Web Design Inspiration – FAQ for Beginners
If you’d like to do business on the Internet, launching a quality website is an absolute must. Learning how to design your own can be a little intimidating. However, there is a wealth of free web design inspiration available on the Internet to assist you.
The best way to learn is by doing, don’t you agree?
Get On The List! – FREE Web Design Tips Here
Take the first step to web design inspiration is to begin researching. Once you understand the basics of designing, you can begin experimenting with some more advanced coding techniques.
Most FAQ For Website Design Inspiration
Over the years, I have been asked many questions by beginners who are just getting started. Below, are some of the 
most frequently asked questions about web design I receive on a regular basis:
Question: I am in the process of designing my first web page and am confused about making it compatible with all the different web browsers. Can you help?
Answer: Although there really isn’t a “set in stone” solution to developing a web page that will display properly in all browsers, there are some basic guidelines that will assist you.
The best advice I can offer is to develop your site to be compatible with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, as these are the two most widely used browsers today.
Although the latest versions of the two browsers are fairly comparable, you must take into consideration that many of your visitors won’t have the latest versions.
(4) Avoid using special design techniques that require a special browser extension or plug-in, as many of your visitors will need to download and install the plug-in before they can use your site — most won’t.
More Web Design Inspiration – Frequently Asked Questions About Internet Browsers
If you follow these few guidelines, you shouldn’t have any problems with browser compatibility. A great way to ensure your site displays properly is to download and install both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. This will enable you to view your site through both browsers.
Internet Explorer
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp
Netscape Navigator
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp
Visit the following web addresses to test your web page’s browser compatibility:
http://www.anybrowser.com
http://www.netmechanic.com
Question: I can’t get my image to display on my web page. I placed the image code in my page, but all I see is a “red X” where the image should display. Can you tell me what the problem may be?
Answer: In order for an image to display on a web page, it must first be uploaded to your server in “binary” mode.
If you’ve verified that your image has been uploaded properly, your next step will be to double check your image HTML code.
Make sure that the image address leads to your image and is spelled exactly the same. Keep in mind, the name of your image is CaSE SeNsiTIve. In other words,
if your image name is “Image.gif” on your server, it must look exactly the same within your code.
Question: I would like to display my text, side by side, like a newspaper, but I can’t figure out the code.
Answer: In order to display your text like a newspaper, you must place it within a table.
<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD>text</TD>
<TD>text</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
Question: When I placed my text within my page, it’s right up against the left border. Is there any way I can correct this?
Answer: Yes, you can place your text within a table. You can specify the width of your table to determine the distance between your text and the left and right border of your web page.
<CENTER>
<TABLE WIDTH=”80%”>
<TR>
<TD>text</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</CENTER>
This table code will display your text across 80% of your web page with a border of 10% on the left and right side.
If you’d rather not use a table, you can also set your page borders within your BODY tag:
<BODY topmargin=0 bottommargin=0 leftmargin=0 rightmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0>
Question: I have specified a font face at the beginning of my web page, but the font face isn’t displaying within my tables. Can you tell me what the problem may be?
Answer: In order to display a specific font face within your tables, you must use a separate font tag within each table cell.
<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD font face=”Arial”>text</font></TD>
<TD font face=”Arial”>text</font></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
If you’d rather not use a font tag within each of your table cells, there is an easier way. Place the following code between the HEAD and /HEAD tags. This code will specify the font style for all of your table cells.
<STYLE TYPE=”text/css”>
<!–
TD{font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;}
–>
</STYLE>
Question: I’ve placed a form code within my web page, but my form isn’t working. Can you help?
Answer: In order for a form to function, in addition to placing the form HTML within your web page, you must also use a CGI form processing script.
This script will reside on your server within your CGI-bin and will be called from your form code within your HTML. Your code might look something like this:
<form method=post action=”/cgi-bin/example.cgi”>
The “cgi-bin/example.cgi” text should be changed to the address of your form processing script.
You can find free form processing scripts at the CGI Resource Index.
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/
Learning how to design a great web site isn’t easy. However, if you take the time to educate yourself and start with the basics, you’ll be well on your way to designing a great site.
I hope this report and web design inspiration helped with some of your frequently asked questions for beginners. Please bookmark this site and visit often for more great webdesign faq. Get more great advice for new designers in your inbox by subscribing to the Web Design Newsletter Tips for Beginners .
