need help with website design

[HTH AMPS]

Ok, I'm tarting up my website to incorporate all my amp and pedal stuff (plus an online shop for amp parts).  However, its been years since I've done any website design (used to be good with Flash about ten years ago). 

I'm just using Frontpage which was bundled with my old laptop, but its total shitee for any kind of content where you want control over the layout.

I just want some software thats easy to use and I don't need to get bogged down with re-learning all the coding (I'd rather spend my time building amps and playing guitar).

Anyone?

[_tom_]

A really easy cheat way to do it is design it in photoshop at the size you want it, slice it up (using the slice tool) then export as html and images (using File > Save For Web). This puts it all into a table with the images in each cell, which forms a seamless whole. Really quick and easy way of getting a good looking website together if you don't have the patience to learn much HTML, CSS etc.

Doesn't make it fully valid but I've done a few websites that way and they all display fine in every browser we've tried them in, so I don't see a problem other than feeling a bit of a cheat for not doing it the proper way :lol:

[HTH AMPS]

thats not gonna allow me to insert code for youtube video links and paypal shopping cart though, is it?  :?

[BigB]

Ok, I'm tarting up my website to incorporate all my amp and pedal stuff (plus an online shop for amp parts).  However, its been years since I've done any website design (used to be good with Flash about ten years ago). 

I'm just using Frontpage which was bundled with my old laptop, but its total shiteee for any kind of content where you want control over the layout.

I just want some software thats easy to use and I don't need to get bogged down with re-learning all the coding (I'd rather spend my time building amps and playing guitar).

Anyone?

Avoid Frontpage by all means - this is possibly the worst html generator ever.  Also avoids _tom_'s suggestion (sorry Tom), it's not even worth the time spent.

The truth is that there's no good wyswyg HTML editor, so if you don't want to handcode this will be about the "less worse" - which is still dreamweaver, as bad and bloated as it is.

[shameless-plug]
Another solution might be to make a deal with a professional - I'm sure there are web workers lurking here that might be interested in your products (uh... should I be more explicit or is that enough  ? )
[/shameless-plug]

[JDC]

Not done any web design in like 10 years either but I used to use dreamweaver myself, I'd do the cut up image thing, stick them in tables, make the top and bottom centre cells go to 100% width to fit the browser window, the image would be set to the cell background to make it repeat to fill the cell width. (I think)

Saved it as a shtml file so I could do a server side include, aka have the info in a separate html file that would be inserted in to the central middle cell, same again in the left middle cell as a content menu or whatever.

Fonts would all be set as CSS in the main shtml file.

No idea if that was the "right" way to do it but it worked well for me back then, everything seems to be complex CSS template things these days, which I haven't got a clue about.

[HTH AMPS]

Thanks for the replies.  I'd get someone to do the website, but I literally have no cash to pay anyone with.  Plus, I want something that I can update myself at any moment and not need to wait for some web developer guy to do it all for me.

Something pretty neat and simple like this would be great... http://www.kometamps.com/overview.html

Back in the old days you'd just find a website you liked, rip the code, amend the content and away you go.  Is this still doable?

[_tom_]

With my method you can embed video, just put the code into the html in the content cell in the table it creates.

BigB whilst I understand it's probably a method that's "frowned upon" in the web design industry, it's actually a really quick way to get half decent looking websites - much quicker than hardcoding with CSS etc in my opinion. Could just be that I'm cr@p at coding though, haha.

[BigB]

Thanks for the replies.  I'd get someone to do the website, but I literally have no cash to pay anyone with.

Mmm, I guess my shameless plug wasn't explicit enough then :mrgreen:.

Plus, I want something that I can update myself at any moment and not need to wait for some web developer guy to do it all for me.

If you're thinking about updating the content, that's what CMS are for.

Something pretty neat and simple like this would be great... http://www.kometamps.com/overview.html

Back in the old days you'd just find a website you liked, rip the code, amend the content and away you go.  Is this still doable?

Technically, yes, but I'd rather not do such a thing.

[BigB]

With my method you can embed video, just put the code into the html in the content cell in the table it creates.

BigB whilst I understand it's probably a method that's "frowned upon" in the web design industry, it's actually a really quick way to get half decent looking websites - much quicker than hardcoding with CSS etc in my opinion. Could just be that I'm cr@p at coding though, haha.

Well, it's only "much quicker" as long as you don't worry about accessibility, SEO, evolutions etc. 

[_tom_]

Fair enough, I don't even know what those things are! The only sites I've done are for people who want a really simple/cheap and cheerful site just to get a web presence, but with something that looks better than frontpage/word press designed :lol:

HTH something like that Komet Amps website would be really easy to code by hand/CSS I think, made a very similar website to that in first year of uni. Can't remember how to do it right now but www.w3.org was very helpful.