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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.
Jesse Seymour http://web-source1.hypermart.net Your Source for Web Design and Promotion!