[elizbeth]

Hi:

I work for a small non-profit organization. We have website space available to us as part of our account with our ISP. The space has never been used to promote the organization.

I want to build a webpage for the organization. I know that I could purchase tools to do this quickly, but I fear that it will not produce a professional looking site, and the organization can't afford to spend several hundred dollars on the software.

I would like to learn how to build webpages the right way. I want to know how to fix problems that I'm sure will arise. I am not in a hurry to learn the process. I am more concerned about doing it right, and being able to correct it when it's wrong.

I would like to start off with a simple webpage describing the organization with a nice graphic and contact information.

Then gradually add:
1. The ability to fill-in a membership renewal form and pay one's membership via Paypal.
2. Offer a request form that can be filled-in and printed or emailed to our organization.
3. Offer downloadable .pdf newsletters.
4. Links to other related organizations.
5. And more as ideas come come to light.

I don't want to have one long page. I want short concise pages that link to other related pages.

I am very good with computers as far as repairing and building, but I have never delved into website design.

Could I please get some input from those who are knowledgeable? Like good online tutorials, books, inexpensive or free tools?

Thanks,

elizbeth

[lavazza]

Originally Posted by elizbeth

I would like to learn how to build webpages the right way. I want to know how to fix problems that I'm sure will arise. I am not in a hurry to learn the process. I am more concerned about doing it right, and being able to correct it when it's wrong

You're already heading in the right direction

I used to recommend the w3Schools tutorials

Now I recommend http://www.webreference.com/html/ because their tutorials have, I think, a more intuitive/logical flow AND they'll steer you in the right direction - towards maintainable and standards-compliant pages

Good luck

[caraewilton]

Hi Elizbeth. I am not a veteran builder but perhaps I could give you some advise based on my recent experience.

If you have no previous experience with html then I would recommend using a good WYSIWYG editor. I recently wrote a little blog on different editors for teaching purposes, but it lists some of the options, has links to the relevant homepages, indicates prices and advantages and disadvantages of the different packages.
Even if you are using a WYSIWYG editor, you will need to learn a little html and css. The good news is, it is pretty simply. There are great tutorials on the web. I found the html dog web site great. This w3schools website is also useful.

Using css to define your styles is a great way to build pages. The biggest advantage being that it allows you to easily change things as you move on. I had only ever used css to define fonts, but when designing my latest page I wanted to use css for the layout as well. My approach was to look at different templates and see how the professionals do it, then once I got the an idea of how things work, I made my own. I like the freecsstemplates.org website. They have 78 different templates. Some of them are really nice. You could even use one as is.

Downloadable pdf news letters are fine. I found that few people ever bother to download the news letter so my latest approach has been to use a blog. I have also found that google finds blogs far quicker than web pages. Find out from your host. My host allows me to have two blogs hosted on the actual site. If your host does not offer this then you could just sign up with blogger. It is easy to use. I then downloaded windows live writer which has made writing blogs much easier as I need not be on line and I can work on a document, save it as a draft, return to it later and publish when I am ready. The great thing about blogs are that they list the latest entry with a date at the top, automatically archive and basically look after themselves with out to much hassle.

Request forms are a little more complicated. The site wizard has a great feedback form you can use which is a great place to start.

Anyway I hope that this has been useful.

Cara

[lavazza]

One point that Elizabeth made was "I want to know how to fix problems that I'm sure will arise. ", which is, if not completely incompatible, at least inconsistent with the so-called WYSIWYG approach, which is (in)famous for introducing line after line of spurious and - for a newbie - incomprehensible html and css that will, when (not if) it 'breaks', leave the so-called author dazed, confused and frustrated

As Elizabeth also said "I am not in a hurry to learn the process", I can unreservedly recommend http://www.webreference.com/html/ that, in using a step-by-step approach, allows the (real, actual) author to set the pace and mitigate (if not eliminate ) the risk of becoming confuzzled

[elizbeth]

Thank you both for the encouragement and for your personal suggestions. I appreciate your efforts in helping me.

[elizbeth]

Is http://www.webreference.com/html/ still a viable site? I have tried to access it all day, but no luck.

[lavazza]

The link works for me - a few minutes before I first posted it (above) AND one minute ago

[elizbeth]

That's strange; I just get white space.

[lavazza]

That is strange...

Have you noticed a 'white space only' (or anything similar) on any other sites?

Can you 'see' their 'homepage': http://www.webreference.com/ ?

What is your set up:

• Browser(s)
• Operating System
• Firewall

[elizbeth]

No, not happening with other sites, and have been online most of the day.

No, can't view the homepage.

Firefox, Win Xp, No firewall.

[lavazza]

Originally Posted by elizbeth

Firefox, Win Xp, No firewall.

I'm confuzzled - all pages from that site load for me

Much as I'm reluctant to even type the words, maybe you could see what happens
if you try to load the page in Internet Explorer, which will be on your XP machine somewhere - unless you have uber-geek skillz in that dept.

[elizbeth]

I'm confuzzled too!
Actually, the site loads perfectly today. I have been reviewing the tutorials on and off all day without any problem. I never could get it to load last night. Just one of those web mysteries!

[TheRobatron]

I'm not a veteran either but hopefully I can give some advice

If you don't want to spend money on Dreamweaver, try a free IDE like NetBeans (it's primarily a Java IDE but it supports HTML, CSS and PHP) or Notepad++.

Learn HTML (or XHTML ) and CSS properly like you said. I'd say that as a general rule, especially for newbies, the better sites are the simpler ones. There are plenty of free professional looking CSS templates at www.freecsstemplates.org if you don't want to build your own. I would recommend learning PHP for your request form, and because it's a useful tool anyway.

[elizbeth]

Thank you Robatron. I guess I really should have not asked the opinions of just "veterans". My intention was to get comments from anyone who had some experience, unlike myself.

Thanks again to all of you,

elizbeth