How do I make a website for an NHD presentation?

Question

My school is starting NHD projects already, and I have the option of making a website this year. I've always wanted to learn how to make a website. (Preferably from scratch, but I'll settle for anything.)

I also really wanna know how last year's winners in the website category did theirs.

http://fc.francisparker.org/~qwhite2010/index.htm

How did they get their own domain or subdomain? How should I get mine?

Thanks. :]

*NHD stands for National History Day, in case the lucky people who don't have to do it are reading this.

Answer 1

While I would encourage anyone to learn web design, I would also point out that it isn't something you can do overnight. The first person to answer is correct that HTML is a simple language, it is made much more frustrating by Internet Explorer being it's own beast and something called non-web standards compliant. The web page you linked to in your question was done by someone who knew what they were doing. It isn't very complex but it does use CSS and an IE7 workaround.



That said I will now refer you what I consider to be the best sources for learning web design.



First of all are a couple things right on you own computer.



Figure out how to view the source code of any site that is open in your browser. In FireFox you can right click the browser window and select "view source code" if nothing is selected. If something is selected the option will be "view selection source" which handy for finding out what kind of tags are used. In IE select "View/Source" in the tool bar and an ugly NotePad file will open with the source code. In FireFox a nice looking color coded text file with indentations that make it easy to tell where tags start and end will appear.



The second thing you have on your computer you can use for web design is a file system. On a Windows machine this is known as Windows Explorer. A URL on a browser address bar shows file in folders within folders accept by using a slash instead of a backslash like files within files in the Windows Explorer address bar. If you create a file with an HTM or HTML extension, (like if you took a .txt file and changed the .txt to .html either below the file icon or when saving it) it will most likely appear as an icon of your default browser. If you clicked to open this file it would open as a window in your default browser. See? You don't have to have access to a server to design web pages. For a quick example go to this page-

http://www.alistapart.com/d/holygrail/example_4.html with your browser View Source, Select All of the source code, copy, paste in a NotePad file Save as Document Name .HTML (instead of .txt) Now open this file and look at the address bar in the browser.



If you want the rest of the world to see your web page, I recommend the free services available from Brinkster- http://www.brinkster.com/. Using the classic file manager you can upload three files at a time and see them listed.



I wouldn't know about any useful instructional video on GooTube, but there are several good web design sites on the internet W3Schools is one of the best- http://www.w3schools.com/



For a quick and dirty idea of how to use CSS (you will want to use CSS) check out this article at A List Apart- http://www.alistapart.com/articles/holygrail/



If you can get to where you are comfortable with making a web page using those two sites by next weekend. I would say that you have a decent shot at being able to put a good site together by mid November.



Lastly, as you can probably tell I am partial to FireFox so I would recommend it. You pretty much can't uninstall IE but don't anyway, you will want it around to make sure that your site looks OK on it.



A dandy text editor that gives you "nice looking color coded text file with indentations that make it easy to tell where tags start and end" you can down load Crimson Editor. link is to CNet Mirror

http://download.cnet.com/Crimson-Editor/3000-2352_4-10031858.html?tag=mncol



EDIT-



Almost forgot- It is a good idea to get into the habit of doing things right right from the start. Once you create a web page you make sure that HTML validates by uploading the file at-

http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_upload



and validate your CSS at-

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/#validate_by_upload



Remember- What looks good in FireFox or other non-IE browser and validates, can fall apart drastically in IE.



Further reading-



Mako 4 CSS - An excellent primer

http://www.mako4css.com/



The Layout Reservoir by Blue Robot

http://bluerobot.com/web/layouts/



Max Design Listamatic

http://css.maxdesign.com.au/index.htm



EDIT-

The W3C has it's own tutorial now and it looks pretty good to me. It takes the approach of teaching CSS and HTML at the same time, which would have been a lot of help to me way back when-

http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss

Answer 2

To make a website from scratch, you need to learn html. It is a fairly simple language. Basically you just get your text, put it into notepad, and then add some tags, then save it as something.html and you've got a page.

There are a lot of html tutorials out there. I suggest looking at a few of the ones on youtube.

As for getting a domain, if you want a .com or a .net or something, go to godaddy.com and they can get you setup. You will also need a webhost though, someone who has a server that you can put your site on. I personally use hostmonster, but they're paid, so I dont know what a good free one is. Generally though when you get hosting with someone, they will give you a subdomain to work with, on their own site.

Answer 3

As you may know a domain name is just a name, not a real website. If you are going to create your website: 1- Buy a domain name. A domain name is a name you want to call your website (ex: www.yahoo.com). To get a domain name, you have to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name. 2- Buy a web hosting service to provide your online space and enable you to get your website online at your purchased domain name.



If you want to start your website I recommend purchase your domain and hosting together. In this way it is possible to get your domain for free. Some hosting services offer this gift today.



As an experienced webmaster I recommend BH web hosting which I’m sure it would work for you and fulfill all your requirements. They have a really great offer for hosting & I have used them for over 3 yrs now, and have never had a single problem with them.



You can reach reviews about this web hosting provider and its latest DISCOUNT COUPONS at:





http://www.threehosts.com/reviews/1st





They also offer "Free Site Builder" that helps you build your web pages without difficulty if you are not skilled in using any website creating program. (WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get) You can use this service optionally. You can also create the pages offline with your favorite program (DreamWeaver, FrontPage, etc.), and then upload them to your web host. This is another easy way to get your website online.



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* This service was awarded “The Best Web Host OF The Year”.

* If you sign up for this service you will have $75 credits to advertise your website with the google & yahoo search engines for free!

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Another useful link:

http://www.threehosts.com/create

There you can find a step-by-step guide to start your website.





And the easiest way to create a website is reachable here (web host offering 4500 decent templates):

http://www.threehosts.com/tell-me-more/hg.html





If your website is not a business site (is personal), you can also refer to this cheap, reliable service:

http://www.goldpuma.com





Hope This Helps.

Answer 4

I also think that it was caused by a virus. I'm working on an antivirus company and do get cases when clients get porn sites popping everywhere on their computer even without opening any applications. Just explain to your professor that what happened in the presentation was unintentional.