any tips/tricks...

[Stu]

Hi guys,

Could anybody give me any tips or tricks to make a website good and look
good?
Anything is helpful because I do not know that much about FrontPage, only
the basics.

 

[Duncan]

I think one of the more important things a person can do
is learn some basic HTML programming. That way, when
things go south, you can figure out what went wrong. You
can always highlight a section of your page, then flip to
the HTML code screen and it will have highlited the
corresponding code. A good place to start is
www.w3schools.com

If you want to make your site easier to manage style wise
though HTML, look into using CSS. Again,
www.w3schools.com is a great resource. If you need a
book, O'Reilly the publisher makes some good reference
material.

-Duncan

 

[Steve Easton]

Learn the basics of html, and use html view to see what happens on a page
when you add something.
Learn that in html, everything that starts, must stop. example: an opening
<table> tag must have a closing </table> tag
to make the element work correctly. Also that if a table or div contains
other elements, the elements must close in the reverse order they open. (
avoids nesting errors and slow pages )
Learn how to create and apply an external style sheet, even if you start
with a one page web. It's much easier to edit one style sheet and change 20
pages six months from now, than it will be to edit 20 pages.
Learn how to create and apply an include page, for the same reason.
Don't try to cram every whiz-bang feature into every page.
Keep in mind how your pages or site are going to perceived "out there." Just
because you might understand the "Theory of Relativity" it doesn't mean that
Aunt Maude down in Key West Florida is going to have a clue as to what
you're trying to say.

hth

--
Steve Easton
MS MVP FrontPage
95isalive
This site is best viewed..................
...............................with a computer

 

[Jon]

Hi,
well you could probably write 5 books on that subject

I'd say there's 3 things to concentrate on
Technical Issues
Your site has to work - no broken links, no missing images, no script errors
reasonably fast to download, clean code etc
Design
Your site has to be visually engaging and easy to navigate. There's a few
basic rules here (that you can break later) Put a header/logo at the top,
navigation along the left/right side or the top, main content of 2 or 3 (no
more) columns and a footer at the bottom. Make each page consistent in
layout, headings are the same, body text is the same etc. Don't use more
than 2 or 3 fonts per page
Effectiveness
The site has to achieve something - let's say i visit your site, I've never
heard of you I spend ten minutes viewing your site then leave. What do you
want to achieve in those 10 minutes - do you want to educate me, change my
opinion on an issue, sell me something etc. To me this is the most important
issue - I always start by figuring what a site should achieve and then
decide the best way to accomplish it. Keep your focus. Let's say you have a
site that sells CDs and you put up music samples from each CD, you get 10000
visits a day but each visitor just listens to your music then leaves, you're
wasting your time and your money your goal is to sell CDs not to provide
free entertainment.

Best advice is to look at other web sites - every time you visit a site ask
yourself what you like about the site and what you don't like, when you see
something you like view - source to see how it's done. When you see
something you don't like make a note not to make that mistake yourself.
Whats the goal of that site, does it achieve its goal and how could you do
better.

Jon
Microsoft MVP - FP

 

[Jerry]

Stu
You should take a look at http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey
also. A good resource in my opinion
Good Luck