[Nexis]

Firstly, hello and I'm glad to be a new member to these forums. I'm sure I can find many solutions and give some myself.

I have been practicing web design for about five years. I've tried many things, but I'm still far from a 'pro'. Since I've never been in a web design course, I copy web sites. Not to sell, or use, but to practice. I will pull all the images off a web site, and try to recreate it exactly as it is. From layout, to window resizing.

With that said, I need some help. I seem to be stuck in the past. I guess I don't really understand web design ethics or etiquette. When I design, I use tables and layers. Worst part of that is, it's all in front page!

Long story short, I need some information to make my stuff more professional.

So, what are the steps you all take when designing a web site, and what techniques do you use? Once you have all your images cut up, where do you start and how do you follow? I guess I'm asking for a walk through...

Thanks.

[solix]

Search Google to learn CSS, this is very, very important.
Tables are old, and shouldn't be used for coding websites. Use CSS to style your divs, instead of tables.
Using Frontpage is OK, as long as you use the code-view thing. But I recommend a html-editor like Notepad, ConTEXT or even Dreamweaver.

Anyway, Google is still one of your very best friends.

[Nexis]

Thanks solix. I know I should move to css, but I'm scared. No, I'm comfortable. How do you recommend I start? Drive right in, or stick with a simple tag or two?

[emil]

Disecting websites is a good way to learn, as long as you do not sell other people's work as you own. That's how I learnt web stuff.

First thing, get a decent editor. Your safest bet would be a wysiwyg editor such as Dreamweaver, which doesn't come cheap, but it's very good. Stick with tables at first if that's what youre comfortable with, but always remeber this is the wrong way to do things. Use dreamweaver in split mode, and check too see what changes in the code, when you modify something in the design view. Gradually progress to actually modifying the code to see results in the design window and you'll eventually not need the design view that much. It will then become apparent why using tables is not the way to go (it takes longer to code a table cell by hand to display some text, as opposed to simply using a paragraph.

It's a long process, but if you take your time you will become better.

Remeber there's two sides to web design, graphics and code. Keep both clean and concise and you will succeed.

Browse these forums for links to relevant content.

[theshadowknows]

Hi
I am also new to this forum and about at the same level as Nexis, trying to advance to the next level. Everyone recommended Dreamweaver. I found a copy (Ver 4) and bought it and also a learning book. The question is - is Dreamweaver the type of program to manage an entire site, or is it just for creating individual pages? I currently use Net Objects (V7.5) and like it because it is easy to use and I can layout a whole site with it and have it manage links, borders, etc. Before I invest too much time into Dreamweaver, is this software designed to manage entire sites as I mentioned above?
Thanks

[emil]

You should consider upgrading. Adobe
What do you mean by an entire site? It handles html css php javascript + a bunch of other stuff. It has integrated ftp and sitewide find and replace.
It is pretty much the industry standard (although you'll find some arguing that notepad is by far better)

[theshadowknows]

When I say entire site, I mean I can create 1 page with a border (banner, nav buttons, etc) then when I add other pages, it duplicates those, then I just add content in the body. I want a gui interface and don't want to have to code (except when required).
What do mean by upgrading to adobe? That's not a program, it's a company and they offer hundreds of different software.

[emil]

dreamweaver 4 is an older version (very old), currently you can get dreamweaver 8 on the adobe site. dreamweaver cs3 is about to be launched. Dreamweaver is a product of macromedia, a company now owned by adobe.

Are you sure you're in the right business? if you want to do web design, you need to learn to code.

To answer your question, yes, you can use dreamweaver to create a page with a border and content inside.

[dcypher.co.uk]

Get Dreamweaver and start learning CSS. There are some problems in CSS design that are very difficult to get you head around (or for me anyway!) but forum like this are a great help. The more problems you overcome the greater awareness you develop of the system.

CSS - It's the present and the future!