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T O P I C R E V I E WmensaxI have been giving some thought to making a collector website for my growing small collection... I guess it's a way to share ones' hobby with others who are interested. Maybe, I'm the only one with family and friends who just roll their eyes when you show them something new you've aquired? I went to the listings that Robert has put together and enjoyed seeing everyone's site. By the way Robert, there were several dead links (maybe it is just my server). Anyway, I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions or lessons they've learned in making a site? I've also had a hard time coming up with a name for a possible site. It appears every .com with "space or moon" has been used. Any suggestions? NoahPhilipGreat idea NOAH ... these might give You some ideas ; http://www.spaceaholic.com/links.htm nasamad Hi Noah, From my limited experience of making websites, the first thing I would do is scrap your computer for a while and work out your layout with pen and paper ! I find the hardest decision is how to group my autographs for online display. You need to sort out your groupings first, Ie; are you going to do it by astronaut group, mission, alphabetically ? Then you really need a WYSIWHG (What you see is what you get) web design program. Don't be put off by yet another peice of software, I use MS Frontpage, as its easy to use for me (if you can use Word you can use FP !). You also need a paint program so you can begin scanning you collection, then decide how to save the images, Ie, compression, colour depth (256 is ok generally). You need to choose a colour scheme for your site, black is a common choice for space pages, lol ! I wont go into to much depth because there are many sites on the net telling you how to make sites, but like all projects, you need to plan first. It makes it so much easier in the long run. I also had a lot of trouble deciding an address name, so I just used a few letters from my fisrt and last names in the end. Not really snappy but easy to remember. Look forward to your online collection being unveiled !.......Adam http://www.adboo.com/auto Robert PearlmanIf you have the patience to do so, I would suggest learning the HTML and foregoing a WYSIWYG editor. None of the packages on the market (or available for free) use truly compliant HTML code and more importantly, if you know the mark-up, you can insure that the desired effects are exactly as you want them. Troubleshooting also becomes much easier.Learning the basics of HTML shouldn't take more than a few hours and there are many good books on the market. Like Adam suggests for design, I too recommend writing out your basic HTML code on paper before taking to the computer, just so it becomes somewhat second nature and you can then focus on the content instead of the code.collectSPACE is produced using Photoshop for graphics (though lesser paint programs should suffice -- PS has a very steep learning curve). I use BBEdit for the text editor (as its HTML aware), but almost any text editor will work. nasamad Hi Robert, Although I did recommend a WYSIWYG editor, I do agree with you about learning HTML. I have had a few problems with certain parts of sites when I have made them, and not really knowing HTML has limited the complexity of my sites. The WYSIWYG editor I use can show all HTML coding and you can flip between that and the webpage view, which is quite a good way to supplement learning HTML, as you can see changes you made in code alot more quickly. I know what you mean about photoshop though, I just couldn't get on with it and went back to my previous graphics program. Cheers......Adam tegwilymI can't stand Frontpage or any of those other web editors. Check out all the extra code that goes into it just to do something simple. Yuck!Try this HTML editor, it's free and I use this one all the time. http://www.evrsoft.com TommensaxAny suggestions on where, or who, to host the site?NoahtegwilymCheck with your ISP and see if they offer you web space. They often give you 10 to 20 megs of server space included with your subscription. Or you can always use www.geocities.com for free web server space. You just have to deal with a small ad banner, but you can't beat the price!I have mine up on Geocities: www.geocities.com/tegwilym2/collection Tom
Noah
From my limited experience of making websites, the first thing I would do is scrap your computer for a while and work out your layout with pen and paper !
I find the hardest decision is how to group my autographs for online display. You need to sort out your groupings first, Ie; are you going to do it by astronaut group, mission, alphabetically ?
Then you really need a WYSIWHG (What you see is what you get) web design program. Don't be put off by yet another peice of software, I use MS Frontpage, as its easy to use for me (if you can use Word you can use FP !).
You also need a paint program so you can begin scanning you collection, then decide how to save the images, Ie, compression, colour depth (256 is ok generally).
You need to choose a colour scheme for your site, black is a common choice for space pages, lol !
I wont go into to much depth because there are many sites on the net telling you how to make sites, but like all projects, you need to plan first. It makes it so much easier in the long run.
I also had a lot of trouble deciding an address name, so I just used a few letters from my fisrt and last names in the end. Not really snappy but easy to remember.
Look forward to your online collection being unveiled !.......Adam http://www.adboo.com/auto
Learning the basics of HTML shouldn't take more than a few hours and there are many good books on the market. Like Adam suggests for design, I too recommend writing out your basic HTML code on paper before taking to the computer, just so it becomes somewhat second nature and you can then focus on the content instead of the code.
collectSPACE is produced using Photoshop for graphics (though lesser paint programs should suffice -- PS has a very steep learning curve). I use BBEdit for the text editor (as its HTML aware), but almost any text editor will work.
Although I did recommend a WYSIWYG editor, I do agree with you about learning HTML. I have had a few problems with certain parts of sites when I have made them, and not really knowing HTML has limited the complexity of my sites.
The WYSIWYG editor I use can show all HTML coding and you can flip between that and the webpage view, which is quite a good way to supplement learning HTML, as you can see changes you made in code alot more quickly.
I know what you mean about photoshop though, I just couldn't get on with it and went back to my previous graphics program.
Cheers......Adam
Try this HTML editor, it's free and I use this one all the time. http://www.evrsoft.com
Tom
I have mine up on Geocities: www.geocities.com/tegwilym2/collection
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