I
originally created this website some years ago to try out
Microsoft FrontPage. It is not especially original or
interesting, but it served its purpose. Now, however, I have
begun to take an interest in web design and have decided to
try
another approach.
While FrontPage is extremely easy to use, the code it creates is rather
messy, it is not standard, and now that Microsoft has
discontinued FrontPage, continuing to support this site means using old
software, upgrading to Microsoft Expression, or finding some other
solution.
I felt that to learn proper web development, I should abandon
FrontPage. I also decided that, at least for the moment, rather
than start with a product like Expression that does the coding for me,
I would learn the code itself and once I understand how it works, then
perhaps, use some of the other tools.
So...
I am starting with my original web site as a kind of template,
but begin eliminating the FrontPage specific items.
I will also begin to use CSS and replacing outdated HTML code
with current standards. I haven't totally abandonned all
tools, however. I could use only Notepad, but that can be
rather cumbersome. Instead, I have been getting to know a
free replacement called Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm),
which is a text editor like Notepad, but additionally, it recognizes
HTML code and adds color to tags, making it easier to follow.
It also has a lot of other features I haven't yet begun to
explore.
I
am also using another free web creation tool called KompoZer (http://www.kompozer.net/).
It's not nearly as easy to use as some professional products,
and it doesn't seem to fully get along with my web host. It is
definitely not FrontPage friendly, but given my above
criteria, it serves well to edit existing code and take much of the
tedium out of the process of coding. I can easily switch
between viewing and editing the source code to a somewhat more friendly
layout view, to an almost usable preview view (OK, if I really want to
see what it looks like, I just click the "Publish" icon and view it in
a web browser).
As
a reference, I am using the book:
HTML, XHTML, and CSS: Your visual blueprinttm
for designing effective Web pages, by Rob Huddleston, Wiley Publishing,
Inc. 2008
