Now that we have our site's purpose and our site's objectives all written down and planned out, you are going to have to keep that sheet of paper next to your computer in plain sight at all times. Every time you do something on your computer, I want you to ask your self, "Is this helping my site accomplish its objectives and fulfill its purpose?" If you answer no, then you should think about finding something that will make you answer "yes" to that question.

File/Folder Order

Another thing we should do before we move on is to determine how our files and our folders will be stored. Here we have several options, we can put everything in one folder, we can have a images folder and put all HTML files one folder, or we can have every major section of our site in its own subfolder with each subfolder having its own images folder.

Putting everything in one folder works great for small sites, but when your site reaches 500+ pages, updating site is going to become a pain. Finding page to update will be a big task in itself, let alone updating whole site because you added a new section.

Having one images folder and putting all HTML in one folder works a little bit better, but once again, updating site is going to be time consuming.

The best way, in my opinion, is to put every major section of site within its own folder. That way, whenever you need to update something, you will know exactly where it is. You won't have to waste time by hunting through many files trying to find right one.

Looking back now, you should be glad that you didn't just jump into code. A lot of work has to go into a site before even one line of code can be written. There are many more steps ahead before we start coding our site. The Second Step deals with colors and navigation of your site.

Frames and tables both should be checked and double checked with two most popular browsers. What might look fantastic with Netscape often times looks like crap in IE, and visa versa, though Netscape seems to be a bit more forgiving. Especially tables. Get tables to work right and look right in IE and Netscape is happy. The only other thing regarding tables and cross-browser compatibility is background colors of cells. Netscape reads background images, IE doesn’t. So be real sure that whatever background color you set for table blends well with background of page itself. If your using a plain colored background this doesn’t present a problem, however, for those of us that like a textured background, it becomes a MAJOR issue! Check, check and double check!!! Nothing grosser then to see your pretty table that looks incredible in Netscape rendered with some sick color background in IE.

As far as Frames, remember that some older browsers do not recognize them, so all that work that you put into building of frames could be rendered into a jumble at best. Its always a good idea to created site without using frames as well for those that have older browsers.

Whether you are a fan of frames, or a table lover, or even torn on choice of which way to lay out page, keep in mind a few things:

1.Keep it simple. 2.Double check everything from general appearance to colors. 3.Compare IE and Netscape appearance. 4.Have fun!