I quite fancy building a website...

Things are working now and getting to grips with all the settings.

The domain I setup with google apps is now working and I have setup my email for my domain and that is working with my iPhone and Mac Mail. Have setup some basic pages through my Domain host but will move onto creating web pages via google sites.

MobileMe is working fine for my other domain and again I will have a play around with iWeb to create a website.

So it did take a bit of getting it all working but Domain Support was good and now its down to experimenting with Google Apps and iWeb :D

Thanks for the pointers :thumb
 
Well since i started this thread, i've been plugging away with an account on 1and1, and managed to produce this:

http://www.hampshireaquaticservices.co.uk

However, the 1and1 web building program is really irritating me. Little things like:

it only fills half the screen, and once there are a few photo's on a page, you end up scrolling for miles :blast

you can only have buttons at the top of the page, and not down the side. :rolleyes:

you only have a choice of about 4 different colours for background ect.

I'm finding it very restrictive and i really don't like that, so which programs are available that are idiot proof, but also allow plenty of freedom to be creative?
 
I am guessing you haven't checked that in multiple browsers? It looks horrible in chrome mobile. The formating is all screwed up.
 
The web builder package isn't chrome friendly, which is another reason i want to use something else. With so many potential viewers using a chrome it isn't a good start really. and there doesn't seem to be a lot i can do about it-something i didn't find out until after i'd got 99% "finished". :(

it doesn't look to bad on internet explorer, but it still only fills half the screen, leaving a huge sea of blue over the right hand side of the monitor.
 
Losttheplot said:
Well since i started this thread, i've been plugging away with an account on 1and1, and managed to produce this:

http://www.hampshireaquaticservices.co.uk

However, the 1and1 web building program is really irritating me. Little things like:

it only fills half the screen, and once there are a few photo's on a page, you end up scrolling for miles :blast

you can only have buttons at the top of the page, and not down the side. :rolleyes:

you only have a choice of about 4 different colours for background ect.

I'm finding it very restrictive and i really don't like that, so which programs are available that are idiot proof, but also allow plenty of freedom to be creative?
Click to expand...

Programs bollocks.

You're probably being restricted by the cheapness of your host.

It's a bit like when we were all ten years younger and raving to our parents about how good the internet was, and how it would let us all talk in real time, then the old fuckers signed up for an AOL account because at the time, AOL were targeting the old, naive and stupid. :blast


I haven't used any tools on your http://www.hampshireaquaticservices.co.uk site yet, but an immediate responce would be that you need to change your width settings to %'s rather than a pixel count.......

IE old screens were nearly always 800x600...now, you'd struggle to find that siZe outside of a mobile phone screen....

If your site is set to display at 800x600, that's what it will do....but if a user's screen is set to 1680x1050 (which all three of mine are) then, as you have discovered, an 800x600 optimised website will look like shit.

This is going to be a bitter truth, but it's meant in the right way.......you are going to have to either re-design and code your HTML site to make it look full width (BUT STILL HOPELESSLY OUT OF DATE) or you are going to have to bite the bullet and after saving all your content, start again with something like Wordpress or Drupal. (Go for WP.....seriously, it's got a far shallower learning curve than Drupal but you can do anything you like with it, free!)


These aren't little things BTW.......your site shows that you know your stuff, but it also screams you that you are (forgive the brutality here) small fry in a big pond, and well behind the times.


The very first place that Joe.A.Idiot will go to if he decides he wants some fish (or anything else) is one of the big search engines....sadly (in some ways) the verb "Google" has been accepted....so when Joe Anne Idiot "googles" for fish, aquarium supplies, river shit or whatever you do (like I said, I didn't look into it, I just took a brief glance) then they will not come up with your website.......and if they do, they will rapidly backclick out of it because it just doesn't smack them in the face or resemble a place that they either trust or want to browse.

There are some steps I'd seriously recommend you take.....

1) get someone in to re-write your HTML so that it's based in % of width rather than pixels
2) forget 1, that's a crap solution, although it could be fast and dirty to keep you going for a bit
3) Copy your whole site down to your PC using an FTP prog like "Core FTP" (FREE) and then use that content to build a better website that is future proof and infinitely more expandable using WORDPRESS, even if you don't know what FTP stand for :)

4) Last resort.....PM me and I'll do it all for you, after a long and sensible chat regarding your aspirations and expectations regarding the site :)

It's what I do :)
 
Pretty poor of 1 and 1 to put something like that out.
Do you have access to any databases with your hosting?
The trouble is that if you go it alone and code it yourself you could run into exactly the same problem. This is why I suggested Google sites before. Easy for you to manage and do what you want but they look after the compatability. If you have access to a database then take a look at joomla or similar. Basically a framework (they are actually called content management systems or CMS) that is done for you and you can get on with doing what you want to content wise.
 
Fanum said:
This is going to be a bitter truth, but it's meant in the right way.......you are going to have to either re-design and code your HTML site to make it look full width (BUT STILL HOPELESSLY OUT OF DATE) or you are going to have to bite the bullet and after saving all your content, start again with something like Wordpress or Drupal. (Go for WP.....seriously, it's got a far shallower learning curve than Drupal but you can do anything you like with it, free!)


These aren't little things BTW.......your site shows that you know your stuff, but it also screams you that you are (forgive the brutality here) small fry in a big pond, and well behind the times.



4) Last resort.....PM me and I'll do it all for you, after a long and sensible chat regarding your aspirations and expectations regarding the site :)

It's what I do :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips Fanum, they have been really helpful.

Like i said in post 22, i was really looking for another program that wasn't 1and1's own that i could get to understand and implement, but i didn;'t want to get stuck into another program that wasn't any better than the one i had been using.

I'll dig out wordpress and start having a play around with it. I downloaded drupal, but can't even get that to function on my laptop (and i'm well above the system requirements!).

I don't remember having a choice about the width of the screen, the base page layout was already set, and there didn't seem to be a great deal i could do about it. :(

And thanks for the brutal feedback, i'm well aware how important this is to getting future work, which is why i really want to get this right before i start punting the site around.
 
Losttheplot said:
Thanks for the tips Fanum, they have been really helpful.

Like i said in post 22, i was really looking for another program that wasn't 1and1's own that i could get to understand and implement, but i didn;'t want to get stuck into another program that wasn't any better than the one i had been using.

I'll dig out wordpress and start having a play around with it. I downloaded drupal, but can't even get that to function on my laptop (and i'm well above the system requirements!).

I don't remember having a choice about the width of the screen, the base page layout was already set, and there didn't seem to be a great deal i could do about it. :(

And thanks for the brutal feedback, i'm well aware how important this is to getting future work, which is why i really want to get this right before i start punting the site around.
Click to expand...

PM me tomorrow.......I can talk you through getting WP installed and working.......once it's up, it's pretty much idiot proof and you can amend, expand or re-design the whole site with a few button clicks, but it is a 'live' system unless you run a virtual copy offline so you need to know the basics of your way around it at least.

There are many many other aspects that I'll bombard you with once we talk, but the core site has to be first.....then you can /must look at all the 'social media' sites and your presence there.....even if you don't want to be there, it's where 50% or more of your leads will potentially come from.

EDIT....I just read that back after posting, and there's a key thing that you maybe need to see, and differentiate from the 'old' way of thinking.

WP is not a program....it's a platform, same (but different) as Drupal etc.


It's hard to explain, and I've done it better elsewhere, but imagine it as this.....

Frontpage, 1to1's proprietary system, dreamweaver and all of the other HTML editor/construction systems are like a set of flatpack furniture kits from Ikea that you might buy to make a complete library for display (IE your website)

When that was all we had, it was fine, if you could get into all of the HTML coding I.E wielding an allan key and a really odd set of instructions in a completely foreign language for many days, but it was like spending all that time coding/building and then finding that you had a handful of bits that didn't fit and your whole library looked skewiff and shyte :blast

Wordpress is like having an instant, pop up self installing very solid complete library, in oak, teak, beech, with brass knobs, shelves and fancy LED lighting if you want it, all available with a couple of options to be selected from the menu......your call, your choice, but it's solid and all ready made.

After that, the most important bit (as it is with any library) is the content.......what books you place on the shelves and the order in which you place then in is totally up to you......that's the creative part and it's how web design SHOULD be......not a mystery where the best geek wins because they know what type of spit holds the spine of a book together, but an action thriller where the best story told in the best way that grabs most attention wins.

Hope that makes sense :)
 
well after spending the afternoon thoroughly confused, and trying to follow various relevant (and irrelevant) youtube guides, i now have WordPress up and running on a sub-domain on my site. beer o'clock me thinks :jager

If i've understood the tutorials correctly, you basically have to install a program onto you web server (which is where the ftp file sharing stuff comes into it?), as opposed to installing on your home pc, as your site would shut down everytime you turned your computer off?


The crappy main site is still up and running, but i have this down as a sub-domain, so i can have a play around and gets to grips with it, before using it to build a site that i can hopefully move from the sub domain to the main domain, that's provided i've understood how this all works.

thanks to you all for the effort that has gone into the replies so far, but unfortunately i doubt this thread will be over for a while as i try and get to grips with wordpress :blast
 
Losttheplot said:
well after spending the afternoon thoroughly confused, and trying to follow various relevant (and irrelevant) youtube guides, i now have WordPress up and running on a sub-domain on my site. beer o'clock me thinks :jager

If i've understood the tutorials correctly, you basically have to install a program onto you web server (which is where the ftp file sharing stuff comes into it?), as opposed to installing on your home pc, as your site would shut down everytime you turned your computer off?


The crappy main site is still up and running, but i have this down as a sub-domain, so i can have a play around and gets to grips with it, before using it to build a site that i can hopefully move from the sub domain to the main domain, that's provided i've understood how this all works.

thanks to you all for the effort that has gone into the replies so far, but unfortunately i doubt this thread will be over for a while as i try and get to grips with wordpress :blast
Click to expand...

I thought you were coming over for a hands-on tutorial :nenau

You have my number Nathan......Apart from if I'm walking the dog, I'll be in all weekend.....I may be looking after the neighbour's 4 yr old for an hour or two tomorrow but that's not been arranged yet.

Call me or text me and set an hour aside......Get a large coffee next to you and I can talk you through it......still welcome to come over though, bring logins and we should be able to get quite a lot done in a short time, or at the very least I have a couple of domains that we could fart about with so you can learn :)

B


The FTP stuff by the way, don't worry too much initially....WP provides ways around that....FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and basically it means you can upload loads of shit to any directory on your website's server quickly, then you can index it through WP or refer to it in other ways.

It's also a good idea to be able to use FTP to download an image of your website, so if the hosting centre blows up or att drives his truck through it, you can upload it to another host easily.

To start off with though, it's more important to be able to add content and format your pages through the WP interface.....and if you can post a photo here and change the colour and size of a font, you will be able to use WP to produce some good shit :beerjug:

As always though, the 'good shit' is actually more important than the way it looks.......content is king these days!!
 
Fanum said:
I thought you were coming over for a hands-on tutorial :nenau

You have my number Nathan......Apart from if I'm walking the dog, I'll be in all weekend.....I may be looking after the neighbour's 4 yr old for an hour or two tomorrow but that's not been arranged yet.

Call me or text me and set an hour aside......Get a large coffee next to you and I can talk you through it......still welcome to come over though, bring logins and we should be able to get quite a lot done in a short time, or at the very least I have a couple of domains that we could fart about with so you can learn :)

B
Click to expand...

Guess there's a few gremlins in UKGSer then? posted a PM to you this morning and didn't hear anything back, also can't find any mention of your phone number or address, unless i've been looking in the wrong place? (nothing in PM's).

I'm still up for a tutorial on Wordpress. Should be available from mid afternoon tomorrow onwards now if thats ok with you?

Could do with a contact number and an address, i know Harwich isn't that big, but it's still to big to go knocking on every door just on the off chance :~)
 
Losttheplot said:
Guess there's a few gremlins in UKGSer then? posted a PM to you this morning and didn't hear anything back, also can't find any mention of your phone number or address, unless i've been looking in the wrong place? (nothing in PM's).

I'm still up for a tutorial on Wordpress. Should be available from mid afternoon tomorrow onwards now if thats ok with you?

Could do with a contact number and an address, i know Harwich isn't that big, but it's still to big to go knocking on every door just on the off chance :~)
Click to expand...

Odd...sent a couple of replies...last one with address and times I'm probably not in over the W/E....will resend :beerjug:
 
Just deleted a load of old PM's, turns out my PM box was full but the new site won't tell you like the old one did :blast

Still haven't received anything...
 
This topic caught my attention as I've been intending to create a web site for a while. In the "old days" I created web sites using Notepad and writing my own HTML and JavaScript. I've since lost touch and the whole web development world seems more confusing than ever but I know I no longer want to write my own code - I have a life to live!

Fanum said:
Frontpage, 1to1's proprietary system, dreamweaver and all of the other HTML editor/construction systems are like a set of flatpack furniture kits from Ikea that you might buy to make a complete library for display (IE your website)

When that was all we had, it was fine, if you could get into all of the HTML coding I.E wielding an allan key and a really odd set of instructions in a completely foreign language for many days, but it was like spending all that time coding/building and then finding that you had a handful of bits that didn't fit and your whole library looked skewiff and shyte :blast

Wordpress is like having an instant, pop up self installing very solid complete library, in oak, teak, beech, with brass knobs, shelves and fancy LED lighting if you want it, all available with a couple of options to be selected from the menu......your call, your choice, but it's solid and all ready made.

After that, the most important bit (as it is with any library) is the content.......what books you place on the shelves and the order in which you place then in is totally up to you......that's the creative part and it's how web design SHOULD be......not a mystery where the best geek wins because they know what type of spit holds the spine of a book together, but an action thriller where the best story told in the best way that grabs most attention wins.

Hope that makes sense :)
Click to expand...

So this is some excellent advice and gives me something to review. Thank You. :)
 
I used to faff about with a couple of websites using Dreamweaver (MS Frontpage being crap, certainly by comparison to Dreamweaver but possibly just crap in its own right, period) - certainly from what Fanum has posted (in a very understandable way), website design & build for the non-IT-Professional seems to have advanced in leaps and bounds.
 
Mick-B said:
I used to faff about with a couple of websites using Dreamweaver (MS Frontpage being crap, certainly by comparison to Dreamweaver but possibly just crap in its own right, period) - certainly from what Fanum has posted (in a very understandable way), website design & build for the non-IT-Professional seems to have advanced in leaps and bounds.
Click to expand...

It has, and it's put many 'web designers' out of business, now it's not an arcane art.

The 'coders' and HTML experts have suffered most, 'cos to get a really nice looking site up, you don't need them anymore.
(Until there's a problem with browser compatibility or you try and do something clever)

'Designers' are still needed though, as some people still have some issues with understanding that some colours just look shit when all muddled up together, and other people don't think about the site structure so it can be really hard to navigate around an otherwise good site.

Content is king though, absolutely, now that anyone can make a site in a day.
 
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