http://www.funkyfoof.com/

THIS IS THE ORIGINAL POST - I have redesigned the site as per message #6 below.

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This is my first website and the first time I asked people to critique it needless to say my naivete was exposed. I want to make it better. You can see the site at www.funkyfoof.com/oldindex.htm. Now, this site is built using FrontPage and is all based on one large table.

I have Dreamweaver but I don't know how to use it yet.

If anyone here has the time, please point me to (a) good source(s) for learning the following coding principles;

1. How do I make two tables side by side (separate from each other)? Or is that not possible?

2. How can I make my center column, where I list the "deals", a "frame" without having the border around it that FrontPage makes around frames. I want to be able to edit that part of the site without having to worry about the positions of everything else. (I think CSS will solve that, but that's a whole other thing I'm trying to learn!)

3. I see that most sites like mine use some extension called PHP. I tried to learn about that but most of the sites that come up with google are too technical or trying to sell me something. I don't mind paying for good information, but I don't want to buy something that is way above my head.

I have a lot more issues here, but I have to start somewhere. The site as it stands is pretty useless and takes hours to update. I have to learn more coding techniques, but - again - just googling for "website design" or something like that gets me a million results of designers who want to sell me their designs. Please help.

limit the amount of news you post.

Condense the page to one screenfull. People don't like scrolling down 20 pages at a time to see the content. Categorize your content and create a navigation to browse through it.

Your website is very simple, and there is almost nothing to comment other than to make that point. I should point out that if you're just taking your first steps in web-design, then you should really take them in the right direction and that (imo) is away from frontpage (and dreamweaver) and you should take a look at some html tutorials, such as:

http://htmldog.com/

If you're wanting to learn languages such as PHP for web-design, then it's vital you have a good grasp of html before hand, PHP is all about handling html on the server, before it gets sent out to the user requesting it. Personally I've never coded using WYSIWYGs (frontpage/dreamweaver etc.), and you won't gain any knowledge of html from learning using them in my opinion

Some PHP tutorials:

Some basics:
http://www.php.net/tut.php
http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp

More suited to practical problems:
http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/index.php

As always there are a good no. of books also available in practically all bookshops (oh i sound like a commercial :P)

I think that answers point no. 3, I can't/won't answer the other two, but maybe someone else will point you.

If you need more tips on web-design, there is always the lovely Web Design Help forum

(200 posts! yay!)

actually for beginners dreamweaver (raw code editor, not visual editor) is GREAT and the best language to learn as a beginner is Cold Fusion because it has a very very low learning curve and its very easy to understand.

www.macromedia.com is where you will find info on dreamweaver and cold fusion

Well after a lot of hard work learning some CSS and studying some popular sites, (and using some free flash templates) this is the latest redesign of my site www.funkyfoof.com.

Check it out and let me know at least if I'm headed in the right direction.

The original site can be seen at www.funkyfoof.com/oldindex.htm but turn your speakers down before going there because that was made before I learned how to control sound in Flash.

Current page: www.funkyfoof.com
Old page: www.funkyfoof.com/oldindex.htm

The "Latest Headlines" section seems odd; you need a graphic of some sort there. Perhaps make a small box of sorts around it. Something to contain it; it looks weird just hanging out there.

You could spruce it up a bit by putting some rollovers on the links at the top. It'd add a very cool effect

Try putting the footer together so everything from the links down isn't double spaced and perhaps center "FunkyFoof, a Rabi company"?

Try it and let's see

Perhaps put some boxes on some other content that may be "hanging around". It makes it more secure and it will help lead readers eyes to those things as they are different from text; they're neat little boxes says the sub-concious :P

from your old index to the new, you've improved.. good job
though I feel there are a few things that would greatly
improve the overall look of your site..

use constant styling:

same size and font for all headings
same size and font for all paragraph text

rollover effects on your images (already mentioned)...

make your tabs at the top more professional looking
(like your flash animation)

use your dark/light blue combo a bit more throughout the
page to help seperate your content...

Currently trying out a new color scheme. Please let me know whether you prefer page 1 or page 2 of the Tech Deals section. Thanks.

Page 1: http://www.funkyfoof.com/Deals/techdeals.htm

Page 2: http://www.funkyfoof.com/Deals/techdeals2.htm

Thank you everyone for the valuable input. I agree some rollover effect to the top menu would be beneficial. I'm learning...

You forgot to remove Paypals favicon from the code you've copied

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I just learned a very basic rollover effect using an excellent tutorial on the Adobe site. I've put it into the index page.

In case there any other beginners here - check out the tutorial at http://www.adobe.com/web/tips/phs7rollover/main.html

@ new design schemes

I like the way that techdeals.html looks over techdeals2.html

to further the critique from earlier post...

remove the border from the left navigation, it makes
the nav. look to busy (distracting)

otherwise,

[edit]
You are getting an error at Line 42... (IE6 WinXp Sp2)


I'm assuming it has something to do with the preload...
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