Interested in creating my own site

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Guest

I plan on ordering the trial version of Front Page, however I have a few
questions. Is this program easy to work with for someone that doesn't know
code? I have no knowledge of it, so I was wondering if it was possible to
create a site with front page that is basically a click and drag type of
thing? Found some do it yourself sites on line, however they all require you
to have frames with scroll bars, and it was recommended that I try to stay
away from those.

So basically my question is: Is the program easy enough for a computer
dummy to understand? Will I need to learn a bunch of code, or can I still
create a nice site without it? I have a home based buisness that takes most
of my time, but I would like to broaden my customer base.

Thanks for any help that you may give me!
 
Frontpage is designed for those who don't know HTML - although HTML
knowledge does help of course as does knowledge of Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS). But for a beginner using FP as it is should be no problem.

It is not quite click and drag, but as pretty easy to grasp and behaves much
like (almost) a word processor - in terms of applying a font, or other basic
text formatting like italics, underline etc. There are many features
Frontpage offers that you'd be advised to read up on.

FP comes with pre-designed "themes" which combine graphic elements, colour
schemes & styles etc to produce a site quickly and easily. Whether these
themes are 'nice looking' sites are a matter of opinion - I've never used
them myself, so can't
really give an informed opinion.

'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder' as they say....

There's plenty of books on Frontpage (one recommended here often is
Frontpage Inside Out (written by an MVP/group member here).

http://www.frontpagewiz.com is a good starter tutorial site, but group
members may be able to recommend other resources.

The more complex you want your site to be, the more skilled you'd need to
be.
 
A few additional notes:

While it is certainly possible for one to create web pages and web sites
with FrontPage, without knowing anything about HTML, it is important to
remember that a web page is not a word processing document, and a web site
is a network client-server entity. That is, while one's desires for a word
processor may be very simple, and are not likely to change over time a great
deal, as one works with web pages and web sites, and comes to realize what
sort of functionality is available to use, it is typical for a person to
want to do more at some time with it. When that time comes, one must be
prepared to learn more about the technology that drives web pages and web
sites.

In many cases, it is not a difficult thing to do. Learning HTML is not
particularly difficult, and FrontPage can make the process a lot easier, as
you can use the Design view to create HTML, and then look at it immediately
in the Code View. This facilitates a "learn by experiment/example" method of
self-education.

In addition, it is important to note that, because a web site is a
client-server entity, and is viewed in a browser on many different machines,
it is not as simple to create a web page that looks good on any machine in
any browser as it is to, for example, create a Word document that always
looks the same on any machine. This is one of the most difficult aspects of
web design, and while FrontPage (and other HTML editors, such as
Dreamweaver) can make this process easiER, it will not make it easy.

In other words, be prepared. If you want to design web pages and web sites,
you *will* have to learn something at some point somewhere down the line.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
..Net Developer

Presuming that God is "only an idea" -
Ideas exist.
Therefore, God exists.
 
In addition to what the others have said, you will also find yourself
needing to know about image editing. FrontPage doesn't do a good job of
image editing so you need a third party image editor, like; Photoshop
(expensive, steep learning curve), Paint Shop, Adobe Elements, etc. Another
indespensible image tool is IrFanview (freebie) - I hesitate to call this a
true image editor, but it's great for batch conversion, renaming, resizing,
optimizing images.


|I plan on ordering the trial version of Front Page, however I have a few
| questions. Is this program easy to work with for someone that doesn't
know
| code? I have no knowledge of it, so I was wondering if it was possible to
| create a site with front page that is basically a click and drag type of
| thing? Found some do it yourself sites on line, however they all require
you
| to have frames with scroll bars, and it was recommended that I try to stay
| away from those.
|
| So basically my question is: Is the program easy enough for a computer
| dummy to understand? Will I need to learn a bunch of code, or can I still
| create a nice site without it? I have a home based buisness that takes
most
| of my time, but I would like to broaden my customer base.
|
| Thanks for any help that you may give me!
|
 
Thanx so much for your replies! They help tremendously! I have previously
tried the DIY websites that are offered on line, but I couldn't get them to
look the way that I wanted them to look. I was caught with a generic page
that had a ton of scroll bars. You had to scroll on the left just to
navigate. It was very frustrating.

I am not aftraid to learn the code, just would like to get something basic
up and running. I would like the ability to be able to enhance my site once
my knowledge increases. Bare bones to begin with would be fine, and then
make it better as I learn more. This way I can go at my own pace. I am not
trying to sell like crazy off of it for now, just use it as a type of
brochure for those that are already familiar with my product. Eventually, I
would like to have some web sales but am not dependant on them at this time.

I do have PSP 10 and photoshop, so photos shouldn't be a problem. I have
been working with them reguarally since I do have printed catalogs and
brochures for my items with pictures of each. Trying to get a good picture
to print on paper can be just as difficult IMO.

It sure sounds like this may be just what I am looking for. I will get the
trial to see how it goes. It is a tremendous addtion knowing that this board
is here for help! Thanx bunches!!!
 
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