Nextagelab.com: Steps to build a website yourself

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Q. What are the basic requirements for building a website? All static websites have files with the extension '.html'. To generate these files, you need to use a software called html editor. There are many softwares available to generate html content. If you are new to website designing then you will be surprised to know that a complete website can be created by using notepad as your editor. This is what the basic layout of any html file looks like:

<html>

<head>

<title>My first website</title>

</head>

<body>

This is where you write the code that creates the output in the client's internet browser.

</body>

</html>

In recent years, Macromedia Dreamweaver, which is now called Adobe Dreamweaver has turned out to be a very pouplar html editor as it saves time by automating many functions that had to be executed manually during the traditional html era. Although dreamweaver does not actually write programs for dynamic websites, it does provide the basic toolkit that will surely help novice designers and advanced website developers alike. It is based on the popular concept of WYSIWYG i.e. what you see is what you get. Dreamweaver hides the html code from the user and presents the website in the editor exactly as it would be visible in the browser. As you develop your skills, you can also edit the source code by simply switching tabs in this software.

So there we are. The first software you need is an html editor. Anything else? Ofcourse there is. You are just about begining to explore the endless possibilities that will boggle up your mind. But don't worry, we will categorise the most important components of web desgining for you.

Next up, an image editor. A picture says a thousand words, and your website should be no different when it comes to this saying. Research shows that the better and good looking images you have on your website, the longer the user will stay on it and the better chance you stand of making business out of it. So what do you need? It's another software from Adobe again. Yup! This is the name you will keep hearing all the time. Adobe Photoshop is an image editor that allows you to process your images and create beautiful images to blend into your website. It can produce files in the most popular formats like .gif, .png, .jpg and many more. Let me also startle you by saying that websites are first designed in Adobe Photoshop and then converted to html using an html editor. If you ask how, our answer will be that this is a very wide subject and out of scope. But once you get hands on experience, you will start understanding how it is done.

The third component you will need is an ftp client. FTP stands for file transfer protocol. In order for your website to be visible to the world, you must host it on a web server which is connected to the internet 24/7 through a very fast connection, typically 100 Mbps. Many such servers are based in the Silicon Valley in California, United States. You can either hire a complete server, which you shouldn't as a beginner, or you can take up a hosting package which may cost you around £20-£100 a year depending upon the hosting company you choose. In order to put your files to this server, you will need an ftp client. Some very widely used ftp clients are CuteFTP, FTP Voyager, WS FTP, Leech FTP, Core FTP. If you are using Adobe Dreamweaver as your html editor, then this software also has an ftp client built into it, although with limited functionality.

The last and most important component for a website is a domain name, e.g. abc.com. You need to register a domain name through a domain registrar or you we can assist you in registering one for you. Domain names cost around £10 - £20 a year.

So we now know that the four essential components for you to design a website are: HTML Editor (recommended Adobe Dreamweaver)
Image Editor (recommended Adobe PhotoShop)
FTP client (recommended CuteFTP)
A domain name