There are lots of "bells and whistles" that you may have seen on
someone else's site. Some of these things are harder to implement than
you may realize. Below, we've tried to describe some of the more
commonly desired web site features along with information on what you
can reasonably expect. We'll talk about:
Flash-enhanced web sites range from "embedded" animations in an
otherwise normal web site all the way up to full Flash sites, where the
site is completely done in Flash. If you aren't sure if something is a
Flash movie or not, try right-clicking on it. If you see options like
"Settings" and "About Macromedia Flash Player," then it's a Flash (or
Swish) movie. Typically, you'll see web designers and movie or music
artist sites with all-Flash sites, while "larger" sites (such as
www.macromedia.com
or www.microsoft.com)
will have HTML sites with embedded Flash movies.
It won't take much time to learn how to do some simple text or image
fading animation effects using Flash or Swish (Swish has a lot of
built-in text effects), but if you're looking for high-quality Flash
work, it will take a lot of time to learn, and you might not even be
able to get the job done. It's best to outsource any high-caliber Flash
work until you have time to take some classes or buy lots of "learn
Flash" books. Expect custom Flash work to come with a hefty price tag.
Macromedia Flash can be purchased from
www.macromedia.com and runs in the hundreds of dollars range.
Swish can be purchased from
www.swishzone.com
and is currently around $50. It's not as easy to optimize Swish
movies and there's definitely less functionality than with Flash,
but it comes with lots of built-in text effects that are easy to use
if you just want to create simple animations.
You've probably seen those cool "pop-out" menus - some with some
really nifty effects. These are usually done using a third-party
software. If you are using a FrontPage template, you will NOT be able to
use FrontPage built-in navigation bars if you want DHTML pop-out menus,
but will have to build your own images and use the third-party software
to generate the code.
Sothink offers a nice program that creates these pop-out
menus that are compatible with all the major browsers.
xFX Jumpstart also has a nice program that creates pop-out
menus that are compatible with all the major browsers.
There are two ways that you can integrate music and sound into your
site:
By embedding a "background music" file into your web site. This is obnoxious and annoying and we don't recommend it.
By using a Flash movie that has background music in it. This can also be obnoxious and annoying. If you decide to do
this, please include a "mute" button on the movie so that the user
can turn of the music if desired.
We won't go into depth on how to do this. You can find Flash support
or search online for how to embed music into your web site.
This can also take many different forms. The most common variations:
A subfolder that is password protected (a system dialog
box pops up to ask for the user/pass - this is different than
a login box that is ON a web page). Once someone enters the username
and password, they can access the subfolder. You will need to talk
to your hosting provider or server administrator to help you do this
- basically they will set specific "permissions" on the folder so
that you have to log in to access the folder.
Some kind of database that holds usernames and passwords
and programming on the pages that checks the usernames and
passwords. You will either need to outsource this to someone who
knows how to do it, try to learn it yourself, or find a third-party
tool. For FrontPage users, check out the
Spooky Login from Outfront.net. You may also try typing in
search terms like "password protect web site" and see what sponsored
links show up.
Email the form information to yourself. You'll have to
check with your hosting provider to see if this is possible, then
create a form with a "mailto" statement. There are lots of tutorials
online that will help you do this. If your web host allows form
emails, then you can do this for free.
Collect the form information in some kind of online
database. You may want to outsource this or find a third-party tool
if you don't know anything about ASP or similar programming. Type
"collect form information web site" in a search engine and see what
comes up.
FrontPage users who are hosting on a server with
FrontPage extensions may be able to collect form information in a
".csv" file (able to be opened with Excel) as well as email the
information to themselves. They should check with their hosting
provider to make sure that this is possible.
If you want an email newsletter and don't have a friend who is a
programming whiz, look for a third-party solution. Type "email
newsletters" in a search engine and see what comes up.
A nice, cheap solution that we've heard of is
www.newsletteradministrator.com. There are no up-front fees and it
costs $1 to send 500 newsletters.
Be aware that you should check with your hosting service to see if
they allow live chat - some don't! Other hosting services offer live
chat as an add-in for an additional fee. If you're looking for a
third-party solution,
Volano.com is pricier than most but we've heard that they're good.
If you want search functionality that searches the text on your web
site, the cheapest way is to sign up for Google's free SiteSearch. Go to
http://www.google.com/services/free.htmll.
There are also plenty of third-party solutions. Try keywords like
"search functionality integrate website."
If you want product search capability, you'll have to find a web
developer who is proficient in ASP or CGI-type programming. You will
also have to integrate your products into a database so that you will
have "fields" that you can search. Some shopping cart systems may also
come with search capability. Read on to find out more about ecommerce!
