Website Design & Development - How do you do it?

[Tripnologist]

Is there a reason why people prefer to use notepad ++ over dreamweaver? (Barring the cost?) I haven't got into the program properly but I like the fact that when you press "</" it closes whatever is open and when you change a link it changes everything related to it (If that makes sense).

I actually switched from notepad2 to DW CS4 when it was released. I did it for only a couple small reasons but they were enough for me.

1. I can open a single page and DW automatically opens the css and js files for that page in tabs.
2. snippets library! It keeps me from having to rewrite the same things over and over.

I only use it in codeview, I just prefer how it lets me keep all my windows organised.

 

[MarcLister]

4. Once I'm happy with the layout of the main page I then split it into PHP (header/footer etc) and create the rest of the pages

D'oh! If only I'd known about that for my final year project. Could have saved me ruddy hours on the website I re-designed for a lecturer. That and I could have written about how it would have been better for him in terms of maintenance of the site and updating the menu, navigation and footer independently of the actual content. Could have earned me a few extra %age points on my project score.

I've learned about PHP includes recently as I'm wanting to get into PHP/MySQL but I'm guessing what you do is just a PHP version of an XHTML page? No actual database connections, just XHTML in PHP and that's that?

As has been said it's all personal preference. I use Notepad++ because it gives me complete control without the bloatedness of Dreamweaver.

Ditto. Have used Notepad++ for ages but used it to a new level for the above final year project. I had to do an initial report into the lecturer's site and how I could re-do it; hard-coded XHTML/CSS with Notepad++, Dreamweaver or the MS Expression Web equivalent or a CMS like Plone or Joomla. Went for Notepad++ in the end.

 

[DJMK4]

Wow, it seems like a lot of people design it all in photoshop first, then slice it up, maybe this is where I am going wrong and why I usually find it difficult to get over that "Designers Block" usually my approach is:

Create the layout in CSS, then try to create each elemant of the design bit by bit in photoshop.

Do you think it will be much easier if I create the whole design in photoshop first, then slice each bit up?

 

[Tripnologist]

Wow, it seems like a lot of people design it all in photoshop first, then slice it up, maybe this is where I am going wrong and why I usually find it difficult to get over that "Designers Block" usually my approach is:
Create the layout in CSS, then try to create each elemant of the design bit by bit in photoshop.
Do you think it will be much easier if I create the whole design in photoshop first, then slice each bit up?

Would you start building a house without a blueprint?
I always wireframe, then create the layout in PS before doing anything else.
If I find I need to change something while building the site, I'll go back to PS and add it in first.

What usually happens if you just try to build it as you go along is you'll have a crappy site with no rhyme or reason to content placement. You probably won't have a nice vertical rhythm either.

 

[markeh]

What's the advantage of using php to dynamically input headers and footers over using .shtm and includes or just using good ol find/replace?

 

[Martin_Man]

i could code a site myself but the only thing that stops me is this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

what does it mean?

 

[tsinc80697]

In its most basic form -

Wireframe
Sketch
Design
Slice
HTML
CSS
CMS/PHP Framework
jQuery

 

[suarve]

Here's my process:

1. Design the website in Photoshop
2. Once happy, split up all the necessary images
3. Create the layout in Notepad++, viewing the page in IE/FF/Chrome along the way
4. Once I'm happy with the layout of the main page I then split it into PHP (header/footer etc) and create the rest of the pages
5. Upload!

You missed out a step.

Open in IE, then correct any css errors

 

[Randomface74]

Photoshop
Notepad++
Visual Studio 2008

 

[Tripnologist]

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

what does it mean?

First is your doctype. In this case, xhtml transitional. Next comes your standard html tag. The xmlsn bit is there because you're using an xhtml doctype and it indicates the document schema.
Lastly, you've specified the character encoding you used to make your page. UTF-8 is pretty much the standard but there are various charsets which can be used for other languages.

 

[Martin_Man]

First is your doctype. In this case, xhtml transitional. Next comes your standard html tag. The xmlsn bit is there because you're using an xhtml doctype and it indicates the document schema.
Lastly, you've specified the character encoding you used to make your page. UTF-8 is pretty much the standard but there are various charsets which can be used for other languages.

Thanks