Do I have to have a domain/webhost to start building a site?

Morph3ous

Morph3ous

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I'm one of the many people on here that is looking to create their first website.

I've done lots of forum searches, and lots of reading. I know the task of creating your own website can be difficult and time consuming, and some suggest purchasing a template like ProPhoto is the way to go. Whilst this seems very attractive, it is quite expensive, so I'd like to at least have a go at making my own. I've had a look through the w3schools site and read a little on HTML and CSS. I've also read about Wordpress, Joomla etc. These seem to require a host before they can be installed though? Is it possible to start writing (coding?) your own site before signing up with a host and purchasing a domain name? Ideally I want to create the layout, then simply upload it to a host once I'm happy with it. I thought I could just install a program onto my computer and away I'd go...?

(EDIT - Dreamweaver appears to be the sort of thing I'm talking about, but its expensive in itself)
 
Install an AMPP server on your PC which will let you run a website on your local machine and test to your heart's content.
 
I run several websites, I can view locally on my computer as well as online.
Each has it's own folder which more or less mirrors exactly the layout on the remote server.
Using a browser to open the index page on the computer is essentially the same experience as clicking the home page online.
 
If you're just checking basic layout then just open the pages in a browser locally. If you're wanting to test functionality and scripts thoroughly you'll need to install a web server of some flavour.
 
Thanks for the replies.

neil_g said:
If you're just checking basic layout then just open the pages in a browser locally. If you're wanting to test functionality and scripts thoroughly you'll need to install a web server of some flavour.
Click to expand...

Initially I guess just the layout, but testing out functionality would be useful a little further down the line. (if by this you mean, testing to make sure when I click on "Gallery" it takes me to the right gallery)

Any web server install suggestions?

EDIT - this one? http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html
 
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I was thinking of going with TSOhost as the hosting company, so PHP 5 I guess.
 
If you want to develop locally then I suggest USBWebserver, can run from a USB pen and other than not support SMTP (old versions did) it's incredibly easy to use. :)
 
Harvey_nikon said:
If you want to develop locally then I suggest USBWebserver, can run from a USB pen and other than not support SMTP (old versions did) it's incredibly easy to use. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks. I installed XAMMP and Wordpress last night, so will have a play later. I'll look into this USB one too.
 
So I've installed XAMMP, then Wordpress and this evening Joomla. Got them up and running as localhost pretty easily, but man they're complicated and difficult to work out!!
 
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