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Tailslide -> RE: Newbie, needs template for NEWS site (1/29/2008 10:55:47)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: jimmi3577
I think I will also learn to code, yes it might be easier to use front page but theres things about front page I am not fond of.
My personal bias is to avoid all WYSIWYG editors even in code view (DW included) but then we all have different ways of working.
What I'd do once you've had a look through the tutorials etc is to aim for the following:
1. Create a basic page structure which will be common throughout most of the site. Do this by using semantic tags (e.g. h1 for the main heading, h2 for the next heading down, p for paragraphs, li for lists, divs to group bits of the page together if necessary such as "sidebar" or "footer"). Make sure you use a DOCTYPE - HTML 4.01 strict or XHTML 4.01 strict (the examples given below already have one).
2. Add in the content if you have it or your best guess using some dummy text if you don't.
3. Now add in a link to the stylesheet in the document head.
4. In the stylesheet you set up the presentational information such as fonts, colours, background images probably created in Photoshop etc where necessary plus where the bits of the page are going to be displayed (I'd advise using floats - stay well away from absolute positioning) such as the sidebar on the left and the main content on the right etc.
5. Now you can take the HTML template page and save it somewhere so you don't lose it - that's your template (DW and FP probably have some fancy way of naming it but I don't need to bother with a HTML editor).
6. So now you want to do the homepage for instance - save a copy of the template as index.html. Now you can add the homepage text. Then if you need another page - for instance, services - just save the template as services.html and add the appropriate text there.
Obviously as you go along you may find certain bits that appear on one page and not another - you can add any exceptions in after you've created the page. Make sure you check the page as you go along in at least Firefox (primary checking browser), IE7, Opera and IE6. If you run into any cross-browser issues come back here and ask and we'll help you solve them.
Here's a page with some pre-done basic layouts that you could use as a template; http://www.code-sucks.com/css%20layouts/
All you'd need to do is probably make the background images a bit fancier looking but it'll give you a good start.
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