Table of Contents

Introduction

Why This Book?

For Free, Really?

Open Source Software

Is This Legal?

I Can’t Really Do This...Can I?

How to Use This Book

Tips and Cautions

Geek Speak

Web 101

What Is the Internet?

What Is the World Wide Web?

What Is a Web Page?

What Is a Website?

What Is a Web Browser?

Part I: The Basics

1 The Order of Things

The Website Creation Process

1. Planning

2. Design

3. Building

4. Testing

5. Promotion and Maintenance

2 Choosing a Location for Your Site

Web Hosting

What Is a Web Server?

Determining Your Web Hosting Needs

Cost

Technical Knowledge Required

Maintenance Needs

Storage Space

Accessibility

Bandwidth Needs

Domain Name Service

Hosting Options

Home Hosting

Free Online Hosting

Online Hosting Service

Professional Hosting

Commercial Hosting

So What Works Best for You?

Working with Different Types of Hosting Services

Free Services

Low-Cost Commercial Sites

Other Resources

Part II: Plan and Prep

3 Planning Your Site

What Type of Site Do You Want to Build?

Types of Sites

Learning From Sites You Go To

Website Goals

Organizing Websites

Organizing the Site

Organizing the Pages

Best Practices of Website Organization

Keep Your Website Simple

Keep Your Website Consistent

Keep Your Website Easy to Maintain

4 Designing Your Site

I Can’t Make a Website That Looks That Good!

Content Before Design

Overall Design

Design Ideas

Central Image Design

Colors

The Magic Four

Hex Color

Color Schemes

Color Blindness

Fonts

System Fonts

Fonts as Images

Fonts and Color

Images

Cascading Style Sheets

Design Best Practices

Keep It Simple

Don’t Use Attention Grabbers

Be Consistent

5 Gathering Your Development Tools

Finding the Right Tools for the Job

Tool Sites and Reviews

Downloading New Software

Downloading and Installing Software

Essential Tools

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Programs

Text Editor

Graphics Editors

HTML Editors

Sound Recorders

Advanced Tools

The Future of Free Web Tools

6 Moving Files To and From the Internet

Storing Your Files

Naming Files

Keep All Your Web Files in One Place

Have an Organizational Structure

Use a Version Control System

Uploading Files to the Internet

Logging In

Adding New Files

Changing Existing Files

Downloading Files from an FTP Server

One File or Many

Downloading from a Browser

Types of Download Files

Best Practices for Downloading Files

Part III: Website Building Basics

7 Elements of a Website

Content

Content Best Practices

Content Standards

Parts of a Web Page

Title

Header

Body

Footer

Sidebars

Navigational Elements

Parts of a Website

Home Page

Content Pages

Web Advertising

Banner Ads

Animated Ads

Google AdSense

8 Using Existing Websites

Promotion

Social Networking Sites

MySpace

Facebook

Other Web 2.0 Sites

Flickr

Twitter

Del.icio.us

9 Web Page Services

Google Sites

Signing Up for Google Sites

Creating a Google Site

Editing a Page

Creating a Page

Move a Page

Delete a Page

Edit Page Settings

Edit Site Settings

Google Sites Features and Limitations

SnapPages

Signing Up for SnapPages

Creating a SnapPage

Editing a Page

Adding and Editing Photos

Editing Site Settings

SnapPages Features and Limitations

Netvibes

Signing Up for Netvibes

Public Versus Private Pages

Personalizing Your Netvibes Page

10 HTML 101

The Structure of HTML

The Structure of Tags

Common HTML Tags

HTML Structure Tags

Text Tags

Lists

Tables

Hyperlinks

Images

Free HTML Editors

Text Editors

WYSIWYG Editors

Resources

11 Working with Images

Working with Images

Lossy and Lossless Compression

The Image Tag

Background Images

Image Maps

Animated GIFs

Optimizing Images

Resizing Images

When to Use Different File Types

Slicing Images

Finding Images

Free Images

Other People’s Images

Using Your Own Images

12 Working with Multimedia

Digital Audio Files

Audio Formats

Audio Players

Digitizing Audio

Audio Editing

Audio Resources

Digital Video Files

Video Formats

Video Players

Digitizing Video

Video Editing

Video Hosting Sites

Video Resources

13 Using HTML to Build a Site

How Web Pages Work

Page File

Extensions

Tools for Creating Web Pages

Parts of a Page

Cascading Style Sheets

Format of a Style Sheet

Creating and Linking a Style Sheet

Scripting

Using Templates

14 How’d They Do That?

Viewing Code from Other Websites

Web Development Firefox Add-ons

Recommended Firefox Web Development Add-ons

Badges

Templates

Developer Networks and Sites

15 Making Your Site Mobile

Why Should You Care About the Mobile Web?

How People Access the Mobile Web

Become a Mobile Web User

Mobile Web Devices (MWD)

Mobile Operating Systems

Mobile Browsers

Limitations of the Mobile Web

Making Your Website Mobile

Mobile Browser Detection

Domains and Subdomains

Use the Right Code

Page Sizes

Interface

Things to Avoid

Mobile Web Tools and Sites

Testing Your Site on a Mobile Phone

Part IV: Site Testing and Maintenance

16 Testing Your Website

Why Testing Is Important

Building a Test Plan

Start at the End

Testing Basic Functionality

Testing HTML

Testing Browsers

Testing Resolution

Testing Printing

Testing Navigation

Testing Consistency of Design

Testing Security

Testing Accessibility

After Testing

Testing Tools

17 Promoting Your Website

Self-Promotion

Have Excellent and Unique Content

Update Content

Publicize Your URL

Connect with Others

Search Engines

How Search Engines Work

Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines

Keywords

18 Maintaining Your Website

What? I’m Not Done?

Regular Maintenance

Weekly Tasks

Monthly Tasks

Annual Tasks

The Power of Analytics

Common Analytics and What They Mean

Using Google Analytics

Tweaking Your Site Based On Analytics

Part V: Website Workshop

19 Building a Blog Site with WordPress

What Is a Blog?

Why Should I Blog?

Blog Publishing

Syndication

What Is WordPress?

Software Versions

Five Reasons to Use Wordpress.com to Host Your Blog

Five Reasons to Create Your Blog Using WordPress Software

Building a Blog Using WordPress.com

Signing Up for WordPress.com

Activating Your Account

Logging In to Your Blog

Writing Blog Posts

Managing Blog Posts

Changing the Design of Your Blog

Manage the Comments on Your Blog

Setting Up Your Own Blog with WordPress Software

Information You Need Before You Begin

How WordPress Software Works

How Much Does All This Cost?

Before Installing Your Software

Download and Install WordPress

Download WordPress Software

Customization of WordPress

Adding Themes

Adding Plug-ins

Personalization of WordPress

Modifying Themes

Creating Themes

Creating Plug-ins

Blogging on Your iPhone

Keep an Eye on Things

20 Using a Content Management System to Build a Website

Five Reasons to Use Ning.com as Your CMS

Five Reasons to Use Joomla as Your CMS

What Is Ning?

Building a Social Network with Ning.com

Signing Up for Ning.com

Invite Friends

Add Photos and Video

Start a Discussion

Building a Site with Joomla

Information You Need Before You Begin

Before Installing Your Joomla Software

Download and Install Joomla

Adding Articles

Managing Users

Modules, Plug-ins, and Templates

Keep an Eye on Things

21 Building a Multimedia Website

Best Practices for Multimedia

Using Multimedia

Storing Multimedia Files

Downloading Audio and Video Files

Streaming Audio and Video

Adding Advanced Multimedia Elements

Register a Sprout Account

Building a New Sprout

Add Sprout to Your Web Page

Edit an Existing Sprout

Viewing Sprout Statistics

Advanced Open Source Multimedia

22 Building a Wiki

Five Reasons to Use PBwiki to Host Your Wiki

Five Reasons to Use MediaWiki for Your Wiki

What Is PBwiki?

Building a Wiki Using PBwiki.com

Signing Up for PBwiki

Activating Your Account

Edit a Page

Add a Page

Linking Pages

View Page History

Setting Up Your Own Wiki Using MediaWiki Software

Information You Need Before You Begin

MediaWiki Software Architecture

Before Installing Your MediaWiki Software

Download and Install MediaWiki

Keep an Eye on Things

Part VI: Appendixes

A List of the Most Common HTML Tags

B Free and Open Source Software Sites

History of Open Source

Open Source News

General Open Source Sites

File Transfer Tools

Text Editors

Graphics Editors

HTML Editors

Sound Recording

Web Servers

Database Tools

Blog Software

CMS Software

Wiki Software

Script Tools

Index