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help building a decent website

dudeofblokes

dudeofblokes

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 3, 2007
237
7
carrickfergus, northern ireland, united kingdom
im looking to build a decent website but currenty use iweb 08, put plainly its too basic, i have no experience with css or html, but id like to make a decent site with forum capablities but dont know were to go. i have tried sandvox and rapidweaver as well but they just dont work for me as rapidweavers themes are awful and lose shape if too much links to other pages are supplied.

the likes of this site it is we designed but how would i get a forum like this, or even a site that looks so good without spending a fortune?

any help would be great
 
Your best bet would be Rapidweaver, it does create very nice styles and it's got a lot more going for it than iWeb in terms of features. Rapidweaver isn't very expensive (less than $100) and has some very good resources, forums and groups online with help, tutorials, theme, etc. It is great software than can build a fairly substantial site for little cost and effort.

As you said before you've tried Rapidweaver, but besides that the only other real choices would be Coda or Dreamweaver which need a fair bit of technical know how and cost (Dreamweaver not Coda).
 
I suggest finding a friend or someone who does know web design and have them work closely with you on getting something setup. Doing what you want is hard to do with no HTML or CSS knowledge. Colleges offer degrees in web design and development, which means it takes some skill to do. Creating what you want isn't like throwing a Word document or presentation together casually. You need some decent skill (not a ton).
 
dudeofblokes im looking to build a decent website but currenty use iweb 08, put plainly its too basic, i have no experience with css or html, but id like to make a decent site with forum capablities but dont know were to go. i have tried sandvox and rapidweaver as well but they just dont work for me as rapidweavers themes are awful and lose shape if too much links to other pages are supplied.

the likes of this site it is we designed but how would i get a forum like this, or even a site that looks so good without spending a fortune?

any help would be great
Click to expand...


1. You really only have one choice. If you want the freedom to break the bounds of creative restraints at the most basic level you are going to need to learn HTML and CSS.

2. To take it to the next level you are going to want to learn basic PHP.

3. CSS are the instructions that you use to tell elements and text on a page where to go.


4. Here is the best resource on the web for learning these basic website languages.

A. http://www.lynda.com/

B. http://www.vtc.com/


If you decide to learn how to build your own, get this to test and build your site on your computer http://www.mamp.info/en/index.php

Here is my advice, if you have the time and the resources to learn HTML and CSS then build it yourself, if not, find someone to help you or build it for you.

One last thing, here is a free really powerful website application http://www.aptana.com/studio/
 
not all that scary

go to oReilly.com http://www.oreilly.com/ find Learning website design by Linda Neiderstat -spell check-. check out W3C http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp
if you want to turn a buck check out MAMP= MySQL, PHP, Apache,Apple.
Use the resource of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page for answers to ?.
What you actually will need to do is a lot of code and it really is not all that scary, there is a ton of assistence once you find the path and get to know the language and just what you want to do.
And there are XHTML, CSS editors for the Mac.
I began with a purchase of a book Dreamweaver CS3 or whatever its called for $35 and read thru to get an idea.
research, research, research.
 
You can spend time, money or both?

If you want a full featured site and have time constraints then hire someone to do the site for you. maybe you have skills you can barter?
 
I'm a rapidweaver user, and a lot of the themes (at least those you purchase after the initial themes everybody has) are ultra-customisable.
You can change colours, add graphics, as much as you want (but perhaps shouldn't).

From your post, you are also looking for some forum software. If that is really a requierement, you could switch to using Wordpress (hosted by wordpress itself or hosted by an ISP for you) or a Drupal installation where you can mix and match what you want. Both of those offer forum software that can be tightly integrated with your website.
 
In my opinion, it depends on what you want.

I would either recommend SMF as a forum, with TinyPortal for news and a front page, or Wordpress as a blog, and integrating something with that.
 
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