We have already covered some basic HTML tags you will use when writing your web page code. Here are a few more that you might find come in handy, when designing your own web page.
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HTML Basics
Hyper Text Markup Language, or as you know it HTML, is the markup language for most web pages on the Internet.
Now, it is not exactly a language like English or Spanish, which we communicate with verbally. A markup language is a system for editing text in a way that changes how the text looks or how you interact with it. Where you use funny looking code to make one section of text look different than the other, the code in question is not seen by the end user. The server the web page is coming from, and the user’s browser come together to help mesh it together as something that is seen as visually appealing to the end user.
Free CSS Designs for You!
Searching for a place to find free web site designs you can use? OpenWebDesign.org has plenty to choose from, and they are all free to use.
If writing CSS code isn’t your favorite thing to do – and you would much rather tweak up a design that has already been done for you – finding a great free online design is the way to go. So to help you jumpstart your next web site design project, head over to the stockpile of web designs found over at OpenWebDesign.org.
There are over 3,000 designs to choose from (and most are XHTML/CSS-based), so should be enough variation and choice for any web site designer out there.
Squarespace is an All in One Hosting Package
I have heard about Squarespace from a number of different sources the past few weeks, so I thought I would give it a look. For those of you who may be new to the service, it is a fully hosted, completely managed environment for creating and hosting a web site.
The service really does a great job a breaking down the parts of your web site down into bricks. You kind shift and move the bricks around, make make your web site look the way you want. The designs to choose from are great too, and you can customize them to suit your needs.
Along with hosting, and design – they also provide you with real time visitor analytics and stats about all of your pages. That way you can work on marketing yourself better too.
Squarespace Tour Video from Squarespace on Vimeo.
At $8 a month, the service really has a lot going for it, if you are looking for a mix of hosting, plus a quality content management system. Try them out for free, at Squarespace.com.
How to Turn WordPress into What You Need!
WordPress is much more than just your standard blogging script. It has the ability to do so many thing. With truckloads of smart developers banging away at it every single day – there have been a lot of creative WordPress powered projects out there. Here are a few of the ones that have caught my eye and you could install on your own web hosting account.
How to Turn WordPress into a Multiple Blog Network
Want to launch your own blogging network? WordPress MU (the MU stands for multiple users) is what you want to look into using. If you have ever wanted to run multiple blogs off a single install of WordPress, this is definitely what you need.
WordPress MU and WordPress also share 99% of their codebase, so what you can do with one, you can probably do with the other. So if you are afraid of learning an entirely new CMS – no need! WordPress MU is pretty similar as far as the exterior and the interior goes with WordPress.
How to Turn WordPress into a Micro Blogging Service
Did you know, you could take your normal WordPress install, and quickly turn it into a micro blogging service of your very own? That is where the Prologue theme for WordPress comes into the picture. It was inspired by services such as Twitter, however has a unique enough look and feel to it that you don’t feel like you are ripping them off.
Best example of this theme in use was to password protect the WordPress install it was skinning, and using it as an internal short memo system inside of a small business.
How to Turn WordPress into a Social Network
BuddyPress is an add-on to WordPress MU that will give you the ability to turn it into a social network platform, like MySpace or Facebook. Playing with the demo, I see a lot of promise here. You have groups, blogs, member pages, news and more. The possibilities are endless.
Everything is still in beta, and in the demo phases – however, in the big picture, I think that BuddyPress will be one of the WordPress tools we will be talking a lot about. With it, anybody can launch a social network for their friends or for the area of expertise they share. I always wanted a web hosting social network.
As you can see, WordPress can be taken into a number of different direction, when it the right hands of the right developers and designers. We didn’t even get into their forum script, bbPress. By far, WordPress might be one of the easiest platforms to use these days. What do you think?
Multi-column CSS Layouts with YAMAL Builder
Need to quickly build a CSS powered web site, with multiple columns? Well, you could do things by hand. However, it would be better if you had a tool that would at least lay out the basics of designing the multi-column layout for you. YAML Builder is an easy to use site builder you can use Online for just that.
You fill in the basics that you need, and this web site will take care of the rest for you. Based on web standards, accessible and easy to use, this is the best online layout creator I have used in some time.
So what does YAML stand for? With this builder, you can create Yet Another Multi-column Layout. To try it out for yourself, go visit: http://builder.yaml.de/
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