web site creation from scratch or using templates?

J

jrefactors

I am new to web site development. I have Front Page and Dreamweaver, I
want to ask when I create web site, I should do it from scratch, or
using existing templates? Please give me some good guidelines...

please advise. thanks!!
 
P

Perry

Good question, sorry I'm anxious to know the answer as well. My guess is
the less experience you have, the more templates you use. How hard are
these templates to reconstruct by scratch anyway?

I had a similar question about backgrounds if one is going from
scratch.........do most people go out and find backgrounds somewhere?
Most people do better than just picking a background color.........a good
site or two for backgrounds would be great.

Sorry about barging in on the thread.

Perry
 
U

Uncle Joe

There are thousands of background images available on the
Internet for download. Search Google for background
images and BG. Many are horribly ugly so you have to
search through many backgrounds to find the ones you
want. Virtually all background images on the Net are free.

I create my own background images using Photoshop.
You can do the same if you have a competent graphics
program.
 
U

Uncle Joe

IMHO, the answer to your question is: it depends. If you're
a newbie like me, and you're starting a web site from scratch,
your decision would predicated upon whether you like one of
the canned templates available with FrontPage, or whether
none of the canned templates appeal to you.

In the latter case, your best solution is to create a personal
template (read up on dynamic web templates, too) for your
site. It's hard work, of course, but you may find greater
satisfaction from building a template that suits your site perfectly.
I'm engaged in creating my own custom Dynamic Web Template.
Right now, as a newbie, I find it hard work.

Another factor to take into consideration is the many (probably
thousands) custom FrontPage templates available on the
Internet. Search Google for "frontPage templates". Work your way
through the offerings. Most are available for small fees...I saw
some for $20. Considering the time you'd otherwise spend
developing your own template, $20 might be a bargain if you
liked a particular template.

Good luck.
 
R

Rob Giordano \(Crash\)

A great way to learn is download a free template...any one...and mess around
with it, see what makes it tick...then do some mods on it.

ps. don't cross post to other ngs.


|I am new to web site development. I have Front Page and Dreamweaver, I
| want to ask when I create web site, I should do it from scratch, or
| using existing templates? Please give me some good guidelines...
|
| please advise. thanks!!
|
 
P

Paul Watt

Uncle Joe said:
IMHO, the answer to your question is: it depends. If you're
a newbie like me, and you're starting a web site from scratch,
your decision would predicated upon whether you like one of
the canned templates available with FrontPage, or whether
none of the canned templates appeal to you.

In the latter case, your best solution is to create a personal
template (read up on dynamic web templates, too) for your
site. It's hard work, of course, but you may find greater
satisfaction from building a template that suits your site perfectly.
I'm engaged in creating my own custom Dynamic Web Template.
Right now, as a newbie, I find it hard work.

Another factor to take into consideration is the many (probably
thousands) custom FrontPage templates available on the
Internet. Search Google for "frontPage templates". Work your way
through the offerings. Most are available for small fees...I saw
some for $20. Considering the time you'd otherwise spend
developing your own template, $20 might be a bargain if you
liked a particular template.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Front page templates are evil. If your a complete newbie, dont use Frontpage
or Dreamweaver. Use notepad and learn HTML and CSS from a decent book or one
of the many good tutorials on the web (search google for HTML tutorials and
dismiss any that use the <font> tag). Use CSS for styling text. Also learn
CSS from the same sources. Its harder work than using a WYSIWYG to start
out, but much more rewarding.

Paul
 
L

Lynn Robson

Having struggled through the myriad complexities of using Frontpage as a
newbie, I'm now stuck with several design problems that seem to be much
easier to resolve in Dreamweaver.
Frontpage did seem pretty easy to start with and if your site doesn't
require a lot of detail, insertion of video, music etc then you'll probably
find it will be good to work with, easy to learn and with sites like this
you'll have the wealth of experience of thousands of people to help you
along your way.
I find that a page can be knocked up very easily creating a blank page and
using tables to create divisions as necessary. Don't use frames. It'll cause
loads of problems with site recognition by search engines.
If I had the time, I'd probably learn html or CSS but life's too short and I
get the overall results that I need from Frontpage.
If I had to start all over again though I'd definitely go for Dreamweaver
instead.
Whatever you do, you really must design your site for maximum SEO (search
engine optimisation). I mean what's the point of having a site no-one can
find by doing a search, especially if it's a commercial site.
I'd recommend you join a couple of other forums such as Web Pro News at
www.webpronews.com to give you an insight into this side of the design
requirements.
 
L

Lynn Robson

Not too much of a newbie now, but have had to go through the hoops to get
this far.
If I had to start all over again, I'd first of all use Dreamweaver instead
of Frontpage. It isn't much more complex in learning it but can do a lot
more.
In either of them, whether or not you use templates is pretty irrelevant. I
think that if you create a blank page and then use Tables you'll be able to
contruct a page very easily with exactly the divisions you might need on it.
Don't for heavens sake use Frames as no search engine I know of can get into
them and do a proper index of the site. I lost loads of valuable time trying
to get indexed until I switched to a Tables developed site.
The "easy" part of all this stuff is in getting some sort of a site built up
and getting posted on your domain. The hardest part though is getting
recognition from the search engines. Whatever you do, self contruct or
templates, you're far better construcing your site with search engine
optimisation in mind. To that end get along to www.webpronews.com and pick
up on all the experience you'll find here. It's been absolutely invaluable
to my own site where I'm now on the first page of just about every search
engine result for anything to do with our sites content. Take a look at
www.thebridesmother.co.uk. It ain't pretty as I'm still working on it but
it's increased our shop turnover by 40% in the last 9 months.
Oh, and do use the full services of Google as well to find all the relevant
search terms that apply to your sites content.
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en is where you need to go. it's
bloody marvellous.
So, templates? Not really. Do it yourself from a blank page. Dreamweaver
instead of Frontpage and good luck with your attempts.
 
T

Tina Clarke

I am new to web site development. I have Front Page and Dreamweaver, I
want to ask when I create web site, I should do it from scratch, or
using existing templates? Please give me some good guidelines...

please advise. thanks!!
Click to expand...


I know nothing much about DW except it's pretty hard to figure out for a
newbie without any experience at all (of course having learnt how to do
things in FrontPage you will be more easily able to understand DW because
you had a helping hand), this illustrates the fact that it's the webmaster
not the tool that does the work and also applies to notepad users... the
more work your prepared to put in and look under the hood the more your
going to grasp and understand, FrontPage can support those that are not
capable of that, on the other hand it goes in the other direction too.. and
is more than capable of doing anything any other editor of any type can do,
like all things ... it's the webmaster that makes the magic not the tool ...
did I mention that?

Now to address your questions.

If you can and want to do this, making your own templates is a good starting
point. Why? Because your going to learn LESS bad habits, your going to see
what does and does not work, your going to understand how things fit
together more easily.

If you were to buy a template, I've never seen a vendor yet that sells a
template (FrontPage or otherwise) that does not need validating on the html
or css, and uses some seo no no.

Using generic FrontPage Templates is a bad starting point. I feel from your
email you can see this instinctively and wish to skip the several stages
most beginners go through. (one of the posts mentioned they had used frames
to begin with ... this is a case in point)

By making your own you will skip a lot of learning 'mistake' steps.

When designing your template you need to keep some basic considerations in
mind.

You will need a

Header
Footer
Content Area
Menu(s)
Any other special region

If your using the latest FrontPage, 03 you can use DWT (dynamic web
templates)

See this ebook I wrote telling you how. (It's free)
http://frontpage-ebooks.com/dwt-ebook.htm

If you don't have fp03 Then I recommend using includes for general areas and
the menu
footer, header, menu, any other special repeated but static area.

http://anyfrontpage.com/ezine/va/frontpage-includes.htm

When using a dwt and if your site is above five pages or likely to increase
I recommend using include pages for the menu areas... you can see how this
works using a text menu and includes on http://addonfp.com/

If you know any CSS or can use it or are willing to use it, I'd skip tables
also.

Tables - Don't use the FrontPage table layout feature (unless you use it to
see how it works then delete the extra coding)

You can still put all the formatting for the tables and such things as
backgrounds font types colours and sizes and hyperlink colours etc etc etc
into a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)

Read this two part article on FrontPage CSS

http://msmvps.com/frontpage/articles/13615.aspx
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/articles/13683.aspx

As regards SEO (search engine optimisation)

This article outlines many of the steps you should take and tells you about
a free SEO Class which I highly recommend, it has a number of sister classes
which you will also find invaluable, hand in hand with seo goes marketing
(of your site) and your required to join that as well, be sure to read the
guidelines before joining.

http://accessfp.net/optimizingfrontpage.htm

What should be included on a Template?

Apart from the areas already mentioned, one should as part of the site have
links to page such as

Sitemap
About
Search
Privacy Policy
Content - which include a form
copyright and name and email should be at the bottom of every page
See http://accessfp.net/protect-your-email-address.htm on protecting your
email.


When it comes to validation
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/articles/33401.aspx

you will want your site to be as clean as possible the above link contains
an article about this.

You will want to promote your site this article talks about methods.

http://msmvps.com/frontpage/articles/18345.aspx


Before publishing for the first time and obtaining your host and domain name
this two part article might be of use.

http://accessfp.net/publishing-2002.htm
http://accessfp.net/publishing-frontpage-2002.htm

Of course there are many other factors that go into making a template and
applying it to your site, but the main thing to do is to reference help
where ever you can. First stop is the FrontPage help which has a fount of
good tips and how's plus online tutorials at Microsoft. Next join a couple
of FrontPage lists and forums as well as asking for advice here in the ng.
Not everyone frequents the newsgroups so you will gain a further breadth of
knowledge further afield.

When you get stuck Ask... the only stupid question is the on that never got
asked.

Hope this helps.

Tina Clarke

http://accessfp.net/ - FrontPage Tutorials
http://anyfrontpage.com/ - http://frontpage-ebooks.com/
http://addonfp.com/ - FrontPage Addons
http://frontpage-tips.com/ - Weekly FrontPage Tips
http://msmvps.com/frontpage/ - FrontPage News & Articles Blog
http://frontpage-advice.blogspot.com/ - FrontPage Advice Blog
http://artdoodle.com/ - Abstract Pen and Ink Drawings
 

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