Converting to Drupal

I'm about to get into Drupal knowing about next to nothing, so I'm prepared for a steep learning curve. But I'd also like to avoid any missteps at the beginning. I currently have a static HTML site that I don't want to shut down while I'm playing and learning Drupal.

Do I put the install into something like www.mysite.com/drupalstuff and eventually make my index.html file a redirect? And if I do, will that affect search engines at all?

I am designing a site for a potter

I want to create a way to have galleries of various types of ceramic. Something which does a little more than just display an image. There will be photograph and set information about each pot, dimensions, glaze, notes about production.

I think I can create what I need in Drupal with the image module, a new content type (art_object) which will have fields for the relevant information (dimensions, glaze, notes, etc), and a gallery view for displaying the right "art_object" nodes.

How to create a new content type
Hello,
How to create a new content type, with more than a subject and a body.

Hi!

I evaluate migrating our php-coded local community site to drupal. It is hand coded from scratch in PHP and therefore has many very inidivual settings and possibilities (Up for 7 years now).

As most Wordpress users know there was a major upgrade from Wordpress 2.2 to 2.3.

I've since modified my utility conversion program to account for importing Wordpress 2.5 database to Drupal 5.x. I'm half assuming the utility program should convert Wordpress 2.3/2.4 but if it doesn't it's just a matter of upgrading through Wordpress methods to 2.5 and then apply the utility program.

The utility program can be downloaded from here http://prime357.org/node/59 and simply follow the links.

Hi.

Anyone have experience or have a link to a discussion regarding DNN->Drupal conversion? I'm specifically interested in user migration, but having suggestions for migrating content as well would be a nice bonus.

Thanks in advance!

Joe