What You Should Know Before Creating A Website

To build a website there is only one thing you need to understand: HTML.  To build a good website there are four: HTML,  CSS, Server-Side script (e.g.. PHP), using a website building application (e.g.. Dreamweaver).  By good website I mean something like the one you are visiting now.

HTML

At its core HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a way to add properties to text.  It is a way of telling the browser what properties the text should have.  This is accomplished by adding tags around the text.  For example, by adding the <strong> tags around text the text becomes bold.  Over the years HTML has evolved to include tag for much more then simply text.  With HTML tags you can create tables, forms, pictures; everything you see on a webpage is defined by a HTML tag.

It is beyond the scope of this website to go into detail about HTML.  Fortunately the internet is full of tutorials, articles and how to's.  The method I recommend, because it worked for me, is to buy a general book about HTML.  Something that will give a fundamental understanding of HTML.  For example, Dummies guide to HTML.  Then once you grasp the basics you can search the internet for the details.  If you understand the basics then once you come across some function that you need your website to perform you can do a quick search on Google and get your answer.  An understanding of HTML gives you the ability to know what to search for and to realize when you found it.

PHP

This website was made mostly without any server side script. With PHP you must do a some programming. There is really no way around it.

Most webpage can exist and can function without any server-side script. It is only when you need to generate webpages based on user inputs that server side scripting becomes handy.

If you have no programming experience then be ready for a challenging task of learning to use it. If you simply need a little server side functionality on your website it might be best to find some ready made solutions on the web and just cut and paste without fully understanding how it works.

Dreamweaver

It is possible to create your entire website using Microsoft Notepad.  It is also possible to recite pi to 10,000 places.  It is possible, but the best way to create a website is to use website building software.  The software takes out most of the tediousness of building a website.  For many cases the user does not need to write any HTML.  By drag and drop, resizing, and clicking, the website is made.  Mostly by using mouse.  Very similar to making a Power Point presentation.  As you are building the website using the mouse and a few key strokes the software is writing the HTML for you.  Theoretically, you never need to see the HTML code.  But in practice, you need to.  There will always be some small change that needs to be done that is easier to do in manual editing the HTML then by using the visual interface.  

A long time ago the software of choice for creating website for beginners was Microsoft Frontpage.  Those days are gone.  Frontpage just does not have the flexibility required to make a good website.  Website created with FrontPage all look the same. 

This website was created using Dreamweaver.  I had read some good things about it so I decided to try it.  I downloaded the 30 day free trail and started to build the website.  True to the reviews it works great and is easy to learn.  Again I used the same learning strategy as for HTML.  After reading the Dummies guide to DreamerWeaver I started to use the software and looked up the details on the internet.  It really helps that the internet is full of tutorials and tips.  Any specific question you have you simply enter into Google followed by the word DreamWeaver and you will find a nice tutorial with screen shots.  Within hours I was comfortable with Dreamweaver’s intuitive layout and tools. 

CSS

You can create a website thinking that CSS means nothing more then Christ Super Star.  But to do so would be a mistake.  CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.

CSS has only one drawback.  It has a somewhat steep learning curve.  It is not instantly intuitive.  You need to study it and understand it and only then it will ‘click’.  But like all things that require a little effort; the time spent gets returned exponentially.  Put in the couple hours to fully understand CSS and in return you will save 10 times that in the future.

Again, the details of CSS you can find all over the internet.  The main advantage is that with CSS you separate the layout and style of the website from the content of the website.  This enables the website designer to make changes to the entire website by changing one value.  For example, you want to change the font size of all the paragraph text on a website from 10 points to 11.  All that is required to make this change is to update the font size property of  <p> in the style sheet.  A lot easier then going to every single webpage in the site and changing the font size.  This is just a simple example, if used correctly, with CSS you can change the entire appearance and layout of website by altering a few values in a CSS.  Definitely look into and understand CSS before starting a website.

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