Creating WebPages

viper75

Is FrontPage a good program to learn how to make webpages? I want to start to make webpages or at least learn how to do it. Any other programs out there that would be good for webpage creation for newbies like me.

Ghent

The only thing front page will teach you to do is pretty much cut and paste. You should start at http://www.w3c.org and learn the basics of html. After that, you can make a page in front page and then look at the source to see how front page handled things. Education through reverse engineering, it's the best way to learn.

RussS

Frontpage is a reasonable WYSIWYG HTML editor. There are better on the market and there are worse. Personally I prefer writing HTML with Notepad and having a browser open to preview it ... much faster and you end up with pages that are a whole lot tighter and majorly smaller in file size.

Ghent

Hand coding in notepad is definately the only way to work. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of junk code that the html editing program decided was absolutely essential.

Webmaster

Ghent wrote:

Hand coding in notepad is definately the only way to work. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of junk code that the html editing program decided was absolutely essential.

I use Dreamweaver, which I think is much better than frontpage, but all decent WYSIWYG HTML editors have the option to view and edit the code. There is no need to use notepad to keep the code clean, all editors nowadays allow you to do that. Options that add unnecessary code can be turned off, or avoided (i.e. by not using roll-over buttons a la frontpage, but by using CSS or javascript instead.)
I used frontpage for some years, but always thought it was terrible... there's only one product that generates even more junk HTML code and that's MS Word, especially formatted pages... it completely missing the point of using HTML.

Anyway, if you do want to actual code HTML (which at some point you'll have to), I really wouldn't suggest notepad (nor any normal text editor) but instead an editor that 'understands' html, such as the code view option in a WYSIWYS editor...

Chadae

In school we learned html using plain notepad. So I figure if you really want to know "basics" you can play around with notepad. I think it really helps to show someone how html really works. When you get a better understaning of the whole thing...you can use an application like what the webmaster uses--dreamweaver.

Also check out this site- www.webmonkey.com

Ghent

I guess it really does all come down to what you learned on, and what your most comfortable with. I learned html in school and had to use only notepad to ensure that I really knew how to code and wasn't just letting frontpage do all the work. As a result I don't use anything else. On the plus side I'm gaurenteed that the only code in my work is what I intended for there to be, but of course it takes me 20 minutes to make a page you could have done in 3 using dreamweaver.

Webmaster

I agree, for the very basics you can use Notepad. In that case you have to make the best of it, which may be good for learning. What I was trying to say is that if you use an editor that understands HTML, it often provides auto-complete for commands, color coding to make it all more readable, and it's much easier to track errors for example because of auto-indent of TDs and TRs. If you're planning to go further than the basics (html, body, table, th, td, tr, div, a, img, hr, etc,etc) I think it is easier to learn using an editor that 'understands' HTML.

You don't need to learn riding a bike on an old bike just because it is old... (Man, I hope the expression, very freely translated: "You have to learn it on an old bike" exists outside my country as well )

Ghent

I don't think I've ever heard that one. But we do have "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" which I guess applies as you can't teach notepad to color code you code, which is the one feature I wish it had.

Special_k21

I completely agree with the Webmaster. I actually was taught HTML using Notepad in college. Yes I was taught the very basics of how things worked (ie: tables, hr, all that formatting stuff). I now use Dreamweaver MX here at work. It is much easier to troubleshoot all my typos and the auto functions save me a lot of time.
But I agree with all those previous posts. Frontpage and most other HTML editors add in so much garbage that its hard to see what the code is actually doing. I guess im a guy that sticks with what works and that is Dreamweaver!