Recommendation for Web Builders Log?

[dsmithlib]

I have seen so many well done sites. I am wondering if there is a common tool or template that you are using so I can minimize computer work (I started out to build a plane, not a web site!)

My original intention was to create a Yahoo web site using their tools. I now own a domain name but, need a publishing solution. I have entire MS Office including MS Publisher.

[DeltaRomeo]

Hi Dave!

Blogs are hard to beat for what you say you want. Redirecting your purchased domain name to the blog takes 60 seconds. If you want a full blown web site you can build your own from scratch (article I wrote re: this). Can't beat the template driven speed of a blog, however, and you have a surprising amount of control over the look and feel. Having all the navigation links auto-created for you is a huge plus.

Check out these three 'BBlogs' (Builder Blogs) that are incredible:

• http://www.rv7blog.com/
• http://gikonhome.blogspot.com/
• http://www.dualrudder.com/rv7/

You can drag and drop a photo from it into a post in these forums, also (good for getting a problem solved).

My dumb non-RV blog is HERE and I'm amazed at how EASY it is to go take a picture and put in online (there is a button in the free Picasa program called 'Blog This!'.

I'm writing an article on using blogs for builder sites right now, as a matter of fact. And, when I build again I will use one for the build log. One cool thing is some of the blog backup utilities that automatically suck in your blog and allow you to print it as a PDF book (perfect for showing the DAR).

Create your blog HERE in about five minutes.

best and more to come,
dr

[MTBehnke]

My site is plain HTML I wrote myself. I didn't know HTML when I started, but within about 3-4 days I had my site up and running. I basically reviewed the HTML code used on other sites to see how they did things, experimented a little, and got it to work.

I use Coffee Cup's HTML Editor, which has some nice features. The one I use the most is the insert image button. It pops up a window that allows me to click on an image file and it automatically creates a thumbnail image, inserts it into my page and creates the link to open the full size picture.

I also have a freeware FTP program called SmartFTP which allows you to drag and drop to upload your files to the web server.

It takes me about 3-5 minutes to write a new entry, save the file, then upload it. If I'm inserting pictures it takes me closer to 10 minutes including time to download from my camera and resize the image files down to 1024x768 using another freeware product called Flatstone Photo Resizer.

[ToadF16]

MS Visual Web Developer Express

It's free and there's some great lessons on that site to teach you how to do the programming.

I'll admit there is some time spent on the front end getting the templates and site structure setup, but now it only takes me about 15 minutes to get a page ready to push to the server. I'm learning as I go, but it's a very robust web development program.

For speed though, you can't beat a blog.

Nate Garrett

[Pirkka]

Originally Posted by dsmithlib

I have seen so many well done sites.

So why 'waste' your time and do one more? If you would use all those web hours for real building you would finish much sooner.

[BuckWynd]

There is, of course KitLog Pro, which is dirt-simple to use and very robust. Its features are somewhat limited, in my opinion (you can only post three photos per entry, for example -- so if you want to post more that that, you have to make another entry), but it gets the job done, and you can easily print out the log pages and stick them in a notebook.

You can see sample pages at MyKitLog.com.

It costs $49.95 to download.

[uk_figs]

Well I followed Doug's advice and set up a construction blog on blogger to see how it compared to my web site authoring tools. It is very slick and easy to use and the nice feature is the ability to post from anywhere including email and mobile phone (great for us travelers).
I just added links to my web site to be able to capture and use the stuff archived to date.

Also has neat "widgets" that you can add to customize the site like web album and slide show.

I could not get the BlogCollector tool to work (sent support an email) but you can mirror the site to your desktop with a tool called HTTrackWebs.

With Picasa as the image tool and web album you can do most things I would need for this activity.

Amazingly all these tools are free right now

Still playing with it but you can check it out at http://ukfigs.blogspot.com

[DeltaRomeo]

Nice blog, Dave.

I was amazed at how QUICKLY a professional looking build site could be constructed using regular old free Webblog and Picasa.

b,
d

[Steve Sampson]

Doug, thanks for the very kind words wrt to my blog in post #2 in this thread. I have only just seen it.

The reason I noticed is the traffic level on the site has gone up in the last few days, and I was wondering why.

For anyone interested, a blog with 'blogger', is trivially easy. A post takes perhaps 10 minutes or so.

I should add that HTT track does a magnificent job of backing up the blog. I really do not see that backup is a problem if you use that. it cost me nothing.

Cheers,

[SvingenB]

Originally Posted by Steve Sampson

The reason I noticed is the traffic level on the site has gone up in the last few days, and I was wondering why.

How do you monitor the traffic level? I have searched the set-up pages, but cant seem to find anything.