Creating a website

[jasonhanger]

I want to create a basic website. I have no real training with web creation packages. Is there anything on line that I can download, or an online step by step reference guide? Thanks J

[wildwood]

I found http://www.htmlgoodies.com/ very good to learn the basics and you can save each page which interests you.
To make a very basic website, you can make up a page in MS Word, with pictures if you wish, and save it as a html file. Although you won't learn anything this way.

[scatman]

Yup, much better to learn HTML than use an editor for a variety of reasons. 1. it's very very easy to learn 2. you'll have more control over your website, editors are still pretty bad (apart from dreamweaver but that's a bit overkill for a basic website) 3. you'll feel better :D

[lisaj]

Here's an interesting methodology: Design your site on a piece of A4 with all your elements (navigation, content sections, pictures, banners, logos, icons, etc. etc.) as separate pieces of paper roughly the right size and shape (always rectangular). When happy with the layout, write some simple HTML where every one of these elements is in its own div tag, eg. <div id="navigation"&rt</div>. in the order they appear from top left to bottom right. You can group common items, like a header bar containing multiple things, into a parent div tag. Then get a book on CSS, or look at csszengarden.com, and write a stylesheet that will layout your site exactly the way you want it. I've been web designing for donkey's years and it's a great way to create a site whether static or dynamic. It's great for achieving perfect layout control and perfect for modularising dynamic content such as PHP or JSP...

[lisaj]

...and by the way, I do of course realise all of that might have gone sailing over your head, but it keeps your code simple, which as a beginner should make it easier to get your head around.