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I just found out that I need a make a web site ASAP to advertise a program I just developed at WVU. It can be simple (especially to begin with) and I know nothing about Dreamweaver or Frontpage or anything about this.
Any hints about what program to use? Are there templates I can cheat off of?
Hi rthomas,
Depending on your needs, Dreamweaver and Frontpage might be overkill. There are tons of free templates online that provide some basic tools for editing, and if you're a Mac user I'd suggest going with iWeb. PM if you want more help or details.
Good luck!
Quote:
Originally Posted by rthomas
Here's the template site that was recommended to me. In the end, I didn't set up a website, but I did look through this site's offerings and liked them.
www.templatemonster.com
Find a simple web site that looks like what you want. You can view the source of that page, copy it to your machine, then edit it. Find a simple book that explains some of the HTML commands. Once you get it working you can then tweak it to look nice and add more features.Quote:
Originally Posted by rthomas
Be careful if you do this. I am not a lawyer, but website design and content are copyrightable.Quote:
Originally Posted by hughgs
Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo all have free/cheap web development tools and site hosting -
The one I'm familiar with is MSFT Office Live - www.officelive.com
You can have a quick and easy site set up on a 4th level domain (something like http://rthomas.office.live.com) in about 15 minutes.
PM me with any questions.
Thanks, but I went to http://rthomas.office.live.com and there is nothing there. Can you put all my stuff there for me?:)Quote:
Originally Posted by DevilAlumna
True, but he's at WVU, so there have to be tons of academic pages which just contain simple content. It doesn't sound like he's looking for something like ESPN but something more akin to a course web site.Quote:
Originally Posted by DukeUsul
I have my web site. Took me all weekend to get three pages but it's a start.
Thanks.
http://reu.as.wvu.edu
No laughing. It took me all weekend.
Hee Hee Hee HeeQuote:
Originally Posted by rthomas
Really it is a nice job.
You type pretty slowly, don't you :rolleyes::DQuote:
Originally Posted by rthomas
All kidding aside, it is three more pages of web site than I've ever created, so good job!
Looks good.Quote:
Originally Posted by rthomas
One real suggestion. Do something different with your e-mail address. There's a good probability that your current set-up will generate a lot of spam. Maybe move the e-mail link to your name and deleting your actual e-mail address.
There's also a web-site that will validate your HTML code (make sure you're not doing something too weird). I like using it as a final check of my code. http://validator.w3.org/
you could use an online service that generates an image version of your email http://digitalcolony.com/lab/maskemail/maskemail.aspx (you have to save the image on your own server, or at least that's what the site suggests)Quote:
Originally Posted by hughgs
How about simply:Quote:
Originally Posted by hc5duke
... contacting the Program Director, <a href="mailto:myemail@myemail.edu">Dr. Richard Thomas</a> ...
hughs,
he actually shouldn't do what you're suggesting. In that way, the email address is still visible to any spam-bot that downloads the page and searches for the mail link.
The "best" answer in terms of usability is to make the email an output of a javascript function, but this depends on the user having javascript installed. An image works too, but is a pain, because when you click on it, nothing happens.
The most practical solution is to just setup a separate mail account and don't get too attached to it. When it gets inundated with spam, change it.
Oh yeah, and as far as your page goes rthomas, this is really groovy for a first effort. Seriously. It's clean, readable, and better than 50% of websites out there.
Suggestions I would make to the page:
1) Center the content. Right now, everything is stuck on the left.
2) Make the links more prominent.
3) Maybe consider a different font. No one really uses Times New Roman for a website like this- usually it's Arial or Helvetica.
These changes are optional, just based on my preferences and background as a web developer. Leaving it the way it is also okay too!
Considering WVU makes your email address available through an open directory search, I'm not sure trying to mask it on your site would be worth it. Normally I'd make that recommendation too, but in this case, it may not help.
Good job, rthomas!
Out of curiosity, what tool did you end up using?
Ahhh, I see. I didn't think that spam-bots worked that way, but not that you mention it it makes sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by unexpected
I guess the other thing he could do (that would be easy) would be to spell it out, though I suspect that a decent spam-bot would see through that.
Thanks for my factoid of the day.
rthomas,Quote:
Originally Posted by unexpected
Here's a web site that uses the Javascript idea. You may want to contact the owner about using it, though I suspect that it doesn't matter.
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/ordering.htm
The script is embedded near the very bottom of the page and is quite small. Look for the "Mail to:" section.