Title: Need help starting Last modified: August 31, 2016 --- # Need help starting * [lowlyslows](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lowlyslows/) * (@lowlyslows) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/need-help-starting/) * Hello, * I am trying to build a website but I can’t find ANY guidance on how to start with the options that I want. I can’t seem to upload a picture of exactly what I want to be able to do. * I want to be able to post options for a product with drop down boxes with options inside it and little circles next to options where only one can be selected and it will leave a little dot in the center. * Wish I could upload a picture.. Sorry Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) * [kjodle](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kjodle/) * (@kjodle) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/need-help-starting/#post-7051283) * > I am trying to build a website but I can’t find ANY guidance on how to start > with the options that I want. * There is lots of guidance for this on the internet, a lot of it good, a lot of it bad. What have you googled so far? * > I can’t seem to upload a picture of exactly what I want to be able to do. * You can’t upload pictures to this forum. You can, however, post them on an image hosting site (imgur is a good one) and then link to them here. * > little circles next to options where only one can be selected and it will > leave a little dot in the center. * This is called a radio button. This is actually _really _basic web development stuff, which suggests to me that you have essentially no knowledge of hosting a website. (Which is not a problem—we all start at this point.) You have a lot of options, actually, depending on what you want to do, how soon you want to hit the ground running, and how willing you are to roll up your sleeves and hit the keyboard. * If you are more interested in running a business than running a website, I would suggest that you hire someone to do it for you, or that you partner with someone who has some good web development skills. * On the other hand, if you are willing and want to learn, there are a lot of good resources we can recommend. There is a learning curve, but by asking specific questions, we can give you good advice. * So, two questions for you: * 1) Is my estimate of your web development knowledge accurate? If not, what are you familiar with or knowledgeable about? * 2) How much time and effort are you willing to invest in this? * Thread Starter [lowlyslows](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lowlyslows/) * (@lowlyslows) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/need-help-starting/#post-7051410) * 1) I have never built a site before 2) I like to learn to do things myself * Thanks for the response! * [ps1](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ps1/) * (@ps1) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/need-help-starting/#post-7051415) * Your gonna have to get your hands dirty. I have never seen a theme yet that does“ exactly” what you want “out of the box” * YOu will always need custom code or plugins. * Good luck. Firebug & Child themes are your friend. * [kjodle](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kjodle/) * (@kjodle) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/need-help-starting/#post-7051457) * > 1) I have never built a site before * You will need to know about HTML and CSS, and later, JavaScript and PHP. * [http://www.w3schools.com/](http://www.w3schools.com/) is a good place to start. Lots of tutorials, and most have a “Try It Out!” sandbox you can mess about in. * > 2) I like to learn to do things myself * I would suggest installing some sort of XAMP server on your local computer. This acts like a webserver, so you can play around with WordPress without actually having a live site. (You can install themes and plugins to see how they work.) Later, when you have something ready to go live, you can upload it to your site. * XAMP from ApacheFriends is a good choice and is available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS: * [https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html](https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html) * **ps1** is absolutely correct. I would only add that Google is also your friend. Learn how to Google things and you will save a lot of time. * For example, if you get an error message such as * > Warning: $foo is not defined * then you should google “Warning: $foo is not defined”, rather than “weird error message” (which I’ve seen people do). If you are working in WordPress, append“ WordPress” to your search query: “Warning: $foo is not defined WordPress”. * There are also hundreds of hours of good reading at the WordPress codex. I would start there: * [http://codex.wordpress.org/](http://codex.wordpress.org/) * Another tip: don’t buy any commercial themes or plugins until you have thoroughly searched the official wordpress.org repositories, where you will find lots of things for free. Only once you have convinced yourself that none of those will do what you need should you seek a commercial solution. * Theme repository: * [http://wordpress.org/themes/](http://wordpress.org/themes/) * Plugins repository: * [http://wordpress.org/plugins/](http://wordpress.org/plugins/) * I’ve written some more advice here: * [http://techblog.kjodle.net/2014/04/13/wordpress-taking-your-first-steps/](http://techblog.kjodle.net/2014/04/13/wordpress-taking-your-first-steps/) * Have fun! * [kjodle](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kjodle/) * (@kjodle) * [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/need-help-starting/#post-7051468) * I almost forgot: * [https://www.codecademy.com](https://www.codecademy.com) * has lots of great hands-on courses. They are awesome. Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total) The topic ‘Need help starting’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 5 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [kjodle](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kjodle/) * Last activity: [10 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/need-help-starting/#post-7051468) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics