Help with Web Design

[SpongeBobSquarePants]

Well, I know the basics of HTML, and use alot of front page. I just want to know if there is any possible free program that is reltivly simple to make something similar to a website such as www.boblong.com I just want to make something a little more visually satisfieing. Also anyone know any good flash type programs?

[Webmaster]

1) Front page sucks - use dreamweaver.

2) The only good Flash type program is... er Flash (FlashMX being the newest version)

As for boblong site - its primarly flash, which is used by many and mastered by few.

[Kevmaster]

Yeh...Flash is where its at....the question is can you learn it well? Flash is nothing like HTML

I'd love to learn, but i have no teacher...

[SpongeBobSquarePants]

I have heard of dreamweaver, but were do I obtain it? I think I can learn flash, if there is a program out there that is fairly simple which I doubt.

[Kevmaster]

Dreamweaver...available at many online stores...runs around $200 as does Flash. Both Flash and Dreamweaver are programs

[Webmaster]

If you are a student you can get a discounted version at a local student union.

And this might get preachy but - learning flash or even learning HTML its pretty time consuming. HTML in itself is pretty easy to learn. And one can make a simple personal site with only a bit of effort.

Flash isnt that hard to learn either - but it takes some skills to make it look good.

I dont really like boblongs site - but who ever did it has some good background in design etc. I encourage you to learn either of these two tools -but dont expect something like bob longs, or even something simple like AO, to just hop off your computer.

GOOD webdesign takes knowledge many areas, including graphics design and creation, layout, site usability, writing HTML and CSS preferably that is standards compliant, and if you use scripting or such to have at least a basic knowledge of whatyou are using if something breaks.

Course - they make things like PHP nuke now that will churn out a site quick and you just dump in your content (albiet all those sites look the same IMHO)

soo... good luck man - if you learn dreamweaver you will learn HTML. Flash is flash - i dont really like it but if you get good at it youcan do neat things too. You may want to buy a book - peach pit press makes some great guides to flash and HTML.

[pito189]

Originally posted by Webmaster
1) Front page sucks - use dreamweaver.

Very true, and Frontpage puts out crap code.

Originally posted by Webmaster
As for boblong site - its primarly flash, which is used by many and mastered by few.

You can do crazy things with Flash, and as soon as I learn it to my satisfaction, I'm going to start doing them.

Dreamweaver is the best though for html. I started in January just coding in Notepad, and it's a great way to learn I think. Dreamweaver is awesome because it has so many built in features. The last time I redid my two sites I used Dreamweaver

My Homepage

My Team's Homepage

Both pretty basic sites, but they get the job done.

[Will Wood]

You can try a trial of Dreamweaver on Macromedia's site. Download it..I'm not sure if the trial is limited to what you can do, or a 30 day thing. I think you get unlimited use for 30 days.

Flash..You can do the basics with just clicking and dragging a mouse. If you want to do anything of actually use.. you'll need to add some programing to it. There's virtually unlimited amount of tutorials online. But.. no amount of tutorials will amount to what a teacher can do. If your school offers classes, or there is a local class around.. take it!

https://www.netrauma.com

Check out our flash intro! That's the really basic stuff.. but if you want to creat navigation and stuff like Boblongs.. that's going to be alot harder.

[pito189]

Will, the intro is great. I like to have the option to either skip it or view it right away. The simple ones are the best, the ones that are long and drawn out for NO REASON are the worst.

[WickeDKlowN]

If oy uhave to use a WYSIWIG, use Dreamweaver. Buy it if you got the $. If your poor, it's fairly easy to find on the net.

For flash stuff, I use a prog called SWiSH.

[f3rr3+]

swish = blah... i use flash... very very good... but i am fortunate to have a mentor of great knowledge... and i wont endorse the illegal downloading of software... but sh... stuff happens...


**i am in no way endorseing the illegal downloading of software**

[InexactMelissa]

Both Dreamweaver and Flash come with a 30 unlimited trial from Macromedia. They are well worth the money. Also, go to flashkit.com to get some samples, tutorials and ready-made stuff.

Swish is not necessarily bad, it is a valuable tool for working with animated text. For example, if you type out something in Flash and want the letters to fly or fade in independently animated, you have to create each letter as an individual object with individual animated movie clips, synch them all, blah blah, and you end up with messiness and a huge file. The alternative is Swish, which is specifically designed to be used in conjunction with Flash. You can type a word/words/phrase and apply an animation to it, at which point Swish will deal with handling the individual letters, and then output a small file in .swf and/or .fla format which you can then import into your Flash document. It's cool, but only worth the money to buy if you are doing a lot of text work.

Oh yeah, if you're really into it, pick up an ActionScript (the Flash scripting language) For Dummies book, or something similar.

[OfficerGoat]

My take on it is that alot of folks go too over the top when it comes to this sort of stuff. Its one of the reasons that I don't care for bobs site (As well as that Freakin mainpage.... uggh!!)

I think flash is kick *** stuff... but only when it is used for stuff like movies, games and widgets like nav bars. Not what I would use on the entire website. A good desing is going to be one where the graphis etc ecentuate the content rather than override it.

Personaly I HIGHLY recomend learning to hand code before you start using Dreamweaver. If you can hand code you will have a huge headstart on doing anything else. Then again I'm a developer and not a designer.... soooo...

[FutureMagOwner]

yeah i find that you can get more content(if you make it as long as the avg. webpage rather then the common 800x600 sorta deal you commonly see for flash sites the thing would take forever to load) in and still make a website look good by using a basic website w/tables (i hate frames have no idea why anyone would use them personally) and using flash for nav bars and such.

also i find its easier to navigate thru a normal webpage rather then flash when i can get back to what i specifically want by using the back and foreward things(on most flash sites if you do this you end up at either the homepage or whatever you were looking at last)

[OfficerGoat]

Frames are very useful if you are looking to dynamicly locate content via JavaScript... aka dHTML

Tables are fare more consistant browser to browser but when it comes down to being very specific as to where you put your cell then frames are the way to go. Also Frames can be stacked ontop of one another which can make for some interesting effects.

I aggree though that Tables are the way to go whenever its possible to use them.