Newbie Needs Your Recommendations

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1

I know the least of anyone on this forum, and that’s guaranteed! So bear with me. :blush:

I want to start tinkering with building a website. I’ve read some forum posts here, and from what I’ve gathered, I need the following:[INDENT]
(1) A web or text editor.[/INDENT]

I read that this includes software such as Adobe CS4 or 5 or Dreamweaver. I purchased Adobe Contribute CS3 about five or so years ago, but only used it to edit a website that was designed by a web developer.

[LIST=1|INDENT=1][=2]Is Adobe Contribute the type of software I can use to build a website?[=2]Do you recommend Dreamweaver over Adobe Contribute? Or is there another that you recommend?
[/LIST][INDENT]B An FTP client.[/B][/INDENT]

I am totally clueless about this. My only experience with an FTP is when I send audio or video to someone via “YouSendIt” or “SendThisFile,” etc.

[LIST=1|INDENT=1][=2]Which FTP client do you recommend?[=2]What is the main difference in the FTPs you purchase and the free FTPs?
[/LIST][INDENT]B A graphics program[/B][/INDENT]

I’m assuming that everyone would recommend PhotoShop.

[LIST=1|INDENT=1][*=2]Does anyone know where I can buy PhotoShop at a reasonable price?
[/LIST][HR][/HR]
TEMPLATE MONSTER:
I’ve been Googling, and I found Template Monster templates. Does anyone know anything about Template Monster? Do I simply buy a template and then use Adobe Contribute to edit it? If so, is there a limit to the amount of editing I am permitted to do? In other words, can I change the layout if I so choose, or am I limited to only inserting and editing text, photos, etc.?

When I am viewing the Template Monster templates, I see notations just below the template samples that read “Full JS Animated Template,” “CSS Full Site Flash,” PSD Template," “Responsive Web Template.” If I’m not mistaken, I believe I saw one on there at some point in time that read something to the effect of “WordPress Template.” I don’t know anything about WordPress, but I had the impression that it was software designed for blogging. Can WordPress be used to build or edit websites? Also, what is “CSS,” “PSD,” and “Responsive”?

Are there free templates, comparable to what Template Monster provides, that I can download and play around with?

HOSTING:
If I buy a domain name from GoDaddy, does that mean that GoDaddy is the “host” of my website? Does that mean that GoDaddy is reserving a room for my website to reside, as the hostess? LOL. I apologize for such elementary questions, but, like I said, I know absolutely nothing!

Thank you.

2

Hi Newbie Learning. Welcome to SitePoint. :slight_smile:

I can’t answer all of your questions, but I’ll answer some.

Regarding text/code editors, there are plenty of free ones. In fact, even the simplest program like WordPad on PC of TextEdit on Mac are fine. They just don’t have all the buttons and other functions that make things a bit quicker, but the simpler code editor has the advantage that you have to write the code yourself and thus will better understand how your site works. Fancy editors (especially WYSIWYG—what you see is what you get) gan work against you by inserting a lot of bloated and unnecessary code to get the job done.

Some examples of free text editors include:

Aptana Studio
NetBeans
CoffeeCup
Sublime Text 2
Bluefish
Amaya

In terms of FTP, some code/text editors have this built in, such as DreamWeaver, so you may not need one. But there are plenty of good ones out there, like FileZilla, which is free. Perhaps one difference between a free one like this and a commercial one like Transmit (for Mac) is that Transmit look prettier, but other than that, they are the same. :slight_smile:

Photoshop is very handy, but also expensive (there are no reasonable prices!) but there are some free alternatives that are quite good. The best is probably Gimp, but there are some simpler, free ones too.

As for templates, they can get you moving much faster, but they tend to be overly complex and not well coded. You’d need to check each one to see how much they let you change things, but I would think that’s not a problem.

WordPress is a very popular system that allows you to have a fancy site up and running in minutes. The code can be a bit convoluted and hard to modify, though, so there might be a learning curve. Although it’s designed for blogging, plenty of people use it for regular sites, and a lot of themes/templates are pre-designed for that use, too.

The ideal is probably to learn to code from the bottom up, but it’s up to you! Hope that helps a bit. :slight_smile:

EDIT:

If I buy a domain name from GoDaddy, does that mean that GoDaddy is the “host” of my website? Does that mean that GoDaddy is reserving a room for my website to reside, as the hostess?

No, domain hosting and web hosting are completely separate. You pay for them separately. You can have them together with the same company, but they are still separate items you pay for, and you can split them apart later if you like. Many people have their domain hosted with GoDaddy but have their site hosted with another (proper) web hosting company.

3

Ralph,

Thank you for such a quick response! You’ve given me good information to chew on.

So what is the best way for learning code?

4

Would “Beginning Programming for Dummies” work?

5

I’m not sure programming is what you should get into—at least not at first. Starting off with a good book on HTML and CSS is a good option. HTML and CSS are the ‘bread and butter’ of web design, or at least front-end design (which is what people see in the browser). One book I recommend is Stylin’ with CSS. That’s the book I used to get going, and I loved it. But there are some great [URL=“http://products.sitepoint.com/?tag=&filters[tag][]=css&filters[difficulty]=&simpleform_submit_marker=showme”]SitePoint books, too.

6

Doh! Goes to show how much I know: I thought that programming and coding were the same thing. See, I’m already learning! LOL.

Thank you for the book links. I will look into those right now.

I downloaded GIMP. Looks fun. Can’t wait to start playing with it.

7

Well, they are, really. Programming involves coding just as writing HTML and CSS involves coding. They are all code. But programming is a bit more heavy-duty, and you can learn all about that without necessarily being able to put up a web page, so that’s why I suggest getting HTML and CSS under your belt first. The most common programming for the web is with JavaScript (to make fancy things happen on a web page) and PHP, which makes fancy things happen on the web server.

8

Ah-hah! I understood that perfectly. I most certainly appreciate the way you’ve taken the time to spell it out for me. I gotta have it in baby terms. At this point, layman’s terms are even over my head.

Thanks for helping!

9

Massive, shameless horn-blowing…

Try the link in my signature to “best practices tutorials for beginning designers.”

10

Black Max,

Horn-blowing benefits folks like me. LOL. Keep ‘em comin’.

11

Oh, Black Max, good stuff!!! I just took a quick look at that link, and that’s exactly the type of simplicity I’m looking for. Now I just need to get a tablet pc so that I can prop up in bed and read this stuff till dawn.

As an aside, do you gurus recommend a Windows OS tablet?

12

I’ve worked as a court reporter for the past seven years. Not enough work in my country-bumpkin neck of the woods, so I’m leaving that field. But as a court reporter, I used speech recognition software, and we had to create common court phrases by creating macros. I could dictate the words “yada-yada” as a macro, which would place a period at the end of the current sentence, return one line, tab over, uppercase my first letter, drop in the words “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” and insert a comma and a space. To get that result, I had to use a variety of commands in building my macro.

From what I’ve read in the “Best Practices Tutorials for Beginning Designers,” it appears that commands are dealt with in a similar manner. So maybe this won’t be so hard for me. I’ll read on, and if I have any questions, I won’t hesitate to give a holler.

13

I thought that’s all they ever said in courts. :shifty:

if I have any questions, I won’t hesitate to give a holler.

Please do. That’s why we hang around here. :smiley:

14

Hi newbie learning I tried to answer some of your questions

Does anyone know where I can buy PhotoShop at a reasonable price?

Official adobe website would be best to buy photoshop. Make sure you choose multiuser version if want to use on more than one PC.

Which FTP client do you recommend?

I always prefer FileZilla over any other FTP client. It is free and really easy to use. WinSCp is also a good one.

What is the main difference in the FTPs you purchase and the free FTPs?

I don’t think so.

15

carter.dorothy,

Thanks for the response. Glad to have that info here so that I can come back and reference to when I get ready to make some final decisions.

16

Hey Newbie Learning. I am 46, and in the past 2 months I have learned HTML5, PHP, Python, C (almost) and so much more.

Many may disagree, but fine nerdom is like fine wine, we all are awesome, just different flavors.

“http://www.timothytraining .net” Create The Net is his main page. Don’t let it intimidate you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMZARc_GdLE I started here: Introduction to Dreamweaver CS5- Part 1

At sometimes I was impatient, I did a lot of jumping around between all his videos, and I still do. I downloaded the free trial of DreamWeaver and stayed logged in as much as possible and did as many of Timothy’s lessons as I could. When my DreamWeaver ran out, I started using Sublime Text 2. Depending on how far along you get with Dreamweaver, you may want to look at a more out of the box IDE until your comfort zone improves. However, learning about Sublime Text 2 has taught me more than I can express in this post. Oh IDE is a design package that takes you from designing to publishing on the web with a user interface and a few clicks. ( there is more to it, but basically that is the important part)

This may not be for everyone, and it does get extremely slow at times, but I can now take advanced courses on line and realize I don’t need them. All because of Timothy. He is also very prompt at responding to questions. Maybe not in detail, but he will direct you to the answer.

Good Luck.

17

Wow. I’m grinning ear to ear at your accomplishment. I’ve stepped away from it for a while – been busy at work – but hope to get back to it. My hat’s off to you for persevering! Been there, done that – with other topics, though – and it ain’t easy You give me hope! I, too, was very impressed with Timothy’s desire to help guide and teach. Not too may folks out there like that.

18

I can’t speak to the quality of resources on Timothy’s training site, but it seems all geared towards Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is NOT necessary for site building or design. It’s a nice tool, but it’s just that, one of many tools that you may or may not find useful. When you see people insisting that sites must be designed in Photoshop, coded in Dreamweaver, or whatever, be wary. Again, not disparaging anyone or anything, just sounding a cautionary note.

19

some good text editors are Notepad++ and Sublime 2.

You can use FileZilla for FTP.

PhotoShop is a rip off ($700 is standard full price I believe). If you’re a student you may get it for $200 or so. Maybe use Gimp or something until you actually need PS.

20

I wouldn’t call PS a ripoff, just very overpriced and not the Essential Web Design Program that many people call it. My biggest stumbling block as a Web designer is my poor graphic design and creation skills. I have an older copy of PS (CS2), but even this “obsolete” program is well beyond my skill level to create unique and beautiful graphics. I have learned a few minor things to do, and am very glad I have learned that much, but as a part-time freelancer who doesn’t work in a company with a graphic design department (or even a single graphic designer), my designs are reliant strictly on what I can produce. PS is a terrific tool for creating Web graphics (though Illustrator is even better, I understand). It is NOT a Web design creation tool. You can create lovely pictures of Web sites in PS, but not the actual sites (at least not well).