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Designing your own website…sound
scary? Well, do not panic. There are several different types of
websites and some are easier to build than others. Presentation
or Static pages are the easiest. In these pages you simply display
some information and there is no feedback via the website. If you
keep things lined up loosely, and do not try to get too fancy, and
you are willing to do a little reading and learning, you can more
than likely make your own site. There are a number of tools available
for designing a website. Most of these tools are WYSIWYG tools (What
You See, Is What You Get). If you look on the home site of almost
any Internet Service Provider, they provide a variety of tools,
mostly free. You can also use a search engine to search for "web
tools free". There is a very popular program that can be purchased
for less than $100 from Microsoft called FrontPage2000. I offer
a word of warning about this program. This program is very easy
to use. It works much like Word. However, this program has two major
drawbacks. First, since it is from Microsoft, it works better with
Internet Explorer than it does with Netscape. This is a MAJOR drawback.
FrontPage2000 also has several bugs (as do most of these programs).
The second drawback is caused directly by the ease of use. By allowing
formatting to work like Word can make the web pages it creates somewhat
unstable. Using size or spacing values like points, or picas, etc.
is dangerous for web page use. Also, although FrontPage supports
CSS, the easy formatting methods discourage people from using them.
I previously did not recommend this program for building sites.
However, after working with some of the other higher end packages,
and seeing the bugs that they have too, I now think that FrontPage2000
is not a bad starting package.
A package that is far from perfect,
but published by a neutral publisher, is MacroMedia's DreamWeaver.
This program is neither as simple to use as FrontPage, nor as intuitive.
You can get a free 30 day evaluation copy of this program directly
off the MacroMedia website or in the back of the DreamWeaver for
dummies book. This program does support many advanced features (but
not perfectly). DreamWeaver is one of the most popular web development
packages used by professional web developers, but it is far from
perfect. This package is also not as inexpensive as some of these
other packages, about $299 retail.
You can also get some very good books
that tell how to use these programs in very simple terms. This is
another good way to find low cost or good basic web development
tools. Go to a bookstore that carries a good selection of computer
books. Look through the "books for dummies" (I like these
books and use them myself. Publisher Hungry Minds, formally IDG
books). Find a book that covers a web development program that has
a CD in the back of the book that either has a free version of the
program or a demo version. This will give you a chance to learn
the program and test it. There are also several packages that you
can get and use (usually unlimited) for free in the form of shareware.
Some of these packages have a limited use time, and most only cost
a few dollars if you want the full version. You can find all kinds
of HTML/WYSIWYG web editors at www.shareware.com. Enter key words
like "web design" and let it search for all the programs
available. You can download them for free. You can also look with
key words like "HTML" or "Internet".
There is another source of software
that you can take advantage of. Most of the major software publishers
like students to learn to use their programs. They generally have
"Academic Pricing" packages. This pricing structure is
usually about 25% of retail. How does one get Academic Pricing?
Well, it is easier than you think, and you probably have the answer
in your pocket or purse. Academic pricing
is available to students. The first place to check is your
student store. There is also a website (www.gradware.com) that will
sell Academic software to anyone with a student or instructor ID
(yes they do check). If you do not have a student ID, you can register
at a local Junior Collage for under $50. You will find discounts
like the $299, DreamWeaver package for $94. There are a few drawbacks
to Academic packages. First, they are usually not upgradable. This
is not usually a big problem, because the Academic price for the
full package is often less than the regular upgrade price. Second,
in most cases, you can not get direct support from the publisher
(other than replacement of defective media). They expect you to
get if from your class. (note: gradware is just one company I happen
to know about that sells software at Academic pricing. There are
others out there that you should investigate on your own including
the student bookstore. I do not own stock in gradware, or get any
commissions for sending anyone to them. Use of their company name
should not be considered a recommendation or referral. You should
also note that Academic software is expressly intended to allow
people to learn about these products and NOT to be used for commercial
purposes).
There are several important facts that
you must keep in mind when publishing a website. Unlike the fixed
and predictable aspects of designing the printed page, building
a website is like standing on a base of loose Jello! First, you
have little control over how big the viewable area of the site is
going to be. Your visitor can be running in many different display
resolutions which will directly effect what they see. In the past,
640 x 480 on the PC was the standard. This is now moving towards
the 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 resolutions. With few exceptions, you
should always allow 50 pixels on the right side of the frame for
a scroll bar. Then there is the question, "Is the visitor running
their browser in full screen mode or windowed?" You have NO
control over this. The next key point that you have to account for
is which browser your visitor is using. Unless you make your entire
page an image (which would take forever to download), your pages
are actually made of several instructions to the browser to paint
your information on the visitor's display. Depending on how these
instructions are interpreted, your pages could look very different
on one screen verses another. The two most popular browsers (but
not the only two) are Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.
The specifications regarding how a browser is supposed to function
are regulated by an organization called W3C. However, neither Microsoft
nor Netscape are willing to wait for W3C to, standardize, adapt
and publish specifications for browsers. Both of these companies
are typically one to two versions ahead of W3C. If you are doing
your own web page publishing, do not listen to propaganda from either.
Both of these companies would rather see the other one disappear,
they both have their own agenda (adding new functionality), and
neither one is willing to voluntarily be compatible with the other.
It is my suggestion whether you build your own web page or you hire
someone else to do it for you (whoever you hire should test for
you, but do not rely on it), test your site out under several different
browsers, at different resolutions and windowing adjustments. You
can be in for a real surprise! It is better that you find these
surprises before your potential visitor does. When your web page
does not work for them, it is not their fault or doing, it is a
direct reflection on your company. In general, I have found Internet
Explorer more cooperative or forgiving than Netscape (I do not own
stock in Microsoft, nor do I particularly recommend one over the
other).
© 2001 - Barry
Wroobel - Discovery Data Systems, inc.
(note: Set left and right printer margins
to 0.25" for printing)
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