General Help - I am a COMPLETE beginner

Help - I am a COMPLETE beginner!!!

I have been asked by my father-in-law to create a website for a small charity he runs. Always keen to impress (!) I said "sure, that'll be no problem" and have set about trying to get a really simple, 5 page website up and running.

My first mistake (i know that now) was to pay for InstantSite from 123.reg. This thing is a nightmare. There must be a better way!

Can anyone help by talking me through the very basic steps of what I need to do. I am not totally computer illiterate, but certainly no coding wizz. I have not got any software (as far as I am aware) that can help and I really don't know what I am doing.

Here is what I have so far:
1. registered a domain url
2. er, that's it

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much

 

Are you familiar with XHTML, CSS, or HTML? Or any other web technologies at all, such as the .NET platform, etc?

If you aren't I would recommend looking into some primers on XHTML/CSS pages. Make a small practice site on your local machine, just to get familiar with how to do what you want to, then work on deploying your site.

There are a large number of books out there on the subject, and the entire internet. I (personally) prefer having a hard-copy book (mostly cause i get lost following links in google searches that lead to new places, resulting in me learning lots of useless stuff), but if you can learn the basics from the web, great. If you can't find a good book on XHTML/CSS at your local library (if the one near you is like mine, you won't), they aren't terribly expensive at a book store. $15-$30 is what I've paid for most of the ones that I own, and they are extremely useful.

Once you have the basics of creating a site, and doing what you want with it, you should only need to upload your site to your host. make sure to include an index.htm, .html, or something similar, and keep your directory structure the same, and you should be good to go.

If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer anything that I'm familiar with.

Hope this helps

 

Thanks for such a speedy and helpful response.

Nope - not familiar with XHTML, CSS, or HTML. But I am a pretty quick learner if I have something to work with.

Is there some sort of easy to use open source software that I can download to put together a practice site?

I have also noticed that people offer template sites. How do I upload one of these to my domain?

Thank you again for your help.
Richard

 

Sometimes trying to impress goes the wrong way. Saying it won't be a problem obviously has turned out to be a problem lol since you don't know how to do it. It's like applying for a job as a lawyer and not knowing anything about it and on top expecting to get the job.

Best way to learn is by yourself. Research...Research..and research some more. If worse comes to worse and after weeks of research you don't understand a word of what you've read then ask to get help that way you'll learn more by reading up on stuff that you weren't even looking which would be useful.

Making a website does involve a lot of effort depending on how you do it and since you don't know how to you're better off getting someone to do it or learn it yourself (which may take a while) and get it done.

Let me google that for you

 

Select a good website template (You can get a free CSS template from this site - The CSS template is like a picture frame - the content of the site goes inside it).
Get a good free HTML Editor (an HTML editor allows you to generate the HTML you place inside the CSS Template).
Here is a list of some good free HTML Editors. Select the one you like best or has the best "Help files" or best Tutorial.
First Page 2006 (use the free version)
Evrsoft First Page / 1st Page 2006 HTML Editor / Website Builder
AlleyCode
Netix - free html text editor download, - Alleycode HTML
First Page 2000 (free version)
Download First Page 2006 and 1st Page 2000 - Download Internet Browser Programs - Download Free Software and Freeware | St-Takla.org
Trillian Web Page
Trellian WebPage - Trellian Software
- -
These are but a few
Google search for turorials or use their help files
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After trying a few, select the best one (that is easiest for you to use).
All of the template is editable (changeable - you can use part of one template and part of another). Then add the contents.
Any problems, let us know the template and the editor and we can guide you through to make the changes (including some very nice menus).
Also PDPhoto has some very nice free photos (PDPhoto - Public Domain Photo).
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hope this helps
falcon

 

Wow, thanks Mr. ishkey for that write-up. I'm speechless. Needless to say, I'll be happy to help him out and help myself too at the same time. With all these suggestions posted here he could now just do it by himself.

 

Looks like he is not coming back. With your support I'm starting a new thread to help people who are in need of building a website using a template found here. Hope this will help some people.