I've come to the conclusion that I'm terrible with websites...

Joshwain

Joshwain

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,379
Edit My Images
Yes
Okay so I've been at this more or less all day in Dreamweaver and truthfully, I don't have much of a clue! :lol:

I know how to make a simple template and that's about it, so that's what I've done. Seeing as I've finally got bored for today, I thought I'd upload my work and show what I've got so far to you lot :)

Don't be too harsh, it's probably the only IT thing I'm terrible at :lol:

http://wainwrightmedia.co.uk
 
:lol: I just need to sort the radio page out and get a gallery or something added. At least I've figured out how to use the widget thing in Dreamweaver :)
 
I've seen worse too.

I have a couple of suggestions though:

1 - Fix the width rather than use the fluid layout. I'd suggest 960px as the width of the main wrapper.

2 - Add some internal padding so that your photography introduction isn't so tight to the left edge.

Decent job though, perfectly decent.
 
I can't agree with point 1. Why? 900 pixels minimum, sure, but why FIX it to 900 pixels? That would look like a postage stamp on my screen. Not everyone uses a phone :) So long as it dynamically sizes to something appropriate, why not let it breathe a little on larger screens?
 
It's good practice and enables the designer to have control on how the viewer sees their site.

Fluid layouts are OK for sites such as this, but that's where it ends.

Don't agree with me? Well fine, but ask yourself why the BBC does it? Oh, and Sky...and Apple, NBC, eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Trip Advisor.....

And I didn't say 900px, I said 960px. That allows for a 1024px wide display to accommodate vertical scrollbars and a little bit of space without forcing horizontal ones.
 
It's not that bad. Agree about changing it to fixed width.
 
Wow, I wasn't expecting so many responses!

I've fixed the width to 960px and added padding to my tables so things are looking a little more professional even though it's still the simplest of simple websites. I'd rather be doing what I am and learning something than paying someone else to make something flashy that I have no idea about though :)

I don't know if the website itself will be updated, I've added the amendments through Filezilla but it seems to be messing up a little for me when I try to view it. I'll try clearing my cache to see if that works.

But yeah, thanks! :thumbs:
 
Ah, you're using tables are you?

Might I suggest that you don't. They can behave quite unpredictably, and are very much "old school" when it comes to building a website.

That's not to say you shouldn't use them ever, but they are best suited for tabular data.

Take a look at using "div" elements instead. They are much more predictable and allow for far greater flexibility in design and control.

Dreamweaver will produce them of course and once you've grasped how they sit within the flow of a page you'll be able to use them wisely.

Of course the main things to understand first are HTML and CSS but my guess s you've already got an understanding of them.
 
That fixed width looks fine on my 1600 by 900 screen. There is nothing wrong with simplicity on a website, especially given the wide variety of ways people view web pages these days. It displays well in Opera, Firefox and Chrome on my system, and looks ok on the phone.

And yes if you can ditch the tables as Steve says - there are loads of resources on the net for HTML/CSS and its actually quite straightforward, especially if you keep it simple.
 
Last edited:
You've written "coruses" instead of "courses" and "...currently still at..." is not good grammar.

Apologies for mentioning these things but neither looks great on a page which also refers to your AS level grade "B" in English Language.
 
I'll have to look in to the options available other than tables, they're the only things I know how to use at the minute and I have to admit they've been a bit of a pain!

Steelmagnet said:
You've written "coruses" instead of "courses" and "...currently still at..." is not good grammar.

Apologies for mentioning these things but neither looks great on a page which also refers to your AS level grade "B" in English Language.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that! I'm usually the picky one with spelling and grammar but I guess my standards are dropping seeing as I dropped English for this year :lol: I'll go through everything thoroughly once I've finished :P
 
We'll as I said, tables are best suited to tabular data. If you want to layout a page in two or three columns then divs are the way to go.

If you use Internet Explorer then install the developers toolkit. It does a good job of showing what code is doing what. Similar tools are available for all browsers. You'll be able to see how CSS is affecting individual elements and just where things like divs are sat within a page.

Obviously Dreamweaver does this too, but that's no help when you want to view someone else's page.
 
Maybe I should just get the website finished with tables first and then try build a second site with divs? I just don't want to mess up what I've done so far by not really knowing what I'm doing. A bit of time and a couple of video tutorials will obviously change that but for now it might be best to play it safe. I don't think it's screaming out that I'm using tables and although they're a bit fiddly, they haven't restricted me yet :)
 
I installed Wordpress through my cpanel and didn't have a clue what I was doing :lol:

I ended up just deleting it 5 minutes later, I think I need to have another go with it though seeing as I'm not going to be creating anything professional looking in the near future :p
 
I've just been messing about with Wordpress a bit, installed it to my website and added a nice looking theme. I'm thinking about using it for a photography blog rather than the whole website seeing as I want to include permanent pages for my qualifications and radio work.

I could maybe create a subdomain and have a link to it on my website, or just find a way to have everything on it... hmmm

anyway, it's late (early) now so I'm off to bed! :lol:
 
There's nothing wrong with using Wordpress (or Joomla) and both can have a fine looking website up and running in minutes.

Trouble is you won't learn anything and you sound like you want to.

And...that knowledge you learn from building from scratch will still be very useful if you do end up with a Wordpress site.
 
Whilst what is there is functional and works, to me it is lacking any kind of design. Which is quite a different skill to being able to create a website technically.

Also, WordPress or many of the other CMS style sites can have static pages quite easily. Or should I say the illusion of being static. Another advantage is that you don't have to have the full source code to make an adjustment an upload it etc. So it could be done from anywhere by anyone.

Nice project though, next do it all via notepad++ :P
 
I've found a Wordpress theme that I quite like, the only thing is there's links to about 4 developers websites at the bottom. Do I have to leave these there or can I somehow remove them?

From having a little play I reckon Wordpress will do the job until I've learnt how to make something with a better design :)
 
Joshwain said:
I've found a Wordpress theme that I quite like, the only thing is there's links to about 4 developers websites at the bottom. Do I have to leave these there or can I somehow remove them?
Click to expand...

Four seems excessive, but you should definitely leave one link in to credit the original designer of the theme.
 
Last edited:
Joshwain said:
I've found a Wordpress theme that I quite like, the only thing is there's links to about 4 developers websites at the bottom. Do I have to leave these there or can I somehow remove them?

From having a little play I reckon Wordpress will do the job until I've learnt how to make something with a better design :)
Click to expand...

Jez2011 said:
Four seems excessive, but you should definitely leave one link in to credit the original designer of the theme.
Click to expand...

It depends what the rights to use that theme state ;)

I wouldn't like to advertise it personally, then again if it is really good and you like it and it doesn't cost you money then why not leave it in...

But ultimately the rights of use will determine it.
 
I've decided not to go for that theme now, I edited out some of the links and the whole thing stopped working and told me to put them back in :lol: I've basically spent all day looking for a decent theme ahah, I think it's going to be one of those things where you're never fully satisfied!
 
Paying for a premium one isn't too bad :) Alternatively you can get bespoke ones created for you by a designer.
 
Joshwain said:
I've decided not to go for that theme now, I edited out some of the links and the whole thing stopped working and told me to put them back in :lol: I've basically spent all day looking for a decent theme ahah, I think it's going to be one of those things where you're never fully satisfied!
Click to expand...

You could always try hiding them in CSS instead with display:none
 
Jez2011 said:
You could always try hiding them in CSS instead with display:none
Click to expand...

Lol interesting solution as technically they are displayed :) clever albeit not the spirit intended.
 
I decided against that theme :lol: (forever changing my mind)

You can see the one I've got enabled at the minute here, it's not exactly what I'm looking for but it's as close as I've managed to get without having to pay.

I want a kind of gallery on the home page with my most recent images and pages at the top for my radio work, qualifications and anything else I decide to add. I don't quite like the title on that theme either, I'd much rather create my own logo.

Anyway, I'm supposed to be writing a Law essay :lol:

Edit: slider was the word I was looking for, not "a kind of gallery" :p
 
Last edited:
I suppose you get what you pay for. If you get anything from WordPress.org, as I understand it, it should be completely free and you can do with it what you will, but you're the legal expert ;)
 
Nice site so far, but when I click on the Radio button, the site shfts over to the right a tad, and then if I click on any of the buttons at the top the site shifts back in its original position.

Good luck with Dreamweaver though, I'm doing my site with it and I can honestly say I now have more gray hairs on my head than 6 months ago when I started. My other half is using it to design hers and she's doing much better with it than I can imagine! She's got Paypal integration, stocking system etc. etc. so it is possible to create something much more advanced too.

I tried Corel Website Designer to be fairly good but you don't learn anything, so I'm persevering with Dreamweaver.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top