wesite advice

[MNuTz]

Lo all,

I taught myself HTML about 3-4 years ago and only really used it for a while, since then things have moved on....a lot. Ive been asked to come up with a basic website for my g/fs company. Basically a home page, news and contacts page to start with.

Then as i feel more confident i would like to move onto a ordering area (without payment) for existing customers. Each customer has different discounts so each would need a different list to order from and for the order to then be sent to the g/f so it can be copied onto their system.

Id also like a catalogue featuring the entire range of products.

Ive just started reading up on HTML/XTML and CSS and will move onto PHP afterwards. However, its like starting from scratch and unless i use it as im learning it just doesnt seem to stay in my head.

I have the ideas but not the knowledge at the moment.

I want to build the page. White background with company logo at the top/centre. Down the left i want a royal blue line from top to bottom, with web links on the left and the page contents on the right of the line. Problem is when i learnt i would use a table but the use of tables seems frowned upon now for better ways. Can anyone suggest what i need to look at to do this?

Thanks

 

[iCraig]

Ok, although this sounds like a pretty simple site, your inexperience could cause problems. I mean no offence by that.

If I was you, I would have a learn up on XHTML and CSS at w3schools, if you get your head stuck into it, with a good supply of coffee, you can learn it quite well in around a week.

I used to be like you, using tables for the designs. I was shown the error of my ways on here, and although it felt a bit off at first using the CSS to control all the structure and style, I got the hang of it quite quickly and all my sites are now coded in valid XHTML+CSS.

As for the catalogue and ordering system, it sounds to me that you're going to need a database to store the information, and then some server side script to pull the information off it, you mentioned PHP. Go with that if you like PHP.

My knowledge of MySQL and PHP runs out quickly, but there are some guys on here who are quite frankly wizards at it.

My advice to you would be to explain to your gf's company that you'll be learning as you go along, so they will have to be patient.

We're here if you get stuck, and we can help with almost any aspect of web design.

Good luck.

 

[MNuTz]

well the PHP/ordering system wont be for a while yet, going to make sure im on top of the basics first before i start dabbling in anything else

Ok, although this sounds like a pretty simple site, your inexperience could cause problems. I mean no offence by that.

None taken, in fact thats why i posted in the first place. I could easily of used a table but i cant see that point in me learning the 'bad' way of building, id rather not get into bad habits

 

[nin9abadga]

here's some useful links for you:

CSS Directory - Loads of links for everything!

CSS Play - Experimental CSS - v interesting

Colour Scheme generator

enjoy and good luck

nin9a

 

[MNuTz]

Thanking you