Dreamweaver frontpage notepad all that. Help

[cardiodan]

I know intermediate web design. I have a few websites, but
every1 tell me about how to use Notepad.

However, there are many open source template websites...which are perfect.

However, they come in zip file format.
Now I dont know even WHY they are in .zip, and I dont know how to work them into Frontpage.

Any ideas?

Also, I realize that I need to learn to do it in notepad.
What is a good way to learn ...I just cant seem to visualize in notepad!!!
Thanks!
cardio

[korsow]

Why are they zipped:

Not all templates are just a single HTML Files, allot of them include graphics, stylesheets etc.

however,

Not sure if it's a template specifically made for Frontpage , which might be diffrent since MS might format templates into one file that is then processed by FP to give you the desired look. FP then basically creates the HTML and Stylesheets for you to your customization and uploads it for you (publish) or you can FTP em (ftp doesnt require Frontpage server)


As far as notepad is concerned..

I say MEH!, you know why? Its not the best best way to learn, I use Adobe Golive(which is no longer) but you can switch between text(html) and visual editor.. This way you also learn how to write HTML and eventually will learn how to visualise things writing it in notepad. I'm sure there are some free visual editors out there now that are free, especially with the GNU Movement starting to flood into the Windows world. Not sure if Im allowed to post this, but downloads.com is a safe place to get legal free software (if no links to CNET sites are allowed , Mods please edit my post)

So basically, I'd say working on websites or rather learning to write HTML, taking your time is the best way to retain knowledge, just like building muscle, quality last longer than just quantity.

Hope my scatterbrain self made a bit of sence

[cardiodan]

Thanks.
I like Frontpage because you can do html view, code and preview , and other looks as well.
The problem is that frontpage puts in unwanted html.

Ive been frantically looking for a webpage tutorial, and everyone is trying to make some money out of this.
Any place i should go?
And thanks for the tip on the (Cnet site)

[cardiodan]

Also but not that important

I like using frames, but I have found out that that is frowned upon.

What's wrong with frames? It makes it so much easier to edit!

(I know nothing about CSS, or javascript) if theres a better way, tell me!
Thanks guys

[korsow]

aaah good ol' frames lol. Yeah I guess the main reason people dont use regular frames anymore is because it's too old school.. However, Newer browsers are able to "read" something called iFrames (google it) What that allows you to do is load a frame within a page, rather than loading pages within a frame, comes in pretty handy and if you do it right, no one will even know there's a frame on your site unless you view the source of the page...

Stylesheets arent too hard to learn, it's actually a good thing to learn to keepconsistancy between pages of your website, there should be a bunch of free easy turorials online, javascript on the other hand is a bit harder since your actually programming, whereas CSS is really only a database with value (basically a text file containing your basic html things like background color, text type etc) Instead of assigning a collor to each page on your website for instance, you can basically tell the page to load the CSS and use the collors in that file, it alllows for much quicker editing and changing of websites.

I used to like using frames too, and for some websites, it works, but people have gotten bored of em, personally I see nothing wrong with frames, but , to many they seem combersome and antique.

:-)

Peace,

-K

[korsow]

BTW,,


I use the "For dummies" books to get me started on learning new stuff, I'd recomend html for dummies, I havent used that perticular one but Ive used many of their other books, and they are really good at explaining things.

I tried doing web design professionally, however I didnt like tayloring to customer's needs lol, so Now I just work on Networks ;-)

[cardiodan]

People look down on dreamweaver! (it costs $399) it must be good...i always believe you get what you pay for.

Notepad....it's the toughest thing ive tried in a while....i just cant visualize it.
is it true that frontpage changes things so that firefox cant open them?
Thats pretty dumb, considering its a major browser.

Ive made websites before in FP and it worked.
But I am trying to upgrade another one and firefox wont open.
?

[korsow]

It's true that FP makes web pages Optimized for IE, and there are some features that may not work with Firefox (Like activeX, unless MS released a plugin for activeX for Firefox, which I doubt). So i guess technically, yeah it would be better to switch to dreamweaver, also, you may want to see if you can buy it second hand off of ebay from a reputable sales person, might only cost you like 50 bux or less if its 1 version older, and would be a great improvement over FP. Dreamweaver has allot to it though, its not easy when compared to FP, but it's a pretty powerful WYSIWYG(visual) Editor, and allows you to add plugins(just like with photoshop) to neat cool things with.. (btw I highly recomend Photoshop as well, I use version 7.0, dont really need anything higher than that for now either and its SUPER powerfull and a markitable skill when doing webpages for people, Id Ebay that or amazon it see if you can find a good deal). Just remember, when learning, to start off you really dont need the latest and gratest versions and fork over 300-700 bux for software when u can buy second hand for allot less than half teh price :-)

-k

[cardiodan]

Very true!
Thanks
anyother opinions?

[korsow]

I hear Nvu is pretty good..

go to downloads.com and do a search for nvu, it should be the top one, it has a very solid user rating and it's 100% free.

-k

[cardiodan]

Yea I went with that one.
But then again I saw Frontpage and it looks so much better.

it helps you organize things with their folder system.
Bad thing is it keeps putting in &nsbc or whatever instead of regular line breaks....

Im learning but i think im doing well.

What other cool thing is out there that can make my site look extra cool?
I like effects: high lights etc, make text huge when rolled over etc.
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
a:link { color: white; text-decoration: none }
a:active { color: yellow; text-decoration: none }
a:visited { color: white; text-decoration: none }
a:hover { color: yellow; text-decoration: underline; background: #CC6600}
</STYLE>

Thats a cool one. Change the background though, the color choice is terrible
Cardiodan

[korsow]

ANother thing that came make a cool site, in my opinion, is interactivity of some sort, and animation when appropriate, a way to do both is by using Adobe Flash (formarly Macromedia Flash) I remember back in the day, when I bought my first copy of (back then) macromedia flash, it could only do animation and page navigation, which was cool, cause you could make your whole site animated, but people now tend to not make their whole site flash based anymore, except for promotional Cocacola and Pepsi sites (you know those enter your code here to redeem prizes). It seems like Flash in today's world has morphed into more of a multimedia display application for browsers(by this I mean most (99%) of interactive games with some graphics on web pages are flash based and so are(was?) youtube videos) .

An awsome way to use flash to make you website look 'cool' would be to use it to make a navigation bar and a header banner for your site thats animated.

Don't confuse Adobe flash with Adobe Flash Player/plugin. The actual Adobe Flash is worth a couple of hundred dollars and allows you to make interactive items for your website, flash player is the plugin you download for your browser to view it.

There might be some free simple Flash editors out there you could find by now as well.

Once you create your animation or application with Adobe Flash (Or likeness thereof) You would need to embed that into your web page, just as you where to embed a youtube video.

:-)

-k

[korsow]

BTW,

Good job on the learning :-)

-k

[CheddaNips]

I learned HTML on a notepad. Tough but i like the combo of switching from HTML to Visual Editors

[cardiodan]

What a waste of time...
If you got Frontpage or Dreamweaver with a tool to go between that and a preview site, or just open with internet explorer and check again with firefox.

Question: Just like frames, I found out that tables are ALSO frowned upon. I dont get it.,....theyre so great for organizational purposes.

[korsow]

Tables arent really frowned upon, only when their visible are the frowned upon ;-), if you create tables and set the border to '0' then you can use them to orgenise your content. tables with borders however are frowned uppon ;-)

[outofthebox]

Tables arent really frowned upon, only when their visible are the frowned upon ;-), if you create tables and set the border to '0' then you can use them to orgenise your content. tables with borders however are frowned uppon ;-)

CSS, no tables...tables are not a layout device, they are a way to present data...
http://davespicks.com/essays/notables.html