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USING A WEBSITE BUILDING PROGRAM FOR
MORE THAN WEBSITES
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| SITE
CATEGORY -
PROJECTS -
CREATING EASY HTML INVENTORY
INDEXES |
Website building programs
are very useful tools that
come in handy for creating
all sorts of things other
than just websites .
You can
build pages
stored in your documents that contain anything you
want ...If you have a bunch
of photos that are stored in
files scattered about your
computer and would prefer
accessing and organizing
them in a better way ,
website design programs are
great for that . They're
also great for organizing
documents and just about
anything else you want to
access in a click instead of
searching about in files
looking for the document.
If you have a big collection
of DVD movies stored in
cases like we do ,its very
easy to create a 'site'
stored in your documents or
desktop that lists every
movie you own and will tell
you what case its in and
which page its located....if
you love to cook you can set
up your own quick loading
database of recipes.
This is also a good way for
people living in buses or
RV's to keep track of
things....and since website
design/building programs are
editing programs its a piece
of cake to add new info or
change something. |
CLICK-HERE TO SEE
HOW WE INDEX OUR
MOVIES |
Because these programs are
designed to store the site
you created in a file in
your documents ,you don't
need access to the internet
to view your work... so your
inventory lists or whatever
are right there whenever you
need them. And unlike WORD
or Excel they load pretty
much instantly .
Plus since they're HTML
based files you can burn the
site file to a CD or DVD and
send your photo collection
or whatever in an easily
viewable format to your
friends or relatives.
They'll be able to view your
work on any computer , won't
need internet access nor
have to download any plugins
or programs.
An added feature of doing
something like this is ,if
you're living in a tiny
house or rolling home and
don't have the space to
store a bunch of books
...all you do is use a
scanner and scan in the
pages you want to save
....Note :if your computers
hard drive doesn't have
enough available space to do
this ,just buy one of the
extremely affordable
external drives and store
your 'websites' on those.
You can also do this if you
have the full version of
Adobe Acrobat , but for
simple easy to use and easy
to learn situations we feel
a HTML editing program is
the best bet for most
people.
We use Microsoft FrontPage
,which contrary to totally
misinformed opinion happens
to be a GREAT and very well
designed program ...but it
costs a bit of cash to buy
and isn't what most people
trying to make simple sites
and create some inventory
lists really need . You're
much better off going with
one of the Free shareware
programs available .
One we recommend to everyone
is WebPlus put out by Serif
. It's totally free and
actually is very easy to use
and doesn't take much time
to get used to.
Serif puts out a lot of
decent free software you can
download off their site.
Once you download the
software and open it ....a
window pops up telling you
...you must register and get
the Key Code in your email
first before you run their
software.
This is just standard
procedure for this sort of
thing , but if you're a
paranoid type that's watched
too many people are out to
get you movies ..then get a
free throw away email
address somewhere , use that
in the registration process
and make up all the other
stuff.
Click Here to Visit Serif
website
They're are other Free
downloadable website design
programs out there ...just
make sure you can download
the program . The ones that
are web based won't work for
this .
Below we have a short run
down on how easy it is to create a
simple DVD
Movie collection database
using FrontPage ..Note : ALL
HTML editing/website
building programs have a
different look and different
way of how they go about
organizing their functions ,
but even so... the info
below is applicable to any
program you use ...
This sort of stuff ,
especially the bares bones
aspect of it isn't that hard
to learn ...just play
around , click on stuff in
the free programs ...see
what it does....
You're not going to hurt
anything by doing that
...read the help files and
after awhile you'll have no
problem figuring this
out.... |
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First thing you'll do is
create a New file ....
You can do this in your
Documents Folder or on your
desktop as I'm doing here |
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Now
name your File whatever you
want |
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Next... launch the Website
Building Program you're
using ...go to file -
Open Site or Web |
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Now
you'll get some sort of Open Site
window ...where you'll click
on the file you made ...then
click on the OPEN button.... |
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Once you click on the OPEN
button , you'll get some
form of window telling you
your new site needs some
information added to it so
that things will work right
...click on Yes or OK . |
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Now you have your Starting
point for your Inventory
list ...Most HTML website
building programs will
insert your main index page
for you . Some don't so
you'll have to click on the
'New page icon ...create the
page and name it
INDEX.HTM or
INDEX.HTML ( lower
case) |
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Now's the time to start
doing some forward thinking
and get your organizing
together....since this
'website' is going to list
our DVD movie collection
inventory , we'll create
folders to keep things from
getting out of hand ...to do
this click on the New Folder
Icon in your Website program |
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What I did here was to
create 3 files ,named
appropriately ...and also
created 3 picture files that
will hold the images we'll
be inserting later. With a
Website building program you
can always add new files
whenever you want ,so don't
feel you need to get
everything perfectly set up
from the get go... |
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Some website building
programs will by default
insert the next File you add
to the first File you
created ...FrontPage does
this ....but not every HTML
editing program does this
....so for the sake of
illustration we'll drag our
pics folders to their
appropriate main folder now.
In this Picture you'll see
the picture folders inside
the Main Folders. |
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To
make this Easy ...click on
the - tab on your folders
and close them all up
...next click on your INDEX
page to select it....then
Click on the 'New Page '
icon |
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Since I made 3 main folders
...I clicked the 'New Page
icon 3 times and then
renamed the pages to fit the
categories ... |
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Now drag those New pages
into their appropriate
folders .... once you have
this done the fun part
starts....click on any of
the pages you made to open
it .... |
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Now that you have your page
open ...you can choose to
color the background or
leave it white if you want.
In FrontPage click on the
Format Tab then choose
Background which will open a
window where you can pick a
color or add an image to the
background of the
page....all other website
programs have similar ways
to go about this easy task.
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Next you need to do
something that's very
important if you want your
pages to stay orderly ...and
that's create tables to hold
the pictures and text where
they're supposed to be... in
essence a TABLE is a
boundary box and you really
need to use them. In
FrontPage there's a couple
of ways to go about this
....but since this is about
keeping things simple , what
you'll do with any program
you use is find your TABLE
tab and click on create
table or click on the single
table box. |
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Now that you have your first
table ,you can leave it as
is or right click within the
Table ,choose Table
Properties and change its
size ,add color to it and a
bunch of other stuff..... |
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Because this is just a quick
How -to and not a lesson in
making websites all I've
done here is fill the Table
with a white background
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Next
..Click below the TABLE you
just made and add another
single Table ...then Click
on your Tables Tab and add a
double table ( 1 x 2 Tables
) below the one you just
added . FrontPage gives you
a quick way to add multiple
Tables at once and that's
what I did here ...but if
your program is hard to
figure out , don't stress
about , just add one double
table and copy and paste it
one after another. |
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Since those Double tables
are sized by default at 100%
,the two sections of the
table called Cells are 50 %
in size ....this wont look
right for what were doing
here ...so what we have to
do is resize the table a
bit....Most Website building
programs allow you to grab
hold of the center of the
table and drag it to the
size you want . If that
doesn't work for you , Right
Click on the side of the
table (Cell) you want to
resize , Choose Cell
Properties and change its
size to what you want ... I
choose 25 %
( Note: Don't choose the
Pixels option unless you
know what you're doing
...stay with percentage.)
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Once you've resized your
tables to the size you want
you now have a Template that
you can use on all your
pages.....go to edit ,select
all ..copy , then open up
the other pages you made and
paste your tables setup onto
them. If you have a lot of
Movies or whatever it's a
good idea to make more than
4 rows of double tables
first before pasting your
template to the other
pages....now that you've
pasted your page setup and
choose a background color
for all your pages , open up
each one and give them a
identifying name in the top
table and add whatever else
you want in the second table |
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Now that we have our pages
setup and ready to go ,we'll
add our pictures and
descriptive text . This
setup can be used for
anything ,but since I'm
building a easy to find
what's what and where is it
database of our huge movie
collection we'll stick with
that. For our DVD movie box
pictures I go to Amazon.com
and save to my documents the
box art. They have nice
clear graphics that are
resized for a web format ,
which means the pictures
resolution wise won't take
up as much space on the hard
drive as ones scanned in. An
important detail about
Amazon pictures is...they're
coded in a way that you
can't just choose save , you
need to rename the picture
before saving it. |
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Now that you have the
graphics you want to use
downloaded ...open the
picture up and copy and
paste it into the smaller
section of the double tables
you made |
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Since the picture is a bit
too large we'll resize it by
selecting it and dragging
one corner of the picture to
the size we want ...you can
also use the thumbnail
option to resize the pic if
you want . Also this is a
good time to add any
descriptive text you
want.... |
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Keep
adding as many pictures and
pages as you want & the text
to go along with them ...I
suggest keeping the pages to
a reasonable size using no
more than 20 pictures ,
after that create another
page which is linked to the
last page . All website
building programs are setup
to do a Hyper link ...just
select the text or a picture
you want to use as your
link....click on the
Hyperlink icon and navigate
to page your linking to... |
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Now
we want to go to our main
Index page and create links
to our various pages we've
created.... just add a few
tables and any other info
you want ..then highlight
the text you want to link to
your various pages and use
your insert hyperlinks
option to do this. |
That's it , you now have an easy to
edit and add to DVD Movie collection
Database .....which you can create
simply or as fancy as you want...
| SITE
CATEGORY -
PROJECTS -
CREATING EASY HTML INVENTORY
INDEXES |
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