Website Help, Beginner Questions?
June 30th, 2009 | 
Author: Ok, so I’m only 13, but I would like to start learning to create website, because I’m really interested in that area of work. I know basic HTML, and I know about freewebs.com and stuff like that but I have some questions:
1. How do you make a website, what are the steps?
2. What is joomla?
3. What programs do I need?
4. Is there free verisons of these programs?
5. what is a CMS?
6. Also what is a server?
Please put this in the simplest words you know possible.
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1. My workflow:
a. Create a mockup in photoshop. This often involves a few hideous sketches on paper, but by the end of it, I have a fairly accurate depiction of what my website will look like in the end. It’s important that this is accurate.
b. Use photoshop’s slice tool to cut up the mockup into the various graphical assets (all the images) that will be used in your website. If you don’t have photoshop, you can achieve the same result by cutting out chunks from the image and saving them in individual files
c. Sketching out on paper how exactly all my images should align (I generally use tables, so deciding on the specific rowspans/colspans is very important at this point)
d. Following my sketches from part c, I write the HTML for a basic table, placing images inside of each table cell
e. Once the table is finished, I go to the sections of the layout that will contain text and remove the images (or set those images as the background image of that cell)
There is more, but at this point it’s not necessary to dump it all onto you.
2. Joomla is a system that simplifies the website creation and maintenance; it is mainly used by webdevelopers to create websites that clients can easily maintain. You shouldn’t worry about this right now, as it is important that you work on your base skills before moving onto stuff like this. I’ve been working with HTML, javascript, PHP, and all the like, and I have yet to touch joomla… Granted, I really should get on that.
3. Photoshop is a helpful asset, though it’s not entirely necessary. It is expensive (and thus, often pirated). There are free alternatives, such as The Gimp, which you should definitely take a look at.
5. …. I’m not… sure…
6. A server is basically a computer that has been set up so that other people can connect to it to retrieve and send data. Servers make up the internet. Every website is hosted on a server.
My explanation was probably needlessly complex, so if you have any specific questions, or things you need clarified, feel free to ask.