The Pants Party
I know nothing about building or maintaining a website. But then again this time last year I knew nothing about cycling and look at me now.
Right now I’m having a party in my head thinking of all of the wonderful things this last years journey has brought me: Supportive friends, fitness, One hot body :P, new found semi sanity and a passion. Some of the results were so very unexpected, I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed writing so now I’m looking at a creative writing course just for fun.
I also started with precisely no clue about how blogs and websites actually worked. I now have almost next to no clue. It is definately a massive steep learning curve, one that I’m enjoying immensely and I owe a fair few people an awful lot of thanks. Not least of them the blog fairy. So, I was trawling the local college website looking for a recreational course for next year and they are running a short course IT certificate covering websitery..
Making a choice to just get on my bike one day last July has brought me here and god am I glad and grateful.
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Wowy and the Cycler 
July 2, 2010 at 11:20
It’s fairly straight forward when you get the hang of it.
You need to look into CSS (cascading style sheets) if the websitery course tutor even mentions using the TABLE instruction hit him round the head with The Dummies Guide to Internet Explorer 6!
Have a look at some of the free css template websites and download a couple of them to compare the code. There’ll be two main files the index.htm and a css file. The html file will contain the framework/content and the css will contain the styling and positioning information for each of the elements within the page. ie header/body/columns
There’s plenty of straight forward tutorial websites that show you how to create fixed/variable layouts with a number of different styles. Have a look at these too.
You need a WYSIWYG design tool too, try pagebreeze or komposer. Failing that spend several hundred on Dreamweaver or Adobe Go-Live AVOID Frontpage from Microsoft.
good luck and enjoy!
July 2, 2010 at 11:31
Gratefully received. I think I’ll sign up for the course. Got nothing to lose and it shouldn’t cost us anything. Cheers.
July 2, 2010 at 12:09
I went for web design course at the college way back when, 2002 I think it was. Left after a couple of weeks as the instructor knew less than I did and was teaching from a book entitled HTML 4 going through chapter by chapter. I expect they’ve improved since then. If you do go for it prepare for the sleepless nights when you’ve got a design ‘almost’ perfect and ‘just another 5 mins’ will see it finished 😉
July 2, 2010 at 12:11
Yeah, cos I don’t spend nearly enough time staring at a screen? 😉 Has the HC moved his ass to sort out his site yet?
July 2, 2010 at 13:17
Nope, so give it a kick 😉
July 2, 2010 at 14:05
says its been busy
July 2, 2010 at 12:41
Building a website is easy if you learn the basics. You dont need a “What you see is what you get editor” as that wont help you learn how a website is made and none of them give you correct HTML/XHTML. waste of money. What you need is a text editor, a browser and a good book. That is all.
I have loads of stuff for this if you want to borrow it, just shout. Could probably teach you the basics in a couple of evenings.
Oh and in reference to the Table tag above, it should never be used for the layout of your page but it should be used if you have tabular data to display. That is after all what it was designed for.
As i say just grab me if you want to borrow books or want to ask a question.
July 2, 2010 at 13:04
What I want is to be among people in a room I have to make a conscious effort to get to. I’ll take you up on those books/stuff though please. What table tag?
July 2, 2010 at 17:14
The Tag lets you create a table with rows and columns. You can then add what ever you want to each cell (think spreadsheet)
Before the advent of css that was how people used to do the layout on the site. Now that CSS is fully supported people use that now.
Any way golden rule number one, only use when you have data you want to display in a table. Otherwise use your css.
I’ll dig me stuff out, i know i def have a CSS book thats up to date. I think a beginners course will be very basic but that should teach you what all the different technologies do. If you can find one i think you will enjoy it. Now making a web page look good is a whole different ball game. I can build them ok but they look like something the dog threw up. I so didnt get the creative genes in this family.
July 2, 2010 at 18:38
If you have an up to date CSS book and it’s any good I’d be interested in the title. Looking for something for the kids, they can build basic pages with links to others but I think they need to go further 🙂 (I say kids but they’re teens so it doesn’t need to be aimed at kids 🙂 )
July 2, 2010 at 12:53
Have you tried a tepid shower to alleviate the symptoms of a hot body?
July 2, 2010 at 12:57
Al! yer alive!!!!! 😉
July 2, 2010 at 12:55
I agree with Mark, but a wysiwyg editor is good to start off with as you can easily see the changes. I’d use notepad personally! 🙂
July 2, 2010 at 13:05
interesting. I like going to classes though. I do it for fun 🙂
July 2, 2010 at 15:49
I’ve got a pdf I can send you about WP. Remind me next week and I’ll email you when my head isn’t full.
Also, I thought you wanted a BIG form, not a little subscription thingy. I’m glad you’re sorted though 🙂
July 2, 2010 at 16:15
yes please. And I want all sorts of stuff…. Cake for a start
July 2, 2010 at 16:19
I like cake
July 2, 2010 at 16:19
mmm cake
July 2, 2010 at 16:20
hash cake?
July 2, 2010 at 16:22
Carrot
July 2, 2010 at 16:23
carrot and hash cake.. that could go down quite well with dieting hippies
July 2, 2010 at 16:24
I had a carrot
and I fed it to my parrot
It fluttered and it flapped
As I shoved it down its trap
then it died.
I didn’t realise they had tiny throats.
July 2, 2010 at 16:35
20 comments and yet no one has pressed the like button!
July 2, 2010 at 17:16
oh alright then
July 2, 2010 at 18:44
Erm.
Is that not telling you something about your creative writing 😉
July 2, 2010 at 20:08
Yes, I don’t say F**k enough