Website Creation

So given that you have a domain and a hosting service, just exactly how do you build a website!

Well, it depends on what you know. Do you know HTML? If you don't, you probably should start out by learning at least a little. While there are programs that will totally shield you from ever having to see HTML (the language that all web pages are written in), knowing at least the basic principles will be useful. How do you learn it? Well, from a book or from the web. Just type "learning HTML" into a search engine and start reading!

As I said, there are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs that allow you to create and format text and images, much like a word processor, that will generate HTML pages without you ever having to "get your hands dirty" Microsoft FrontPage is one such program. Another is Macromedia Dreamweaver, and a third is Netobjects Fusion.

Real hard core programmers regard these programs is fit for only "girlie men" and insist that "real men" program websites in native HTML using only Notepad as their editor. I don't agree fully with that viewpoint. This site is mostly written using native HTML, but with help from a program called 1st Page 2000. It has a few "wizards" to help you out if you get stuck, plus spell checkers and HTML checkers. It's freeware and has a few bugs, but it works well enough for me.

I have used Microsoft Frontpage on a project and it is certainly possible to build a fairly complex site without knowing any HTML at all. It generates somewhat "bloated" code, meaning it tends to throw in a lot more HTML tags than are needed, plus if you use all the Frontpage features you have to find a hosting company that supports them, since they need special software installed on the server. If you don't use any special Frontpage features, the code will run on any server - but that sort of defeats one of the reasons using Frontpage!

[Photo Gallery Software]