I have a background in programming. I even wrote my own
medical office software package, some 200,000 lines of
code written in 4D and used on a daily basis to make
appointments, do letters, process documents, write up
patient notes, write prescriptions and so on. You'd think
it would therefore be a breeze to create my own website.
I didn't really know where to start, and every time I
looked into the technicalities of doing so, it seemed to
get more complicated, HTML, XML, PHP, CSS, Java, and many
more.
I found something called Quickie Web Design which created a database of images for me quite easily, but adding images meant reloading the works every time - hardly practical once you have dozens, never mind hundreds of images.
I discovered an outfit that would customize a flash website design for me for < $200 total and for a while I used that, but people didn't like flash, nor the sound effects and graphics involved, and moving images around from one category to another was a nightmare.
Eventually I discovered Smugmug and used it to host my images for the last year or so. I also found software called Webdesign which allowed me to create a few lead in pages for the front end of my website. It was functional but that's about all you could say about it (Well, some people were downright rude about it and not without some justification - comments like it looked like it had been designed in the 90's weren't unreasonable).
I longed to find software that could allow me to add images a few at a time without changing or reuploading everything. I was pointed to several options and spent some time reading a book on Dreamweaver, but that left me more uncertain than ever.
Fortunately a reader of my blog pointed me to Rapidweaver ()available for Mac only). It didn't take long to find out that it has a variety of built in templates but allows considerable customization. Better yet, it allowed uploading just the changes (no loading 300 image every time). The cream on the cake was when I discovered it would do a blog too.
I spent a week or so reading everything I could find and things just got better and better. I was directed to ScreencastsOnline which had a series of video tutorials/introductions not only to Rapidweaver but also to plug ins which could make it even better. There were commercial templates even better than the ones that came with the programme, for small sums like $15. There was Blocks, which would give one almost WYSIWYG freedom to do most anything anywhere on screen.
Eventually I even found RapidBlog which would allow me to link my newly designed blog to the old, so that you could see all my old entries (all 700+), while seeing them in a style which matched my new site.
One of the first things I did was to go to an outliner and create a map of the pages I would want - this proved much better than simply hopping in and starting to create pages. For one thing, it made it a lot faster to set up all those pages when the time came.
Initially I had more than 100 images in a single album, say for example colour landscapes. I realized that this meant that someone with a slow connection would have to wait for 100+ thumbnails to load before they could start perusing my images. I changed it to a series of galleries.
I have absolutely no doubt that someone with a bit of artistic talent and some webdesign skills could make a nicer site, but this one is quite tidy, functional and not too ugly and will serve nicely - and sure beat forking out $2000+ for a commercial website design.
I plan to continue to improve the site. I'd like to find a way to move from one image to the next via the keyboard instead of the mouse. At the very least I'd like the 'next' button to stay put when you go from the first to the second image. In the long run I want it to handle print purchases and there is a plug in for doing so (actually more than one).
Some kind readers have offered CSS help but frankly it goes over my head so I'll work away slowly, gradually improving it.
I found something called Quickie Web Design which created a database of images for me quite easily, but adding images meant reloading the works every time - hardly practical once you have dozens, never mind hundreds of images.
I discovered an outfit that would customize a flash website design for me for < $200 total and for a while I used that, but people didn't like flash, nor the sound effects and graphics involved, and moving images around from one category to another was a nightmare.
Eventually I discovered Smugmug and used it to host my images for the last year or so. I also found software called Webdesign which allowed me to create a few lead in pages for the front end of my website. It was functional but that's about all you could say about it (Well, some people were downright rude about it and not without some justification - comments like it looked like it had been designed in the 90's weren't unreasonable).
I longed to find software that could allow me to add images a few at a time without changing or reuploading everything. I was pointed to several options and spent some time reading a book on Dreamweaver, but that left me more uncertain than ever.
Fortunately a reader of my blog pointed me to Rapidweaver ()available for Mac only). It didn't take long to find out that it has a variety of built in templates but allows considerable customization. Better yet, it allowed uploading just the changes (no loading 300 image every time). The cream on the cake was when I discovered it would do a blog too.
I spent a week or so reading everything I could find and things just got better and better. I was directed to ScreencastsOnline which had a series of video tutorials/introductions not only to Rapidweaver but also to plug ins which could make it even better. There were commercial templates even better than the ones that came with the programme, for small sums like $15. There was Blocks, which would give one almost WYSIWYG freedom to do most anything anywhere on screen.
Eventually I even found RapidBlog which would allow me to link my newly designed blog to the old, so that you could see all my old entries (all 700+), while seeing them in a style which matched my new site.
One of the first things I did was to go to an outliner and create a map of the pages I would want - this proved much better than simply hopping in and starting to create pages. For one thing, it made it a lot faster to set up all those pages when the time came.
Initially I had more than 100 images in a single album, say for example colour landscapes. I realized that this meant that someone with a slow connection would have to wait for 100+ thumbnails to load before they could start perusing my images. I changed it to a series of galleries.
I have absolutely no doubt that someone with a bit of artistic talent and some webdesign skills could make a nicer site, but this one is quite tidy, functional and not too ugly and will serve nicely - and sure beat forking out $2000+ for a commercial website design.
I plan to continue to improve the site. I'd like to find a way to move from one image to the next via the keyboard instead of the mouse. At the very least I'd like the 'next' button to stay put when you go from the first to the second image. In the long run I want it to handle print purchases and there is a plug in for doing so (actually more than one).
Some kind readers have offered CSS help but frankly it goes over my head so I'll work away slowly, gradually improving it.