Web Design

I really want to keep track and control of my images in my own space.

I have started looking at building my own website and was wondering what advice anyone can give.

I really need to know what open source tools are best and maybe a link to a good guide (as there are so many bad ones).

I am currently playing with Nvu for a basic layout.

Part of my work is made easier as I can export HTML (embeddable) and flash galleries (stand alone pages) from Lightroom directly.

Perhaps other people are looking to do the same thing and we can get a good discussion going.

I'm doing the same but only have the most basic of sites up as I've not had time to spend on it yet.

I'm avoiding packages and other off-the-shelf fluff because I want to keep complete control over how it works so I'm building it using Zope. However, this is a programmers tool and not for the feint-hearted.

Also, my company - which is in the web business - has a server farm where I plan to host it when it is more advanced. Currently it's running off one of my broadband connections.

I'd be happy to discuss your intentions and offer any help I can - but I'm of limited use with Windows, these days.

As for Nvu, it hasn't had much attention recently and lacks real power. You might find Quanta Plus a better bet. However, I've taken to doing page design in Inkscape which is much nicer to work with for realising design ideas. I then convert that into HTML using Vim and Gimp.

I use these to create a few 'page templates' around which real pages are dynamically built at request time. This makes the need for WYSIWYG page design somewhat redundant.

In a nutshell I would sat, whatever method you use, keep it simple and information based.
I have published a few sites for various organisations by writing the html code into Notepad and it works for me.
I learned very basic html, just enough to allow me to produce a bit of work. It's also a good way to see how the mechanics work.
Tom

Also can you make sure it works with more browsers than IE please. I use Opera and get fed up with websites that don't support Opera. Thanks.

I use Firefox so compatibility is important to me, but I'm not really sure what code can cause problems.

I am looking to get it based for 1024x768 screens but with scaling because I hate having a tiny site on my 1920x1200 screen.

I don't mind booting up my Ubuntu partition of there are better tools available on Linux. I have ignored it of late as most of my software and work is done in Windows. If I can get WINE running Steam and Lightroom I'd switch over. But at the moment it is easier to work in one place. The only other problem I have is I can't get WPA working from Linux which means I loose internet, oh and I can never get the nVidia drivers to install correctly so I am stuck with interpolated 1024x768 rather than a nice crisp 1920x1200.

As you say packages can have all sorts of rubbish attached. I'd rather work it out as I go and get something that is completely mine. This means a lot of photoshop time as well as I need banners, buttons (basic graphics). I want it to load fast and only take longer in the galleries where proper images are.

I too used notepad and did the HTML myself, quite enjoyed learning it all. Used CSS for the layout, very few tables (just two I think), not a fan of flash so avoided that myself.

Dan

One thing is really annoying me, I can't get sectioned columns!!! I want to have links on one side Need to do a bit more reading...

read up on "frames"
sounds like what you're looking for.

Not sure what yiou mean by "sectioned columns...links on one side". Can you explain or point us to an example?

Dan

I think Don got what I was talking about. Only problem is Nvu does not support frames you have to use CSS. So I'm off to figure that out... Maybe it would be easier just to do it in text to get frames?

Not sure, but basically anything you can do with frames you can do with CSS, and it's much better as far as search engines are concerned (all the code and text is on one page, not two or three which are often overlooked by search engines).

Check out 'absolute', 'relative' and 'fixed' properties for positioning with CSS. I bought the third edition of this book in a cheapo shop for a fiver and it's served me well. I have a look on the web to see if I find anything that might help.

Dan

Irfanview creates webpages with thumbnails very quickly.

You can edit the template it uses and customise it to your heart's content. Then you just point Irfanview at a new folder of pictures and it will do the rest.

I fully endorse using CSS rather than frames. For an idea of what CSS can do, look here:

http://www.csszengarden.com/

G

I think I may need a different editor. Nvu is cr@p for CSS...

What I like about using notepad, or any simple editor (for HTML and CSS), is that you have total control over what the code looks like, so it's so much easier when you want to tinker with it to see what does what, and where particular elements in your pages are.

Dreamweaver and the like will leave you dumbfounded if you ever try to make sense of it.

Dan

That is what I thought, when looking at nvu. I have scripted a lot of things in text and done on the fly testing in a real program. It takes a long time if you are scripting object positions on a 3d map and need to get a whole of list of things just with basic coordinates. Main problem was the loading time when I wanted to check a whole set and then going back if something was wrong. Not going to be difficult with HTML as it loads up in a split second.