Hi All,

I am a physics teacher and would like to disseminate info on teaching/research news/outreach activities to students etc. I have no experience with cms/html (other than rudimentary html which i learned and forgot a while ago). I have paid for a gnu/linux hosting service and would like to build a very simple website like this:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~egull/index.html (menu on the left)

OR

http://web.physics.ucsb.edu/~murray/ (menu on top)

I have heard good things about couch cms and would like to download and try it out. Idea is if I can teach myself how to design and build simple site like this, then I can keep on updating in future without depending on others. I am comfortable with gnu/linux only.

I would appreciate it much if you can give me any suggestions on how to get started to design a simple barebone academic instructor websites like those shown above.

Thanks in advance for your time and any help.
Best wishes,
Raj

[KK]

Hello and welcome, Raj

You said you'd like to -
1. design and build a simple site
2. keep on updating it in future without depending on others

The first one would require having a fairly good knowledge of HTML/CSS to first produce the static design of the site. Adding Couch is secondary to it.

Once Couch gets added, it'll be definitely easy for you to maintain and update the site all by yourself.

Since, as you mentioned, your HTML/CSS skills are rusty, I'd suggest you use a pre-made open-source HTML template (you'll find them online) and add Couch to it (our tutorial at http://www.couchcms.com/docs/tutorials/ will guide you through this).

Alternatively, you can hire a professional to do this for you and you can maintain the site yourself from that point on.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Kamran for your reply. I will start with the tutorial then. Best to learn the hard way, then knowledge stays with you.
Cheers & have a good weekend!
--R