HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP! Internet Literates needed!

[Fiery Dragon]

Hey Guys.

I, the internet illiterate, have been asked by my esteemable grandfather to make a website for his vineyard (my take is a helluva lotta money, let me just say- girl's gotta earn a living, even at 12) Anyways, I have only a crappe program called Trellion, and my websites are very amateur. I need help from anyone who could give me a tutorial, or give me pointers to a better program (cos I'd like a guest book and hit bar etc) YOUR HELP WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED!

The Desperate FD

[Fiery Dragon]

Can anyone help?
Anyone?

[Kitten]

I'm not sure if this is any help but

www.freewebs.com

[Miky]

i would love to help u but i am afraid that it is impossible! i cant even make amatuer ones i am computor retarded, I am surprised i can even use this site sorry i cant help

[Fiery Dragon]

Thankyou so much, Kitten, however the link didn't work. Is it correct?

[Kitten]

The link worked for me, maybe you could try clicking it again.

[Fiery Dragon]

Ooops, Talisha just gave me the right link. Thanks Kitten/Talisha! Both of u r fantastic

[Cat-Eyes]

Doesn't SO do really good webpages? And Min would be another good person to ask. Look at all the Moonfair websites and see who set them up and then ask those people, perhaps.

Cat

[Arien]

yeah, Shadow Outcast makes great websites- he did our moonfair one. And Min! she made the ober.net moonfair one, and that looked awesome!!!
You could ask Duck too- he's good at making sites as well!

[Fiery Dragon]

Thanks guys ;D

[Min]

Congrats on getting into web design so young ;D

If you want to post or PM me the URL of your site I could have a look at it and give some suggestions? I don't know if many of you know it but I don't just do Ober sites...I've been doing commercial ones for over 2 years now (www.adacad.com , www.drapro.com and www.planscan.net.au are the main ones).

Some main things:
- don't use fancy text as text (turn it into images) - if people don't have that text, it'll show up as Times New Roman, which is a yucky and amatuer font to use in sites (not just what I think - my design tutor preaches this)
- run as many checks as you can on it - maximise and minimise the resolution of your screen and check how it looks. Run it in different Internet browsers if you can, and if you're lucky, on PCs and Macs. The aim is to make it viewable for as many people as possible, not just yourself.
- make it easy to edit - build the site around a thought-out folder structure.
- Web design programs. Yuck. I personally hate them. But if you really want to use one, I suggest Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage.

Ummm...could go on, but it's probably better if you just ask what you want to know and I can try answer it. Almost all I've learned has been from trial and error for the last 6 years.

[Stephen]

Another good program to use for designing (if you like using the programs) if you want graphics in it and other stuff (like mouseovers- which is probably a bit more advanced, but hey!) is Adobe ImageReady.

-Sorry, probably not that helpful

[shadowoutcast]

I'll have to agree with Min on everything she typed there.

• If you don't have time to create text in an image use 'Arial' it is the most commonly used text other than NTR.
• I would go with Dreamweaver of some kind over but hardly use any (other than Flash)
• Use a solid colour for a backround and a little change for the navigation if you what (eg. Black backround to white nav bar.)

[Min]

Yeap, what Stephen and Shadow said, plus -
Image ready with Photoshop is a GODSEND, I swear! It makes life so much easier.

[Cat-Eyes]

It doesn't work on here anymore, I can't figure out why... (Actually I could, if I could be bothered... but that would involve also learning how to use it...)

[Elspeth]

Yes, Min's tips are great and I'm so pleased to hear someone say the things I'm always thinking when I visit webapges. I shall add some more ideas for you to think about, good FieryDragon.

• Don't go crazy with images, especially flashing or moving gifs.
• Subtle background images can be great, but remember to adjust your background colour to the main colour of the image. For instance, if you have light text on a dark image and you don't adjust the background colour, then it will be impossible to read the text until the image loads. (This is because the default background colour is white.) And some browsers don't load images properly. Let's not forget the people who actually turn images off altogether.
• Use a reasonably-sized font, rather than something tiny. Since this is going to be for a vineyard, a lot of older people with dodgy eyes might be visiting it and they would definitely appreciate a normal sized font that they can read
• Browse around other websites about vineyards and see what they've done. You might be able to "borrow" some ideas from them.

Apart from that, follow the advice of the good Min, Stephen and ShadowOutcast and you should be right. And feel free to call for help should you need any. At least one of us should be around to help you out.