Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Beginning Website Design and Development

Status
Not open for further replies.
Open Source CMS

I am a convert to Joomla and I think that anyone starting out with web design should consider using a CMS. They can be a bit daunting but if you invest a few hours getting to grips with the one you finally choose, you will be able to build great sites in no time.

This is a great place to start: opensourcecms.com

As I said I have used Joomla to build a few sites now, so I could offer advice to anyone who wants to give it a try.
 
I think you forgot all the good technologies

1. WebObjects
2. Ruby on Rails
3. Netbeans Visual Web

And if you want to just make a static site Create by Stonedesign is really good
 
here are a few I use.

Domains - namecheap.com - used them for 6 years now
Hosting;
site5.com - been with them for 5 years
liquidweb.com - been with them for 7 years
 
Hello to all.
The links which you provided here are very useful in web designing and in development.
I used Dreamweaver for designing and Photoshop for editing photo. And they are best for web designing and development. And for image also seashore can be use.
 
shawnwilliams said:
Hello to all.
The links which you provided here are very useful in web designing and in development.
I used Dreamweaver for designing and Photoshop for editing photo. And they are best for web designing and development. And for image also seashore can be use.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, my DW CS4 is expensive and buggy, so no, they're not the best combination.

Instead, get yourself GIMP and CoDA, learn to use them, and you've made enough savings for that MBP launching next year :)

Just my ¢2
 
Not Available said:
I'm sorry, my DW CS4 is expensive and buggy, so no, they're not the best combination.

Instead, get yourself GIMP and CoDA, learn to use them, and you've made enough savings for that MBP launching next year :)

Just my ¢2
Click to expand...

well actually try FLUX you will probably be a lot happier
 
It doesn't matter what application you use. A good web designer can make a good website using ANY text editor. To start:

Learn HTML and CSS: There's thousands of places. I recommend htmldog.com.
Manipulating images: I use Photoshop. Pixelmator is a great alternative. If you are short on cash try Gimp.
Animations: Sorry flash developers but Flash sux! I have many reasons but the first it's because it kills battery life (cpu hog). That's why iPhones don't have it. Flash is widely used today because of video. Newer browsers support html5, so I think big websites like Youtube are going to push that transition (like it did with IE6). Websites (the good ones) use javascript for animation. They don't hog the cpu and are very small, specially when used in jQuery.

Web Development tool? There's many options. The ones I tried:

- CODA: I love it! Great user interface, It's fast, stable and complete.
- Textmate: Probably the best code editor but I still prefer CODA.
- Dreamweaver: Adobe is adding "new features" making it bloated. Editing CSS is a nightmare and it hurt my eyes watching the default letters in code editor.
- Flux: There's a screencast in developer's website showing how easy is to create a website. I noticed when your webpage gets big, the application get a little unresponsive.
- Espresso: Seems nice like CODA but I called it a beta. Check out in a year to see for an improvement.
- Rapidweaver: Good when you want to create a website and you have no idea how to do it. It's not expensive but you have to buy many "add-ons".

For CSS: CSSedit is the best tool but I can do everything I want without problems in CODA.
----------------------------------------------------------

So you have plenty of options. For me CODA and Photoshop get the work done.
 
Here are some really important ones.

Best way to have a Mac on a budget:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/


Best way to add IChat style feature to your website:

http://www.meebo.com/

Best way to use Meebo with a Chat Application(Adium) on your desktop:

http://adium.im/

Instructions on how to set Meebo up with Adium:

http://www.wiseguydigital.com/wiseguy-digital-blog/adiumx-meebome.html

Best file sharing application:

http://www.vuze.com/

Best free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats:

http://perian.org/

Best free software addition that plays Window Video's in Safari:

http://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htm


Best website to keep updated on the latest Mac products and technologies:

http://theappleblog.com/


Best website for information on tons of Mac software:

http://www.farawaymac.com/

Best Software Tutorial Site on the website bar NONE!

http://www.lynda.com/

Best way to host your own server and get around the blocks that most service providers like Cox Cable block, I.E. port 80.

http://www.dyndns.com/

Best Application for playing weird codex video's

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Best way to filter what you and your employee's are able to access through your web connection. Through Router or Computer:

http://www.opendns.com/

Best two free website Video Conferencing added to your web pages for your customers to access you through:

http://www.tokbox.com/

http://www.oovoo.com/

Best Free Open Source do it yourself phone system:

http://www.trixbox.org/

Best way to get a phone number and call or have anyone in the US call you for just around $30 dollars a year.

http://www.skype.com/

Best way to see new software and what others think about this new software:

http://osx.iusethis.com/

Best way to control two Mac's from one computer:

http://www.abyssoft.com/software/teleport/
 
Time management

Beyond the basics that have already been mentioned, I like to use:

Trails for time tracking (still very much in Alpha but it does everything I need)

Other options: Tick and Harvest
 
Great information!

I am so glad I found your forum!
What amazing information and links here, thank you!

I'm pretty much a beginner at web design, I still do most of the coding myself, the basic html and the very basic css. But I am learning how to put it all together now and its amazing fun.

I use MacHighway for my web host, and I prefer Transmit, and I'm not good at Dreamweaver, though its fun to play with.
I love going thru tutorials and taking classes, being retired gives me the time to play with all of this stuff.
Learning about making Fractals at the moment, whew, thats a time sink!
My classmates and I are always trading fun ideas, and we all use Photoshop.:)
Jane
 
I have mastery in making design for web site,banner etc but sometimes because of coding I have to compromise with my design. for having mastery in coding also I will have to work or learn coding in detail so this tutorials about coding help me in learning monke.
 
Nice sharing monke here is another very useful resource where you can get solution of your any problem about website designing and development http://www.tutorialized.com/
Other than it the Lynda training lectures can give the core knowledge about web development.
 
Fugu

You need to mention Fugu, a free FTP client:

http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/

I switched from CyberDuck, which I found a little weak, to FileZilla, which I found to be ugly and information-overloaded, and then finally to Fugu, which strikes the perfect balance between power and minimalism for me. It's easy to use and uncluttered like CyberDuck, but it's got double-pane file viewing and other powerful features from something like FileZilla.
 
Sweet web design resources

Chris at CSS-Tricks does an awesome job of teaching from beginner to advanced level web design. Tutorials like his and looking at code is how I learned. http://css-tricks.com

Another incredible resource is Preekly. These dudes make tech and how-to products that they release each week. The cool thing is that they keep the material super fresh so if you sign up for next weeks stuff, it will all be stuff that's been created in last month. http://preekly.com

An example is if you are learning HTML or XHTML now a days you don't have to learn every element. In fact learning every element right off the bat would already start most people down the wrong path. Right now all I use in HTML are the div, h1 - h6, a, p, strong, span, em, img. There may be a few more I'm forgetting, but everything else should be controlled by CSS for the most part.
 
Wordpress too

I took a class with Wordpress, thats really amazing. Its a bit difficult at first, as I too am a beginner with it. But its pretty wonderful what you can do right from the beginning.
Jane
 
Hey. Thanks for this post. I cruise alot of POST just to see what I can find. I liked this write up you did and was just wondering if you have a subscriber page so I can link to it so I can read it at a later date? I did not see one – am I just overlooking it?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back