Domain name Question

[NightrainSrt4]

Well I have some bad news for everyone... ... ...







I am now the owner of the website

www.howtofixapc.com





Not only owner of the domain, but currently have webhosting paid in full for the next 2 years.

Holy sh*t I can't believe I just did this. My stomach was in my throat the whole time I was on that page, inputting credit card info, hoping the name was still there, everything.

I have a huge program that I have to write this weekend for college so currently all the page has is a quick html page I threw together in like 2 seconds that says "Currently Under Construction". God I haven't looked at html in years. I might have to use one of those programs to make webpages till I get back into the swing of things.

I went with the host you recommended CrazyB. $5.95 a month or something for two years, all charged at once. Not bad. Seemed like way more space and bandwidth than the other hosts I was looking at. Contact info easy to find. Thanks so much.

+rep to all you guys for getting me motivated. Holy sh*t I can't believe I did this. There is so much content to make soo freakiing much. Holy crap I now own a freaking website, with a killer name nonetheless. OMG

[NightrainSrt4]

What is a good web page design program. I know of Frontpage and such, that might work. Are there any other good programs?

How did you guys do the new site? Use a program to do it? Or did you guys do all the html "by hand"? You don't have to answer this stuff if you don't want to, a response to the first question above would be suitable as well.

Thanks in advanced guys! God Im still giddy lol

[calumc]

Maybe look into a content management program like joomla.
I havent ever used it but it would be the best route to go if you want to update everything regularly

[Ichbin]

Yes, Joomla is amazing for setting content stuff up. I currently use it for my website www.motorcitylan.com (Get past the splash page..).

If you need help with that, im more then willing

[NightrainSrt4]

Thanks guys. I might have to check out Joomla. The damn one that they supply through hostmonster.com, PageWizard, which I guess is what most of the hosts supply sucks huge freaking monkey balls.

I cant find anyway for it to let me edit the html code directly, only through drag and drop. It makes the page and saves it, but when I go back to open it up again, it doesn't seem to remember it at all so I can't open it back up.

I really have to find one that works well. I want one that I can make the pages offline. I don't need integration on the host or whatever right now. I'd rather make the pages on my pc, then upload them to the server and put them where I want them. Not sure if that makes any sense, im just frustrated right now. Going to go eat some food and see if that can calm me down. That program forgetting what was saved just bugged me lol. The darn thing can see all the files and such, it just can't seem to let me open them. Arghh lmao

[Ichbin]

Adobe Dreamweaver is pretty fancy. You could try that.

[NightrainSrt4]

Thanks. Ill have to research that one as well. Less it came with Photoshop CS2 I got for christmas a long while ago, it was some big package, not sure if it came with that though.

Im not against Microsoft Front Page either, I just remember hearing nothing but criticism of it from my buddies who used to code html. It was prob just anti-microsoft bashing though for all I can remember.

[NightrainSrt4]

I think I will have to try out Dreamweaver and if that doesn't work just start the website by coding by hand. Have to brush the hell up on my coding though for it to even look semi-respectable.

I installed Joomla on the server and tried using it. I can't figure out for the life of me how to actually create a page. Its like they want you to just use the template they have (or get others) and just change the names of things or something. Not exactly what I want. I couldn't find a place to actually make the damn pages and not use what they have as a template. On top of joomla links EVERYWHERE on the site template.

Also, Im accustomed to html not php which is what joomla is in. I know they are similar but arghhh. For the trouble this looks like I might as well just relearn how to code it all by hand.

I just cant seem to figure out these packages things. The same thing happened to me when i started coding and the teachers had us using packages with compilers and editors and all that crap in one package. Just give me the damn sdk/jdk, let me set my path and give me freaking notepad for crying out loud.


What I need is a blank canvas, that I can creat the design with various tools. Drag and drop stuff and whatnot. And build it up that way. If I can't find something like that then Ill just have to spend the next year coding it from the ground up in my free time. Which might just be better off. Because these package things just seem to be more complicated than they need to be. I can look at code and see the site in my head better than I can try to navigate through 7000 menus and crap just trying how to change the darn color on a button.

[NightrainSrt4]

Ok, so ive been looking around and it looks like Dreamweaver caters to my style of working/learning. I think I do have a copy that I just never needed. (I asked my parents for software one year and got a crapload of nice programs for school and stuff).

Joomla is probably nice once you get ahold of it, but i don't think csm's are for me, atleast not that type. I don't really want to just pick a template and change text (which is all i could figure out after a few hours of playing with it). I want ease of creation of actual content. Dreamweaver, along with Photoshop seem like they will get me started in the right direction atleast.

[Crazy Buddhist]

Congratulations dude

Glad the recommendation fitted your bill. It's a full featured package for sure ... 5,000 email accounts? Hope you have lots of buddies or end up employing thousands ....

You might want to use Joomla or Mambo as a CMS and Dreamweaver and Photoshop once you work out what a CMS can do for you (i.e instantly create a new page in your style from your content and integrate it seamlessly with your predefined templates, manage user accounts, etc.).

If you are ever going to have registered users and forums or any other user generated content you are may be better off starting with a CMS now and jumping the hurdle of getting a hold of it rather than deciding to inject your existing content into one later.

Hostmonster has loads of installers built in and forum software (SMF, phpBB) which you can integrate into the whole system using one user database for the whole site. They install on the click of a button. I don't know what that pagewizard thing is but it looks top crapola ... go to "Fantastico Delux" on your domain control panel (the spooky fat blue smiley face) and there is a list of ready to install packages to play around with e.g:

"Content Management
Drupal
Geeklog
Joomla
Mambo Open Source
PHP-Nuke
phpWCMS
phpWebSite
Post-Nuke
Siteframe
Xoops"

Click on the package, click on a couple more buttons and you have your CMS installed

I'd never used php before but I'm getting into it really nicely after a couple of months though I only need to do little bits for my forum and haven't gone with a CMS because my site is simple and for a simple purpose: it's a forum.

Looking forward to seeing where this takes you.

Matthew

Ok, so ive been looking around and it looks like Dreamweaver caters to my style of working/learning. I think I do have a copy that I just never needed. (I asked my parents for software one year and got a crapload of nice programs for school and stuff).

Joomla is probably nice once you get ahold of it, but i don't think csm's are for me, atleast not that type. I don't really want to just pick a template and change text (which is all i could figure out after a few hours of playing with it). I want ease of creation of actual content. Dreamweaver, along with Photoshop seem like they will get me started in the right direction atleast.