Use it or lose it

[rolanni]

So, I spent the entire day trying to build a webpage. Not a website, mind you -- a webpage. I think all I've actually managed to do is mess with the demo page that came with, though not to the extent of doing anything useful, like, y'know, removing the words "demo page". Can't figure out how to change the title. Can't figure out how to add links where I want them. Can't figure out a whole buncha stuff that ought to be easy -- and used to be easy, back when I was writing HTML in a text editor.

Feel like I been hit with the Stupid Stick, that's what...

Gah.

Comments

[technomom]

Why use whatever software you're using? Can't you just use a text editor?

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

I use an obsolete HTML editor (it has straight text, tags and wysiwyg) and it works for straight HTML. It'd choke on anything fancy-new. One advantage of not being able to do the fancynew things is the page is "accessible" without a particular amount of tweaking, and it looks generally the same in all browsers.

But if you need to use the fancynew things, or want to learn how to use the fancynew things, you get to fight with a new program. Good Luck!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

This project needs to have all the pretty new bells and whistles on board, alas. So, I get to stretch my brain. Shouldn't complain, I guess. Stretching brain, good.

She said, darkly.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Is it that handcoding all the pretty new stuff is more trouble than it's worth? The only HTML I've done so far is handcoded (except for the stuff I've lifted from other pages to take apart and figure out how it works), so I don't actually know how any of those fancy HTML editors work. I've just started trying to learn stylesheets and am not making a lot of progress (although that might also have something to do with the fact that it's gardening season and I have an active toddler and a new dog).

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Basic Dreamweaver I might be able to help with, but I'm not enamored of CSS and for Flash, forget it.

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

What editor are you using? A lot of them have an option to drop you into text editing. So you can set up all the pretty bells and whistles, then get into the guts of the page and tweak to your heart's content. :-)

I'm clueless as far as Flash is concerned, but I've done some CSS programming (all in text editors). And there's a great CSS tutorial online. Which, of course, I can't find my link to right now. :-) But it should be google-able.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Here's the CSS tutorial link http://www.westciv.com/style_master/academy/css_tutorial/index.html that Jennifer shared with me back when I was redoing my website this winter.
Back when I was beating myself with a stick, wondering how I could be so clueless on this stuff.

[sraun]

So, what program are you using to engage in this mind-expanding experience? And would you recommend it to someone else?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

PHPWebsite.

I have with mine own eyes seen websites constructed with/by this software -- so I know it can be done. The problem is learning the vernacular and getting my brain twisted in the right direction. Fiction takes whole different thought processes...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

It's easy to forget -- and it's hard to remember that there are hordes of new things out there. I slept through two or three development generations, I guess, so now I have to play catch-up.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I'm using something called PHPWebsite (http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu/) and undergoing a failure of imagination. Or nerve. Or commonsense. Steep learning curve on this one...