to ask your sister about HTML), please just drop me an e-mail, and tell me exactly what you need and what you already have.

[merylsilverburg]

You need an FTP client. I use SmartFTP because... well, it's free.
http://www.smartftp.com/
It's not the best but it's free and I haven't been bothered to find alternatives. Basically, when you have a webhost, you find out where the upload server is (something like "myfiles.hostname.com" or a million variations).

Thanks kupo! I'll check out that site and see how it works out, I'm sure it'll be fine to fulfill my sister's needs. :D

For actually creating stuff, I use Frontpage 2000, that came in Microsoft Office. It's an awful, awful program but frankly, anyone with any web-know-how will tell you that I have an awfully, awfully, coded website. (transparent tables are your friend! Make a background in your fave graphics package, cut it up into little pieces, do the maths and bingo! a functional website with some seriously unneccessary code).

Your website doesn't look bad at all! I don't see why you say that, but perhaps I just don't know much about sites in general, hehe. But, I'll keep that Frontpage 2000 in mind in case other methods of coding doesn't work.

Speaking of the code itself, as kupo said, you may use a program like Frontpage, that unfortunately creates code mainly targeted to IE users. Because of the nature of the website, we wrote all the code of PsFantasy.com using a tool like notepad in windows - but again, it all depends on your needs.

Ah yes, I've heard about using Notepad and how it works extremely well...I'm not quite sure if the computers at the college uses IE or some other browser, so it might be safer to use one that applies to all brower types.

Also, there are many ways to write your code. Using html tables for the layout is still one of the most popular ways of writing html - while it's a deprecated way of writing html code, sometimes it's still the only REALISTIC way of doing things that must work also on older browsers - and considering this is a school project, and considering often school have browsers that can be even 4 years old, this is probably the way to go.

I believe the school's computer's browers are up-to-date and really not that old, I hope. If so, it'l be fortunate for us.

A last thing - I do not understand if creating the website, and learning html is part of the task, or if this is just needed for the presentation of the project. Because if you already have the content, and you "just" need to present it in a pretty way on the web (in other words, if teachers are not going to ask your sister about HTML), please just drop me an e-mail, and tell me exactly what you need and what you already have.

Oh no, learning the html isn't part of the website or the assignment (thank goodness too, otherwise we're doomed I tell ya! :laugh: ). It's merely for the presentation for the project. My sister hasn't really progressed too much; she'll still deciding on the idea, so she told me she might schedule her presentation sometime late February or early March (March is the latest). Thank you for your offer to help, but my sister and I don't want to impose on you so I'll just try to learn it myself. Besides, I need to know how to do this myself anyway. :D

Thank you again to you both for your help and information! If I have any other questions (most likely, lol), I hope you both will not mind if I ask for more advice or assistance. Thanks again! :happy:

EDIT: Haha, right after posting about asking more questions, I just remembered I have another question. ^^;; Okay, after I download the FTP client, this should be able to upload all of the contents onto your site, right? But, you need to find a site that can host your contents, right? I'm not sure if I'm using the right term or making any sense...:P