Prepressforums.com

pix3lphr3ak · #1 (**permalink**) 10-21-2005, 05:41 PM

I figure atleast a few of you guys have designed/coded a website before. Need some input.

I started out in webdesign almost went to art school for it until I tumbled down the rabbits hole into print and prepress (haven't even looked at web design for over 2 years). The boss this week came to my desk and told me he wanted the company site redone that I was the only guy in the shop with experience there. The oh shit factor instantly hit me, I am competely out of the loop. Where the hell do I begin again? I figured i'd learn Dreaweaver. I was an html/frontpage (gasp!) coder before. Things have changed quite a bit.

nlynx76 · #2 (**permalink**) 10-24-2005, 06:22 AM

I've recently started doing some web design myself after being out of the loop too. Granted, I never got into it much, just basic pre-html 4 code, but I was really surprised by how much CSS has taken over.

I haven't used Dreamweaver or GoLive to do any of the pages I've done, just doing them manually in notepad. I know that Dreamweaver is widely used, though, just from contacts I have online. I have been using Photoshop and ImageReady a lot though to get complex tables done, after which I modify the code and cell contents but use the base code generated by ImageReady table. My code is still a bit messy at spots but on my fourth set of pages now so I'm getting better.

http://www.w3.org/ is the World Wide Web Consortium site that has all of the current web standards, good resource.

I'm the Guild Leader of a Guild Wars Guild of about 40+ members and a game Division Leader in an online gaming clan. Easily over half of our members use Firefox (FF) instead of Internet Explorer. Firefox is a more standards-compliant browser than IE and sometimes making the web pages look and act identically in both browsers can be tricky.

KeriVit · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2005, 05:49 AM

My 2?... Don't do it! I was put in the same predicament a while back and like you decided to learn... oh it was just a nightmare. Nothing else got done, I accomplished nothing and ended up handing it to the experts...

bobbyc · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2005, 07:08 AM

How complex of a webpage are you looking to put together? I do most of my web development in BBEDit Lite, which is free. I've also used Dreamweaver, which is very easy to learn if you've every dabbled in HTML. I would definately recommend using linked CSS in all your pages... it'll make changes very easy to make if you have lots of pages.

I've also started using PHP/MySQL to do some basic stuff. It's quite easy to learn if you've got some time. http://www.w3schools.com/ is a nice place to start. A bit of PHP can really make a webpage more dynamic.

I say go for it, there is a lot of cool stuff to learn in web page development these days.

PCMac · #5 (**permalink**) 10-25-2005, 07:24 AM

Hey, pix3lphr3ak,

You said that you had some HTML experience before, right? I think you must have been into it somewhat if you were thinking of going to Art school for it.

Here's what I would do.

Do a search on Google for "commercial printing", "electronic prepress", and other printing terms. Browse through a few of the results to see how different companies market themselves and to get a feel for how you might design the website for your own company.

Then ... how well are you familiar with HTML 4.0 or above? For instance, are you well-versed with the "DIV" tag, and the benefits of this?

Check out "TemplateMonster.com". There are website templates here, both with and without Flash, that appear very professional, and that you might be able to adapt for your company.

Indeed, it's easier said than done to modify these templates. But I'm finding that I'm learning, through trial, and mostly error, just how the "DIV" tag works, and how quality design is laid out. For instance, a lot of what appears to be a complex layout is actually built into an image that is placed into the background of a cell within a table.

It would be ideal if your people could get you DreamWeaver. If you do Prepress, you use Quark, or InDesign. Well, DreamWeaver seems to be the way to go if you want to lay out web pages.

Best of luck, and take your aspirin ahead of time! 8)

Just post if you have any questions.