sparrow Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 So, my project for the winter is to build a business website from scratch. We've had the same website for years and it definitely needs an update! I think I originally used FrontPage to set it up and we use Yahoo as our host. I'm looking for book suggestions on how to do this. I was thinking about Head First HTML. Any experience with this book? I only have access to a Mac, but I don't think that is going to matter with HTML. I have an OLD HTML book (1999 copyright). Will that work? Hasn't some HTML code changed in the past decade? Any other guidance on where to begin? Thanks for any suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valerie in MI Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Unless this is going to be a fairly static site, you might want to look into using CMS (content management system) software. You'll still have to design the pages, though. Also, you'll probably want to get up to speed on CSS, not just HTML. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMom2One Posted December 24, 2009 Share Posted December 24, 2009 Do you have an updated version of iWeb on your Mac? If so, you might consider using it in combination with MobileMe. I'm no guru, but I've built a couple of sites with these tools and they are great. You'd have to supplement widgets or services of some kind to add a shopping cart if you need one for your business, but I'm sure that is available somehow. (My sites don't require that because they are for ministry purposes.) Just a thought fwiw. Bleissings, Lucinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparrow Posted December 24, 2009 Author Share Posted December 24, 2009 Thanks so much for your responses. It's a silly time to ask such a question. I know everyone is busy. I'm responding while waiting for a batch of cookies to come out :D. The book I referred to does include CSS and XHTML, so maybe I should look into getting that one. I didn't even know what iWeb was and lo and behold, it's on this computer! This could be a huge help! I won't need a shopping cart either. The site I'm trying to create is for a campground so I just need a place to put general info, rates, pictures, and a map. THANK YOU for recommending this. Merry Christmas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth in md Posted December 26, 2009 Share Posted December 26, 2009 Hi, I rebuilt a website recently that was originally done in Frontpage and hosted on godaddy. I use a mac, and needed to update the site, and had no web building experience. I found a product called Rapidweaver that has been just great. It was about $59.00 on sale and it is mac only. I redid the whole site in RW. It has the most wonderful user forum, like this one, that helped me every step of the way. http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/ If iweb (free) doesn't work out, take a look at rapidweaver. You can see my new site (built with rapidweaver) in my sig line below. Good luck! Beth in MD http://www.homeschoolfrederick.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparrow Posted December 26, 2009 Author Share Posted December 26, 2009 Hi, I rebuilt a website recently that was originally done in Frontpage and hosted on godaddy. I use a mac, and needed to update the site, and had no web building experience. I found a product called Rapidweaver that has been just great. It was about $59.00 on sale and it is mac only. I redid the whole site in RW. It has the most wonderful user forum, like this one, that helped me every step of the way. http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/ If iweb (free) doesn't work out, take a look at rapidweaver. You can see my new site (built with rapidweaver) in my sig line below. Good luck! Beth in MD http://www.homeschoolfrederick.com Thanks, Beth! Your website looks fantastic! I will definitely look into RW if iWeb doesn't work the way I hope it will. I'm actually looking forward to getting started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beth in md Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 Hi Sparrow, I missed your nice complement earlier...thank you! It was a real accomplishment for me, as I had no idea how to do this before starting with Rapidweaver. Their user forum is the best! I hope you have good luck with building your site too. Beth in MD Homeschooling Mom of 4 http://www.homeschoolfrederick.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MelanieM Posted January 2, 2010 Share Posted January 2, 2010 If it's a static site with no need for a shopping cart, then I *highly* recommend using self-hosted WordPress, which can be used for a blog, a more traditional static site, or a combination of both. It is by far the easiest tool I've seen for non-techie users, which is especially important if you will need to have people with little to no web experience do content updates. There are thousands of free WordPress templates available online so designing from scratch is unnecessary. Modifying templates is easy with a basic grasp of CSS, and the number of plugins available make the platform extremely customizable -- if you think you want a feature, chances are good someone has already designed a component that will do it for you. I have designed, coded, updated and supported many sites over the years, on a variety of platforms. Based on what is out there right now (that I'm aware of) I would hands down choose/recommend WordPress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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