new to websites

[MTXgamer]

hello, i'm Ryan. i went to hostgator so i can start creating a website for my newfound company, that's creating iOS and PC games (all indie games by me ^^).
anyways, i'm not new to C++ and iOS programming, however i have no idea how to program websites and such. i got Adobe Master collection a bit back for my games, so i have adobe dreamweaver available to me. what i'm trying to do is first put a template i downloaded from here on my website, then be able to change the graphics accordingly. can anyone give me some newbie tips?

[GatorEAnderson]

It really depends on what you want to do with your time. If web design/development is a skill that you want to learn, I'd say just dive it and try things, see what works and what doesn't. You can also ask for help on forums like this one or ones more focused web design, or buy a book, or avail yourself of your local institution of higher learning, which probably offers a class on the subject.

If you want a site up and running fast without having to manually update things, I'd suggest ditching the templates (and Dreamweaver) and using an established framework like Drupal, Joomla, or WordPress.

Of those three, I think WordPress has the lowest barrier to entry for customization, but the other two might prove more capable or better suited to non-blogging websites.

Any of the three will give you a smart-looking web page that's really easy to update and maintain -- far easier than any HTML template.

There's also the community aspect. If you make your own site in Dreamweaver, you're on your own for almost everything. If you use a common framework, you'll find large communities of fellow-users whom you will be able to ask for help and advice. Whatever your problem is, it has been seen before by somebody, and they may even have posted the solution.

[satnav]

I just wanted to say how good you are when it comes to motivating anyone who is new to creating a website and learning a lot of things out of experiencing almost everything. Trial and error makes things easier I guess.

[old ogre]

I have been pouring over this forum for a couple weeks now (lurking?) and I guess its time to start posting. I am not new to running a site but I sure am WAY behind the times!

This forum has a huge amount of information! Although its kind of hard to find once in a while.
I think if you are familiar with "C" you wont have any problems setting up a site. I have always done my sites with plain old html, (I am old and stubborn) but I set up Wordpress in one shot! Just have to go slow and take your time, its quite powerful and amazing.

I think if i had any advice worth anything to help you get started it would be to set down and plan your site out on paper first. Get an idea of what you want to do and what your folder structure should be first. But there are a lot of people on this forum that are leagues ahead of me and they might be willing to help too.

[thunderstruck]

Using Adobe products without first

1. Reading the manuals

2. Practice with test pages

is a recipe for frustration. These programs are not only designed for new web designers, but professional studios, so the time is well spent. I think you will be quite happy with the level of control using those tools to edit the templates.

The only limit to using Adobe products are these two conditions above, your imagination, time and energy to work on the project.

There is an amazing wealth of training tutorials out there, and while time consuming, professional learning course videos on this subject frequently include insights about the software or techniques that you might not stumble upon in the manuals.

For less than $30 a month (or close to it) you can subscribe to publishers who provide access to multiple authors and videos, that I recently did my search for help on. Lynda.com has exclusive content, and safaribooksonline.com is a mainstay for many professional developers.

There may be many others, including free videos on U-tube.

[klachman]

I would also stick with Wordpress or Drupal, as these sites have updared software which will address security issues - something no Dreamweaver site can, and has been mentioned the communoty support is absolutely crucial in that the 'addons' provided enable making outstanding modifications without even learning to program in css or PHP.

Both these programs work out of the box, and they all have eCommerce 'themes' - many for free so that you can pick and shoose the design and setup of your site a method similar to an erector set.

I left out Joomla -it doesnt work at this site for me, getting its knickers in aknot over 'permissions' which gets it sent on its way do /dev/null...

That said I use OSCommerce, which is out of the box set up *specifically* for ECOMMERCE of everything from software to games - and may have exactly what you are looking for - give it a test run in Fantastico - it is version 2.3 - I run 2.2 (where it is heavily modded for books). It has a significant support forum with about 10,000 users and about as many addons (or so it seems) - there is an ecommoerce module for just about everything. And excellent security procedures.

Beware though, as OSC may be more naturally fitted to your needs, it is a much more complex software than Wordpress/Drupal - upon you might want to experiment first. I have all three running on my site!