--Adobe GoLive -- Plays well with the other adobe apps and is easy to learn. Writes decent code (not that you care if you are just starting out)

--Dreamweaver (other industry standard)

--notepad (learn it the html hand coding way)


Anything but FrontPage. . .

i think if a person starts off by learning the html way, you can handle any other web publishing software out there no matter what you're doing. and i think you'll actually find them more restricting... it's good to know what you're controlling right from the beginning instead of blindly formatting a layout. when something goes wrong, you wouldn't know where the problem is coming from...

You can, but you need to learn the software too. It's like knowing how to draw up plans by hand, and then doing it in Autocad - you still have to learn autocad.

If you are doing something simple, just use Dreamweaver, forget learning the code for now. If you want great control, then learn it later. Dreamweaver can do some pretty amazing stuff, sooooo much faster than hand coding. It's visually driven, like most creative folk. Not hard to learn. Get Lynda Weinman's HOT series and you'll be good to go in a few hours.

i built a website for myself... for selfpromotion. and here's my take:

1. keep it simple.
2. use html and css.
3. stay away from javascript as much as possible.
4. don't use frames
5. get html_kit, a FREE program that lets you code and see the results in realtime.
6. buy a domain name and some space on a shared hosting service.

you don't have to spend more than $50 a year for all this and with some REALLY simple code and a THOUGHTFUL design you too can have a web presence.

OR

join blogger and make your site through one of their templates for a quick and easiy website thats neat and clean.

try this site to learn html. very easy and good exercises and tricks here:
htmlgoodies

web software -

anti whats so bad about frontpage? i know microsoft is the spawn of the devil but...

i use dreamweaver - it has been the industry leader for many years and compliments all levels of expertise - from begginer like yourself to someone codes entirely with html. i would recomend this if you have money to spend. macromedia had gained its success by focussing its products on web content creation and intergration - they create really good software - director and flash - its great to see shockwave(director) making a bit of a comeback - big brother of flash but large file size has meant that flash has dominated web.

i wonder how macromedia will fare now that software monolith adobe has shown more interest in web with golive, its foray into the market - you know that you are going to get great software when you buy adobe - golive comes with the CS Suite - so if you are thinking of upgrading or getting other software like photoshop/illustrator/indesign - makes sense to buy htis software bundled. macromedia MX bundle isnt as appealing but is still good software - i spose it depends on what you have used etc. like dreamweaver, golive it is also friendly to all levels of experience.

if you want free software - download mozilla. it is a full web browser/creation/mail program - used to be Netscape Navigator (think netscape still promotes as well?)- but Microsofts illegal monopolising and anticompetitive behaviour saw netscape crash and burn - however as an open source alternative it is pretty good - id urge anyone to support mozilla over internet explorer for moral reasons - it is just as good a browser and also has additional mail and web creation tools that arnt too shabby - especially for a beginner like yourself.

if you want to get into the 'architecture' of web sites - then learn HTML - it will be well worth your time - just get a begginers guide - it will greatly enhance your ability to 'surf the net' and find information and manipulate it and control how you recive information - it is only going to become more and more importnat to be able to use the 'internet language' so there is no time to lose!

bbedit is really good software for html coders (mac). i dont know of any equivalents forn PC but im sure there would be something similar out there in cyber wilderness.

also a tool that i have found especially helpful is a program called 'site sucker' - it is for mac only but i think there is a similar program called site thief for PC - have a look on versiontracker - there are numerous other html extracting programs that do the same thing. they are freeware and enable you to type in a web address and it will 'suck' out all of the content and localise it on your harddrive. this will give you an idea of how professional webdesigners construct their sites and will provide you with a template which you can copy to some degree. it is IMPORTANT to source all code that you are copying otherwise you are just stealing someone elses 'intellectual property'. just typing something like this following passage at the top of the html code is fine.

<!--this html was sourced from www.???.com on the 01/01/2004-->

spak:

Frontpage is bad because it writes horrible code. Unnecessary formatting, browser specific (can you guess which browser?) elements, and is just plain messy. The Spawn of the Devil thing doesn't help either. ..

TED:

Just make it easy and pick up a copy of GoLive.

Anti - fair enough - i generally try to steer clear of microsoft too, and im not surprised if frontpage has unilateral browser functions :) - or that the coding is rubbish if it comes from redmonds evil overlord.

on another internet tech note - bloody hell! how long are we gonna have to wait for web 3d to stop killing itself. this is not looking promising -

http://news.com.com/Intel%27s+3D+divorce+rate/2100-1038_3-5238357.html?tag=nefd.lede

has anyone else been patiently enduring the long absence of 3d on the net after vrml failed to live up to expectation? surely the built environment industries/ proffesion has massive interest is developing this technology but where is it? and why so long?

any opinions on Freeway as a basic web-design program? Seems like it's a better alternative to FrontPage (which should NOT be an option anyway). It's true GoLive and Dreamweaver are "relatively" easy and pretty standard, but also a few bucks more than the $100 Freeway -- which may be all someone needs to create a simple. portfoliio driven website. By the way, though I loathe it now, I did some pretty nice pages in FP back when I was starting out. In the end, it's not about all the bells and whistles if all you need is a simple program to do one or two things one or two times.

Just create a bunch of .jpg files from your work and use JAlbum and the BananAlbum skin to create an album which will look like this: http://www.thegreatesthits.net/downloads/bananalbum/sample or http://www.davidkbrowning.com/

Get JAlbum: http://www.jalbum.net
Get the skin: http://www.thegreatesthits.net/?launch=BananAlbum
Using Mac OS X? Just use the BananAlbumCreator: free download at thegreatesthits.net..

[p.s. bananalbum will be updated somewhere this week]

The ionly stuff you will need:

Dreamweaver MX 2004 [XTML, HTML, XML, PHP, CSS]: for dynamic and static webpages, database integration, etc....
http://macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/?promoid=home_prod_dw_082403

Flash MX 2004: rich media, can be easily integrated with Dreamweaver, and it's the new prefered weapon of choice of many developers [including me]. The new version of its scripting language, Actionscript 2.0 is quite powerful.
http://macromedia.com/software/flash/?promoid=home_prod_flash_082403

Actionscript 2.0 [only book that matters]:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596006527/qid=1087822678/sr=8-2/ref=pd_ka_2/104-4525148-5501519?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

For a more serious web developing [basic PHP for a more easy update and control of your folio, projects showcase], I would advise you to install WAMP. This stands for Apache server, MySQL database and PHP scripting on a Windows environment.
http://www.blather.org/misc/WAMP_Install_Guide.pdf

mail me if you have any questions.

PS- Frontpage? say it ain't so, say it ain't so....

I tend to use a lot of PHP, especially on any deployment larger than a few pages. Dreamweaver MX 2004 to code (I do pretty much everything by hand [XHTML/CSS/JavaScript, and PHP] and use DW's site management capabilities a lot), Photoshop/ImageReady for graphics (sometimes Illustrator too, depending on the task). No Flash yet; I have a designer I work with who handles most of that, but yes, do check out the O'Reilly books.

As for hosting, I would probably recommend 1&1 for hosting. They seem pretty cheap and their back-end management controls seem pretty good (I've only used them for domain registration, not hosting). For others, here's some cheap registrars: Netcraft.com. Most should do cheapish hosting as well.

[I run my own FreeBSD webserver on my home cable modem, which gives me maximum control over everything but makes my sites kind of slow. I use Go Daddy for domain registration (except .ca's which I run through domainsatcost.ca). DNS management is handled by Zone Edit on the important domains and by EveryDNS for everything else. In case anyone cares....]

As for learning about stuff, try to stick with XHTML and CSS. w3schools seems to be pretty good for learning (although I found their XML tutorial a bit lacking). You shouldn't need any books for XHTML, CSS or JavaScript as there are plenty of tutorials online (investigate the W3C tutorials too). For advanced Flash, O'Reilly seems to be the way to go; for PHP, I highly recommend Core PHP Programming by Leon Atkinson, but it's not necessarily the best place to start if you've never done straight-up programming before (like in C/C++, Pascal, Perl, VB, etc, etc).

Good luck and have fun!

Oh, and my roommate swears by Boogie Jack. He tends to ignore CSS, but I would urge you not to do the same.