Way OT: Help with building an Internet site...

[SoCalSteve]

Hi all,

This is for the computer geeks among us (you know who you are).

My wife took over a non-profit agency (mental health) and we decided to create a web-site for it. Between the two of us we have a bit of technical know how and a bit of creativity.

We are using MS Front Page. We have come up with a web design (front page) and uploaded it onto the FTP site. All is well so far.

The problem comes up when we view it on other computer screens (PC and Mac). The alignment is messed up (on some computers and on a Mac..well, forget about it! it doesnt even hardly read at all).

So, what are we doing wrong??? Help!!! We put some time and effort into the design and have even come up with a Homepage thats kind of cool. We just dont want to continue sinking time and energy into it if its just going to be messed up.

Is it something with FrontPage? Or??? We are clueless....

Please send a direct email to me if you want or PM. Local399@aol.com

It is for a worthy cause. All knowledge is greatfully accepted.

Thank you for reading,

Steve

[BarryG]

Steve, I highly recommend that you forego using FrontPage (or MS Word) and code the HTML yourself. There are plenty of excellent html aides on the Web to help you figure out just about anything. You can find plenty of good freeware text editors (eg., Crimson Editor) or HTML editors (eg., Matizha Sublime) to download and use.

[Too Tall]

Dreamweaver.

[Ginger]

Dreamweaver will take the pain of making things uniform across more platforms for a beginner. Too easy at times. There are several other programs out thee that are just as easy. Some of the free ones don't have the functionality/flexibility...but if it's a simple web site that's not really an issue unless you're married to the design.

What size screen are you designing the web site on? (Mary Ann's mantras...design for the 15" screen. Make navigation available no matter where the user is on the page.)

How many in your audience are using Macs?

FrontPage will work well across all platforms if you pay very close attention to using only widely accepted layout tags. You'd have to futz with templates a bit. Once again, back to organization (not just of content.)

Tagging HTML is easy...But pay close attention once again, the commands that are recognized by all platforms. Cascading Style Sheets are very useful...but a bit more work than you'd want to do for a one-off site.

Oh...and I use Front Page every day to produce web ready content...it sucks.

Oh, and dittto on the MS Word...Word throws huge amounts of crap into your pages making them bigger than they need to be...you can strip it all out, but it's a PITA.

[TimB]

My $0.03 - use the HTML Validator at http://validator.w3.org to check your HTML. I've said it before, and I'll say it again...IE is very forgiving of badly or incorrectly structured HTML. So it may render fine on your PC with IE, but look a mess when rendered with a different browser. Download and install Firefox if you haven't already, and use that to view your page as you build it. In my experience it's much more stringent in enforcing HTML standards.

Echo what Ginger said too - code for the LCD - 15" monitor at 800x600. Don't assume you have more real estate than that.

Does your page have an active URL? Surely some folks here are willing to take a look...

[Karin Kirk]

I'll cast another vote for Dreamweaver. You can split the window so you can see the code as well as the page design and this is a nice way to learn html and see what the "automatic" programs do when you, say, make a big blue box on the page.

If you go with Dreamweaver, definitely buy the book too. It may or may not come with the program, but you gotta have the book to get going, IMO.

Often the alignment problems stem from the page being designed for whatever monitor you are working on, and you tweak the design until the line breaks fall in nice places on your screen. Then when you see the page on a different sized monitor, suddenly all that falls apart. I use tables to keep everything in its place. Also pay close attention to the alignment (center, left, right) because that is another thing that might look fine on one monitor and then look strange on another.

Ditto too on the Firefox browser. In fact that's the one I use all the time now.

Good luck, and if you feel like it give us the URL if the page is up so we can chime in with specific tips.

-Karin

[Ginger]

My $0.03 - use the HTML Validator at http://validator.w3.org to check your HTML.


Does your page have an active URL? Surely some folks here are willing to take a look...
Yep...that's the link I was thinking of this morning. Validate Validate.

Ditto on Firefox.

And this is from a person formerly involved in a non-profit. If you don't have time to dink with it, put a call out to your organization for volunteers to assist in cleaning it up. Someone in your organization has the talents to help and the time to donate.
Good luck!

[SoCalSteve]

Ok, so I spent the whole day learning Dreamweaver...Or, at least enough to get the website started. I still like MS Front Page better because it makes more sense to me as I use Excel, Word, etc...I am hoping that Dreamweaver will become more intuitive as time goes on.

But, Dreamweaver actually worked the way it was supposed to and now I have a website (or at least the front page of a website) that apears to work with all web browsers, including Mac!

So, I will let you all see the link. Just remember, it is in its infancy and so am I when it comes to website building.

I think I will take a littel break and then start working on the Home Page next.

So, here it is: www.cifc1.org

Oh, one thing, I cannot find any place in the program to do illustrations, drawings or even just boxes around items. Can someone please point me in the right direction for this?

Again, my wife and I thank you all so much for your great information.

Steve

PS: Is there any online source to learn a bit about Dreamweaver? The nice thing about the MS products is that they have such great online support. Is there something similar with Dreamweaver?

[Ginger]

Looks like a good start!

I'm not that familiar with Dreamweaver, but I suspect you'll do images and illustrations in a different program.

[rnhood]

"Rapidweaver" is another relatively simple application worth consideration. I think it's an application for Mac only though. I know the people at our local Apple store like it for it's simplicity.

[Too Tall]

Great job. Looks clean, me like :)

[Karin Kirk]

Nice job on the site!

Images and illustrations need to be created in another program and then inserted into the web page. Many graphics programs have easy-to-use exporting tools that will help you optimize the size, colors and resolution for the web. You have to make the image the exact size you want it to be with the graphics program, and then insert it. If you try to re-size it in Dreamweaver, it will look terrible. If you are liking Dreamweaver, then you might also like Fireworks, which is a graphics program made by Macromedia and meshes well with Dreamweaver.

For borders around objects, try putting that object inside a table or frame, then putting a border around the table cell or the frame.

I think there is online support for Dreamweaver at Macromedia's web site. I've never used it though.