I've been recently asked to create a web page for my professional organization. I have never really gotten into web development and do not know what to do.

Do any of you mousepadders use a program to create your web pages? How hard is it to upload those web pages to the internet?

Thank you in advance!

So no one has anything to offer that could help?

hi bassett1976, what type of webpage are you after? software I've tried (but do not use as I write up my own pages) are microsoft frontpage (although that product is now something else) and adobe dreamweaver. there's also an open source product I've heard of called nvu (http://www.nvu.com/). then there's other content management software that essentially creates the webpages for you (of course, you provide the content). one that comes to mind is joomla (http://www.joomla.org/).

hi bassett1976, what type of webpage are you after? software I've tried (but do not use as I write up my own pages) are microsoft frontpage (although that product is now something else) and adobe dreamweaver. there's also an open source product I've heard of called nvu (http://www.nvu.com/). then there's other content management software that essentially creates the webpages for you (of course, you provide the content). one that comes to mind is joomla (http://www.joomla.org/).

Thank you Pixar!

I'm looking to create the content for a web page and to be able to upload the content on a regular basis. The web page hasn't been created yet but they are looking to me to update the information (on a regular basis) and I want to try and find a program that will allow me to plug in information and it will do the work making the web page. I would like something a little fancier than what I could do with Word.

I will be checking out those two programs when I get home today!

Thanks!

I use Joomla and love it. It is very easy to learn and modify to suit your needs. :) Good luck!

It really depends on if you are coding a web page, or just designing it. There are several packages for Content Management Systems (CMS), Drupal is quite good, Joomla (Mambo) is another. You could also look at a Wiki solution (MediaWiki is the best and is used for Wikipedia). These packages are written in PHP, and you will probably have to learn a little about that and MySQL databases. This is on top of knowing HTML and JavaScript. All of these programs are free and have lots of plug ins. SO really it's about the learning curve. But go with one of these solutions if you need interaction with the front end user. i.e. do you need them to upload and manage pictures, esit blog, chat rooms, login user accounts, etc? Does the content change often? Will you need a database?

Now, if you just want something to create static web pages, and are looking for something like MS word (which does export to HTML, btw), you can try DreamWeaver (which costs and arm and a leg), or Amaya which is a browser/editor (and it's free). Hotdog used to be cool in its day, but I have no idea if it still is. I actually code all my HTML by hand, and just use various Javascript libraries when I need to get a little fancy.

If you need to do graphics or editing, and don't want to fork out the bucks for Photoshop, GIMP is a free and very comparable photo editing program.

Thank you all for your help. For those of you who use http://www.joomla.org/ do you use some of the add on features like chat or email or posting documents?

I use Wordpress for mine. It is quite easy. Joomla is good, and has an active community.

If you are looking for a static type, then NVU works great and is free. It really depends on exactly what you are looking for.

If it is more of a Discussion type, the Simple Machines Forum with Tiny Portal works great.

There are so many options, could you describe exactly what it is you want to do?

There are so many options, could you describe exactly what it is you want to do?

I'm a physical education teacher and I've been asked to create a web page for elementary and preschool physical education teachers. The goal is to have a web page to show off lesson plans, worksheets, discussion board/chat, and pictures. Eventually, they want to use it to showcase what a quality physical education teacher would do for a quality lesson. It would also be a place where teachers could ask questions about lessons or classes as well. It would be wonderful to share worksheets and other documents electronically.

I'm very new to web page development. I did have a geocities account (back in the day) but that will be a little too basic for what they want. Joomla looks good but I'm not sure how much it costs. They seem to have a lot of add ons that I can use that would help to develop the web page. I'm just really clueless with this whole thing. I also know I need to learn to FTP (something that always confused me before) and some other basic things.

You can get a really large amount of space at Go Daddy and use Joomla (which doesn't cost any money) for about $3.98 a month. I've used Go Daddy for about 8 months now and have had no complaints.

it sounds like joomla may be your best option. does your school have its own webservers you can install joomla on? I think it's best to simply install it and play around with it.

I've tried joomla with the fireboard forum extension, and it works great. I haven't tried email or chat, but if they're anything like fireboard, they should work fine.

joomla is open source, meaning that it's free to download and use. they do ask for donations, but that's up to the user to decide.

You can get a really large amount of space at Go Daddy and use Joomla (which doesn't cost any money) for about $3.98 a month. I've used Go Daddy for about 8 months now and have had no complaints.

That's a good price! I'll have to pass that information on.

it sounds like joomla may be your best option. does your school have its own webservers you can install joomla on? I think it's best to simply install it and play around with it.

I've tried joomla with the fireboard forum extension, and it works great. I haven't tried email or chat, but if they're anything like fireboard, they should work fine.

joomla is open source, meaning that it's free to download and use. they do ask for donations, but that's up to the user to decide.

Unfortunately, my school will not host this web site. The group will be purchasing (or enrolling) web site space from some group.

I guess I should work on getting the server space and then start to play with it.

Thank you all for your help! Its slowly starting to make sense.

Unfortunately, my school will not host this web site. The group will be purchasing (or enrolling) web site space from some group.

I guess I should work on getting the server space and then start to play with it.

Thank you all for your help! Its slowly starting to make sense.

Let me know if you need any help!

Let me know if you need any help!

Can you use a joomla web site creation on godaddy or another web hosting site?

I only have experience using Joomla with Go Daddy, although I know you can use it with other hosts. With Go Daddy they have what is called Host Connections and they offer a bunch of different things that you can install, one of which is Joomla. You pretty much just pick it, Go Daddy will install it and then you go from there.

I seem to be having issues downloading joomla (maybe I should wait till they purchase the web hosting stuff). I have downloaded version 1.5, open the zip file and click on the install button. My computer works to open Print Shop and it says that the file isn't supported. Any suggestions?

Joomla isn't a program that you can just have on your desktop, you have to have hosting and upload it to a database. :)

Joomla isn't a program that you can just have on your desktop, you have to have hosting and upload it to a database. :)

Oh, that explains why it tries to open Print Shop. :|

More stupid questions to follow, sorry.

LOL No prob :)

Any hosting company will work. Joomla (and the others mentioned) work on a server called LAMP which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Linux is like Windows but for web servers instead of home computers, although some host companies use Windows as their servers (and you can set it up on your own computer if you are good with computers). Apache is the actual Web server software, MySQL is the database and PHP is the language. All of Joomla is written in PHP. Oh, and all of these programs (except Windows) are free too.

If you want to set up your own home computer to run a web server, you can download these programs from http://sourceforge.net/projects/xampp/. However, you really cannot host outside of your own home, so you will need a hosting company. This would be only for testing and development.

I highly recommend learning the basics of linux, and even setting up your own linux box to play around with. most hosting companies do not use windows, mainly because of cost (windows isn't free). and since the hosting company you're going to work with is most likely linux based, it's nice to have some knowledge on how to work with it.

as bytebear mentioned, it's all free. if you're currently running windows, you can set up a virtual system to run linux on top of windows. here's some links:

http://www.vmware.com/products/server/
this allows you to run virtual servers on top of your current operating system

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
I like ubuntu as it's very lightweight (only has what you need to be up and running)

feel free to ask me anything about this. I'll be more than glad to help.

You can even create a Linux web server on a thumb drive. I don't have the link in front of me, but basically, you buy a USB thumb drive, and put all of these programs on it, and just plug it in, and away you go to work.

I use:

Dreamhost to host my Web pages.
Blogger to provide the publishing platform.
Notepad2 to hand-code HTML when needed.
SmartFTP to upload/download from Dreamhost.

There are literally hundreds of hosting companies to choose from. Nearly all of them will provide the same tools. It's not easy to choose one. I have used goDaddy, HostColor and SiteGround. Shop around, look at features, and see what you come up with. Also, buy the cheapest per month package until you get things running and if you need more disk space, upgrade to a higher package, but don't waste your money if you don't need to. Don't worry about anything but disk storage space at first. Even a fairly complex site (without video or tons of photos) will only take up 15 megs.