Knights & Knaves Alehouse

What's the best way to create a website with minimal programming ability? Is there a template used, or a particular program ... or even a site that gives answers to this sort of question?

I use dreamweaver 8. It is fully capable for html and php plus all the shockwave and java stuff. However you need to know something about php, shockwave, and java before you can use it-- it won't create for you.

IMO Dreamweaver is the best out there for web design.

Stepping back even more -

What about places like Geocities and bravehost, where there are wizards and such for creating pages?

pretty basic stuff, IMO you learn little from them. They are very bare bones but they serve their purpose introducing people to the basics of website set up. The biggest drawback though is the (usually) total lack of apache or at best a limited apache setup. This means no major function like doing entry forms and php is right out the window.

Does anyone have experiance with sites like Register.com for this kind of thing? I understand they have tools to assist in this kind of thing(but also here its expensive now).

I hate to say it, but the only good way to create a decent website is to read the HTML and CSS specs, then mark up your content in a text editor. And curse Microsoft for Internet Explorer's non-compliant behavior.

Mythmere wrote:What's the best way to create a website with minimal programming ability? Is there a template used, or a particular program ... or even a site that gives answers to this sort of question?

I've used citymax for our site and I know nothing about programming. I've been very satisfied with them.

joe b.

There are several good tutuorials on the WWW at the Univ of Kansas (which was one of the early adopter/developers for the web), at http://www.techdocs.ku.edu/index.shtml?website

Following their guidelines is how I got started.

Mythmere wrote:What's the best way to create a website with minimal programming ability? Is there a template used, or a particular program ... or even a site that gives answers to this sort of question?

It depends on what kind of web site you want. You'll have to be more specific.

dcs wrote:

Mythmere wrote:What's the best way to create a website with minimal programming ability? Is there a template used, or a particular program ... or even a site that gives answers to this sort of question?

It depends on what kind of web site you want. You'll have to be more specific.

I'm not that specific in my own thinking yet, to tell you the truth. As I think about it more, I'm not sure I have the mental stamina to maintain a site. Static sites don't get much positive feedback other than hits and page views. Not terribly satisfying without a forum, and I'm happy with K&KA as a forum, so... unless I do get more specific in my thinking on it, I'm not likely to take the real step forward and build the site.

Back when I was new to website creating, I used to use Netscape Composer--the one that came with Netscape Navigator version 4.8 (the later versions were too complicated for me).

Nowadays though, I just create things by hand.

Mythmere wrote:I'm not that specific in my own thinking yet, to tell you the truth. As I think about it more, I'm not sure I have the mental stamina to maintain a site. Static sites don't get much positive feedback other than hits and page views. Not terribly satisfying without a forum, and I'm happy with K&KA as a forum, so... unless I do get more specific in my thinking on it, I'm not likely to take the real step forward and build the site.

It sounds like you need to think about what you want your site to be about before you worry about what tools you need.

I keep a "static" site, not to feel satisfaction from knowing people are using it (though it's nice when I hear that), but to (a) present a FAQ about Stardates, and (b) publish a few compositions of my own (mostly RPG adventures).

If you want active participation, you either need to keep up a constant stream of new materials that people will want to download, or you need to set up a forum with a new purpose that people will be interested in. Neither of these is particularly easy.