Website designing

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n2casey

Super Hero - Super Powers
I have got a job work for website designing/developing. I want to design a website like Digit Forum, www.2advanced.com etc. Earlier I have used MS Front Page, MS Word etc. for this purpose but limted options r available there. So tell me name of tools/softwares for that purpose.
Also provide the links where I can read/download tutorials for that.
 

iMav

The Devil's Advocate
if ur looking for a forum go to *www.phpbb.com

as far as desgining goes its upto ur creativity i wud say frontapage clubbed with dreamweaver 4 is a powerful combo to develop websites for starting u can also search for free java scripts on the net to add some interesting features ... u can also try content management softwares such as mambo and others
 

Apollo

"Technologic"
Staff member
For 'designing' a forum software, you have to have immense programming skills, technical know-how, and patience! :D

PHPbb is the best forum engine tool for free! So you might want to look into that. By the way, if you didn't know, this Digit forum was previously driven by PHPbb before switching to vBulletin. PHPbb has a whole gamut of sites dedicated towards improving and optimizing its interface.

Dreamweaver, as some have said before, lets you build and tackle web pages in a very professional way.

If you're looking at adding animations to your site... check out Flash. Tutorials for the same can be accessed at FlashKit.
 

tuxfan

Technomancer
You get in touch with me if you want to outsource :lol: Just kidding. Do it on your own. You will get to learn a few things. For learning basics of anything related to web, go to *www.w3schools.com

IMO, you should use some good HTML editor instead of all these WYSIWYG editors that bloat the size of files with useless codes. I use Notepad++ which is a free software. It colours the code and makes it more readable. Also has tabs so you can open multiple files at a time.

Additionally, these WYSIWYG editors will use tables for page layouts which is pretty outdated now :cool: You should use CSS. Have a look at some of the following links. Or seach for "tables vs CSS" in google and you will get plenty of material to read.
*www.sitepoint.com/article/tables-vs-css
*www.decloak.com/Dev/CSSTables/CSS_Tables_01.aspx
*www.andybudd.com/archives/2004/05/an_objective_look_at_table_based_vs_css_based_design/
*www.htmlite.com/SD008.php

Additionally, I have been using PHP to make things easier. For example, the header, footer, menu, etc all come from PHP code. So if it needs modification, you have to edit only at one place.

This is my skeleton code usually for left navigation, 2 column layout. The <div>s are positioned with CSS.
Code:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "*www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html>

<head>
  <title></title>
  <link href="stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>

<body>

  <?php include "functions.php"; ?>

  <div id="header">
    <?php header(); ?>
  </div>
  
  <div id="wrapper">

    <div id="content">
	CONTENT COMES HERE
    </div>
	
    <div id="navigation">
	<?php navigation(); ?>
    </div>

  </div>
  
  <div id="footer">
    <?php footer(); ?>
  </div>

</body>
</html>

What sections do you intend to put in your site?
 
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n2casey

n2casey

Super Hero - Super Powers
Thx to all replies.


@ tuxfan

Very much thx for links & code u provided.
Actually I have got some work fro a Toy Company & a Jeweller Shop owner.
Toy Company wants its site with flash animations & Jewellery Shop owner want his site with forum uses.
 

tuxfan

Technomancer
I am pretty eager to see the sites that you design.

Do post the links here or PM me. :)

I always try to discourage clients from using flash for following reasons:
1. It slows down the site, consumes more bandwidth
2. It is expensive for the client
3. If the flash plugin is not installed, all your efforts of great looks go down the drain and it shows an ugly plugin missing error.
 
OP
n2casey

n2casey

Super Hero - Super Powers
tuxfan said:
I am pretty eager to see the sites that you design.
Do post the links here or PM me.

OK. I will send u links.


tuxfan said:
I always try to discourage clients from using flash for following reasons:
1. It slows down the site, consumes more bandwidth
2. It is expensive for the client
3. If the flash plugin is not installed, all your efforts of great looks go down the drain and it shows an ugly plugin missing error.

That's OK but, is there any alternate for flash?
 

Apollo

"Technologic"
Staff member
@ Tuxy

Those are some pretty informative links there; especially the material to read on "tables vs. CSS". Thanks!

n2casey said:
That's OK but, is there any alternate for flash?
There is no alternative to flash when it comes to packing a decent animation in the least possible size.
 

ahref

In the zone
I always try to discourage clients from using flash for following reasons:
1. It slows down the site, consumes more bandwidth
2. It is expensive for the client
3. If the flash plugin is not installed, all your efforts of great looks go down the drain and it shows an ugly plugin missing error.
One more point
Many people like me, use plugin which block flash.
 

tuxfan

Technomancer
Only alternative to flash is animated GIFs :lol: But they come nowhere near in terms of looks.

Apollo said:
Those are some pretty informative links there; especially the material to read on "tables vs. CSS". Thanks!
You are welcome. :) If you are used to laying out pages with tables, you will initially face hardships! I have faced them (and still face at times). But if you are willing to do it, you will soon start writing better web-pages. Its actually a different way of thinking. Deep has also helped me at times and he still does. :)

Just a tip ;)

If your page is showed differently then you expected, change the background colour of your DIVs or give them a single pixel border and see where they are starting and ending.
Code:
border: 1px solid #000;
Additionally, it is always better to change the default padding and margin of body, div, etc. Different browsers have different default values and therefore may screw up the pages. I recently made some pages and they look *exactly same* in all 3 browsers - IE, FF and Opera. And the best part of it is that it for my own site :))
 

Apollo

"Technologic"
Staff member
Thanks once again, Tuxy! :) I might not be able to delve into coding web-pages just yet (re: exams are ongoing :D), but I will do so in the upcoming vacations.

Will nag you if I need some timely pointers. ;)
 

JGuru

Wise Old Owl
You can write Java applets instead of Flash. But you definitely need excellent knowledge
in Java language to write a great Graphics applet!!
 

aditya.shevade

Console Junkie
Has anyone tried this?

*msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/ ? Hows your experience? It's free and looks good to me.

Aditya
 

tuxfan

Technomancer
JGuru said:
You can write Java applets instead of Flash. But you definitely need excellent knowledge
in Java language to write a great Graphics applet!!

What about the file size of applets JGuru. Are they smaller than flash files? Do we have any siginificant advantage in applets over flash?
 

bharathbala2003

why need title?
@ tuxfan i was going thro that code.. tho i dont know much of these php stuffs i have a doubt.. now say i want to insert 3 pages in the main site using these.. say aboutus.php or contact.php etc

how do i give it those codes..
 
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