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- - Web Design (http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46483)

Would this be the correct place? It would be a hobby as well as an interest.

Im interested and creating a website that has basically information - just a big online database of information.

What steps should i take?

What programs will i need, and/or tools.
What are the basic html commands i should get to know?
Any programs i could download online to assist me?
(i might at some point add a forum, so...)
Forums, which to use and how to administrate them.

As for programs, could you add a weblink to them? Or even better, if you have a copy of the program you recommend somehow get me a copy through a DL link or something or another?

and if anyone has a link to a website that can answer most all of these questions that would be great. Im looking to pick up a hobby, and doing this will definetly eat up my time.

A good, free editor is Nvu, which works on all operating systems.
A good, free FTP client (used to upload to your host) is FileZilla, which again works on all operating systems.

To learn the basic commands, you can't get much better than the W3Schools tutorials. I've also written some of my own based on those tutorials (which will be up on my blog when I get it finished), and will be carrying on into areas that the site doesn't cover too well.

If you need any more help, you know where to find me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646591)

Not that many. I think you should start by getting free webspace.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646591)

What programs will i need, and/or tools.

You don't actually need anything other than Notepad.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646591)

What are the basic html commands i should get to know?

Like Lenny said, http://w3schools.com

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646591)

Any programs i could download online to assist me?
(i might at some point add a forum, so...)

Dreamweaver CS whatever is the only program I would recommend.

--------

You spoke about making your own forums right? I'm actually creating my own right now. That takes PHP and MySQL to deal with that.

I also suggest learning CSS at the same time that your learning XHTML.

One of the 1st lines i read on W3Schools was 'you can use build it as you see it programs like dreamweaver' but we highly recommend learning the html coding to be good at it (something to that extent)

Seeing as i just want something very simple to navigate, and im not looking to turn this into a profession i could probably skip most of the html coding itself. problem is that dreamweave is pretty expensive

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646599)

I tried to build websites, before I learned HTML, with Dreamweaver and Microsoft's equivalent program. The layouts just don't look good. You need to learn CSS with XHTML, otherwise you're going to be stuck with building very amateur web designs that don't look right.

EDIT: Take for example, you want a border around only one side. You need to learn CSS.

Code:

<head>

<style type="text/css">

<!--

table, tr, td {

 padding:0;

 margin:0;

 border:none;

}

.mystyle {

 padding:0;

 margin:0;

 border-left:#000BBB 1px solid; /* Blue 1pixel solid border on the left */

}

-->

</style>

</head>

<body>

<table cellspacing="0">

 <tr>

  <td class="mystyle">Hello</td>

 </tr>

</table>

</body>

seeing all the code intimidates me. the whole reason i wanted to make something like this is because i search for alotta things on the interweb, and its all just scattered, and most of the times very hard to navigate cleanly and efficiently. I wanted a database of information me and my friends can resort to for any of our questions. But if its like you say i need CSS and XHTML. The links that lenny gave me to W3S teach me HTML, probably XHTML too (i dont have the page open atm). If it doesnt, where do i learn ccs and xhtml?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646608)

Don't worry, the site provides both CSS and XHTML. XHTML is just an extension of HTML. The main difference is that all tags must be closed and that it's all written in lowercase. If you want, you could ask me to make you something. If you have something in mind that is. I'm actually a free freelancer right now. I'm doing stuff for free for my portfolio. I can make you something if you need me to. I'll also host you if you need me to. But for that, you'll need to learn how FTP works. It shouldn't be hard at all to use, but for some reason people have problems using it. Hmm...I write too much. However, if you're looking for an easy design, just draw it up in Paint (or whatever thing you use) and I'll make it with Photoshop and Dreamweaver! Of couse, that's just my offer because of my service. No one has taken advantage of me yet, and I'm bored. :(

lol that sounds like it could work, id love to watch you build it - you should fraps the entire project. haha - well hmm, ill hop on paint and see what i come up with

Alright! Goodie, a project for me. I'll make an administrative area for you as well. That no longer has the possibility of a JavaScript Injection. (Thank you WW for the advice.)

i hope you know that im not pro when it comes to paint ;) GL and im seriously waiting to see with what you come up with in the future

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646617)

i hope you know that im not pro when it comes to paint ;) GL and im seriously waiting to see with what you come up with in the future

You actually did a pretty good job with the design in Paint. By the way, sense no color was specified, I'm going to just use black and white.

thats fine, from what i know in html that is a pretty quick and easy change when coloring is finalized.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646620)

thats fine, from what i know in html that is a pretty quick and easy change when coloring is finalized.

Well, I'm using CSS. It's just as easy, if not easier.

You will see a hex color value like blue (#000BBB) And know to change it. I'll put comments in the code so that you don't get confused.


// This is a comment
/* And this is also a comment */
# this is a php comment

are you self taught?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646627)

are you self taught?

Yup! I started 3-years ago. I'm currently only 16-years old.

lucky, there was a kid in my junior webmaster's class that was completely crazy in the whole thing, but he got lucky in his intro to computer basics class he did alot of dreamweaver, fireworks, and flash. in my intro class we did q fkn basic lol. Im 19 and it would be an awesome hobby to be able to build webpages but, i just dont have enough discipline to sit and read pages upon pages of text.

Where can i see your portfolio?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazilla (Post 646630)

It's incomplete, so I haven't put it up anywhere yet. I'll have it soon enough. By the way, I was stuck on one problem for about an hour. After that, I was able to complete most of it. I only have 15-30 minutes worth of work to go. There are absolutely no pictures, but it is the layout. I'll make pictures if necessary and if you want more help.

I'm dos done!

Code:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

<meta name="keywords" content="Game, Stuff, Random, Keywords" />

<title>The Page</title>

<style type="text/css">

<!--

body {

        margin:10px;

        padding:0;

        border:none;

        border-spacing:0;

        border-collapse:collapse;

        font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

        font-size:14px;

        font-style:normal;

        font-weight:normal;

        text-decoration:none;

        display:block;

        vertical-align:top;

        text-align:center;

        color:#000; /* Dafault Text Color is Black or #000 */

        }

table, tr, td {

        margin:0;

        padding:0;

        border:none;

        border-spacing:0;

        border-collapse:collapse;

        text-align:center;

        }

table.boxes {

        text-align:center;

        }

table.override {

        text-align:center;

        }

td.boxes {

        border:#000 2px solid;

        height:150px;

        vertical-align:top;

        width:225px;

        }

.navigation {

        text-align:center;

        font-size:14px;

        font-weight:bold;

        margin:0;

        border-top:#000 2px solid;

        border-bottom:#000 2px solid;

        }

.navigation:hover {

        background-color:#000;

        color:#FFF;

        cursor:pointer;

        }

td.underline {

        font-size:14px;

        border-top:#000 2px solid; /* This is not just an underline, ignore the name */

        border-bottom:#000 2px solid;

        vertical-align:top;

        }

td.navmiddle {

        font-size:18px;

        text-align:center;

        height:15px;

        }

td.controlledbox {

        border:#000 2px solid; /* Box Left Bottom */

        width:350px;

        text-align:left;

        vertical-align:top;

        }

td.NewsBlurb {

        border:#000 2px solid;

        width:450;

        text-align:left;

        margin:0;

        padding:2px 2px 5px 2px;

        }

.block {

        height:10px;

        }

-->

</style>

</head>

<body>

<center>

<table width="850" style="margin:0 0 10px 0;" class="boxes">

 <tr>

  <td width="225" style="margin:0 25px 0 0;">

   <table>

    <tr>

     <td class="boxes" style="text-align:left;">&nbsp;</td>

    </tr>

   </table>  </td>

  <td>

   <div align="center"> <!-- Take that FF3, SOB -->

    <table>

     <tr>

      <td class="boxes" style="width:350;height:100px;">&nbsp;</td>

      </tr>

    </table>

   </div>

  </td>

  <td width="225" style="text-align:right;">

   <table>

    <tr>

    <td class="boxes">&nbsp;</td>

    </tr>

   </table>  </td>

 </tr>

</table>

<table style="margin:0 0 10px 0;">

 <tr>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

  <td class="navigation" width="90">Home</td>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

  <td class="navigation" width="90">Blogs</td>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

  <td class="navigation" width="90">Pictures</td>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

  <td class="navmiddle" width="120">Navigation Bar</td>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

  <td class="navigation" width="90">Games</td>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

  <td class="navigation" width="90">Science</td>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

  <td class="navigation" width="120" style="font-size:14px;">What's Comming</td>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

  <td class="navigation" width="90">Index</td>

  <td class="underline" width="5">&nbsp;</td>

 </tr>

</table>

<table width="850">

 <tr>

  <td>

   <table width="350">

    <tr>

     <td>

      <div align="left">

      <table>

       <tr>

        <td class="controlledbox">I'm in my own little world</td>

       </tr>

      </table>

      </div>

     </td>

    </tr>

   </table>

  </td>

  <td>

   <div align="right">

   <table width="450" align="right">

    <tr>

     <td class="NewsBlurb">This is a thingy</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

     <td class="block">&nbsp;</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

     <td class="NewsBlurb">This is another thingy</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

     <td class="block">&nbsp;</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

     <td class="NewsBlurb">This is once again, another thingy</td>

    </tr>

   </table>

   </div>

  </td>

 </tr>

</table>

</center>

</body>

</html>

Here is the page http://nrgsrpg.com/portfolio/Kazilla_Template.php

looks good, but a couple things, i hope you dont mind critism

1. 'navigation bar' was just there to show you what i was attempting to draw with paint, it doesnt need to be in there.
2. 'the long picture on the left' id like it to be 1/3 of the screen width
3. the news blurbs

| pic | blurb | empty |

Try to set the page up like that in 1/3rds instead of 1/2 picture 1/2 news blurb.

As for pictures ill look around on the net and see if i can find what im looking for, but incase you have a file or are good @ making things. Im thinking of some sort of long silver dragon, with his head @ the top.

maybe something like this? but facing the other way "http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:nPGgB8GFatOWoM:http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b49/mystic7/Dragon-silver.jpg"

For forums, the big three names are vBulletin, Invision Power Board, and phpBB. This forum uses vBulletin because it's the best; it offers superior extensibility and ease of administration. The code makes sense, too. IPB at one time was available for free, but I'm not really sure anymore; IPB has most of the features of vBulletin. phpBB is a free forum software. You get what you pay for, though over the years phpBB has gotten much better than it used to be. I'm inclined to believe that phpBB's template customization system is still as aweful now was it was when I last worked with it since I haven't seen any phpBB forums with any sort of changed structure.

an old guild of mine i used to be in uses phpbb www.tabularasaguild.com i havent found a guild forum i liked more then theres.