Denis wrote…

Thanks TLS, yeah, I'm wondering what the alternatives would be to create the site other than front page and Netscape, I would like to be a little creative with it.
Cheers

TheKunadiun wrote…

I use dreamweaver and flash and they work great for me. have you tried those?

yeah keep us posted

TonightsLastSong wrote…

Denis wrote…

Thanks TLS, yeah, I'm wondering what the alternatives would be to create the site other than front page and Netscape, I would like to be a little creative with it.
Cheers

To be honest, I usually do everything by hand... that is, typing it into a text editor.  It's bit more difficult to visualize what you're doing, but that's why I test a lot (and I mean a *LOT* ) in between small edits.

That's not really the solution for a lot of people.  My site building is often a mix of PHP/Python (which is "programming", without a doubt) and HTML (the actual website part).  So, I spend a lot more time in a text editor, because there's no such thing as a "visual" PHP/Python builder

I've felt like writing an "proper" HTML tutorial for a while-- something basic enough that you can understand how do it by hand, but without making your bored out of your mind.  You might not want to dive into the "by-hand" only approach right off the bat, but a lot of times you can use a visual editor, but then switch to the "source" view and make some tweaks.  That's helpful at times.

Anyway-- Not sure which route you want to go.  There are some great visual programs out there, but I can't claim that I'm super familiar with any of them.  If you're not interested in learning an entire program, just to figure out how to make a personal website, then I'd try to find a free visual editor... I'll look around and try a few out.

I'll keep you posted.

Denis wrote…

I've been surfing the net and came across a company producing musician web sites like this one

http://www.namolibrennet.com/

I quite like it, ideally I would like to create something like this. What would be the easiest way?

TonightsLastSong wrote…

Denis wrote…

I've been surfing the net and came across a company producing musician web sites like this one

http://www.namolibrennet.com/

I quite like it, ideally I would like to create something like this. What would be the easiest way?

Well, the best way to start any site is to focus on the layout... you know- the way the page sits on the screen in front of you.  Namoli's site is using something called a "frameset", which is gibberish for saying that her music player is in a separate web page, but it's being instructed to show itself at the bottom of your screen.  so effectively, she's showing you two pages at once.

As for the main content, she's gone for the Stonehenge shape... the header across the top, and then the rest of the content is in two columns: left column is her "meat and potatoes", and the right column is her highlights, like shows, etc.

Well TLS this is a great fundamental tutorial, I would post this on lessons or something, it really serves as a great foundation, thanks for your time and effort.
Next I'm going to  try out some software to see which one I can work with, at the same time create something worth while.  If I stay patient & motivated, I should hopefully have something that is appealing, easy to for the viewer to navigate and encourage them to listen/download my music, which will be free.

I'll keep you posted

Cheers

Once you've got your mind set on an idea for a layout, just start blocking it out in very simple shapes.  In all honestly, web pages are just a series of boxes, some nested inside of one another, until you get the positioning that you want.  After that, it's all just colors and images.

Most pages have a 'header' of some sort on them, which in a lot of cases includes the main menu to help you navigate.  While I'd try to keep in mind what sorts of content you want to put in the header, I'd start off just making it a big rectangle with some ugly colored background.  And then as the layout starts to come together, you can start getting more specific/picky (all the same anyway, huh? ) about what you want things to look like.

A few pointers, in terms of general design:
-- avoid distracting fonts.  It's tempting to get something crazy going on, but if the person viewing your page doesn't already have the font, it can lead to problems.

-- also in terms of font, try to stick to something simple like "Arial", "Veranda" and other such "sans-serif" fonts.  that's just a big  term for fonts that are nice and smooth and can get into mid/large font sizes without looking blocky at all.  San-serif fonts will almost always look better.

-- try to ignore details until you get to that point where you've got nothing else to work on but details.  By "details", I mean stuff like background images (unless you've already got one handy), or links that go out to other websites.  Fill in your content really generally until you feel confident that it's time to solidify a section or two.  The trouble with being picky on details when you first start out is that if you have to change something about the layout, all of your hard work will most likely be ruined 

-- Pick some nice colors.  Use a site like http://kuler.adobe.com/ to get something that really works together.  It's an amazing tool.  If you have an image that you'd like to base a color scheme on, you can upload it and it'll automatically grab the color range from it, too.  Amazing stuff.

And I'd say that that's a good start!  Don't be discouraged if you can't figure out something satisfying right at first.  It's all about inspiration.

kings wrote…

You know and use Torrents dont you?
There are also lots of free text editors around.....you shouldn't have to spend money on it
Spend your time on it, that's more valuable!

I doubt very much you'll find a template web page to play sounds...I dont know for a fact though because I'd write my own anyway.
All the templates I've come across are geared towards showing pictures, playing sound is a different subject.

If you like the lay out of a web page you can view it's source, save it as your 'test.html' and make it your own by changing the text and the pictures.
This will still take a lot of time in a text editor and Photoshop....you do have Photoshop? It helps a lot when wanting to be creative with web pages...!!
You know and use Torrents dont you?

You can use a 'visual editor' to create your web page, MS Word or a program like CoolPage (I know of from years ago!!) but you will ultimately, inevitably want to go into the code, whether from curiosity, from wanting to put something extra in there like a cool MP3 Flash player or for want of understanding why the fucking thing wont do what you want it to do !
So you either have to take the red pill or ask a friend to write a page for you.

I really like TopStyle because I love CSS and it's such a nice program to use and I'm not a programmer so I dont have to work in a simple text editor the whole time but I do have EmEditor, Notepad++ and Notepad2 to 'send to'.
I find Dreamweaver a bit too much to write in but I do use it to manage and synchronize my work. I do the odd edit with it but it can also 'have a mind of it's own'
I use FrontPage sometimes, I find it makes really good buttons.....
I also like CSE HTML Validator, because you can write your own 'input text' in each floating tab; CSS, JS, HTML, PHP....each tab is an alphabetical list of codes to put on your page, but you can also write your own...it's dead handy.

Any questions?   :o