I got two sites, but am not a web designer. I think its time that I learn how to design web pages. Should I start with HTML ? ( I bought "HTML 4 for Dummies" by Tittel and Burmeister.) What other resources can be helpful to me? Any good online resource?
When I started out I read all I could on webmonkey. But that was years ago. When you know HTML, have a look at CSS.
This is hands-down the best starting point book for HTML: Elizabeth Castro’s HTML for the World Wide Web, Fifth Edition with XHTML and CSS: A Visual Quick Start Guide, 2003, Peachpit Press. As far as web resources go, I found the Web Developer's HandBook(http://www.alvit.de/handbook) very good. It is terrible to look at but is a tremendous resource. All the best, Jay
Some of these suggestions are decent places to start, but always remember that the HTML Specification <http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/> is the definitive resource.
Yes, the W3.org homepage is a good reference but I find that practical tutorials and sites that provide articles on developing by standards is best to begin with. My own personal experience was to start out with a WYSIWYG editor such as Dreamweaver and as I began spending more time looking at the code view and fixing stuff I shouldn't have to fix I moved to a text editor. I use a combination of editors such as HTML-Kit (chami.com) and Notepad ++ (available from SourceForge). All the best, Jay
No WYSIWYG editor has ever produced code correctly (that is, conforms to the official HTML specification). What you said about the articles and tutorials just before that shows that you at least desire to produce correct code, but I guarentee you that learning from editors is not the way to achieve that. This is another source that teaches you to do everything that the official specification tries to dissuade you from. If you read the "about Joe Burns" page you would see that at every stage where he has taught HTML he has done so with no real knowledge of HTML. And that tradition continues. Much of the HTML information on that site is incomplete or incorrect. I personally know the Perl section is absolutely pathetic; anyone learninig from it will have to do some unlearning later. I have not read through all the other sections but I expect their quality to also be that of an amateur at the keyboard.
I agree. I don't want to make anyone think that this is the best way to learn. I thought, at the time, I was developing websites. Once I realized I had gone down the wrong path I spent my time learning the right way to do things. Some sites with good tutorials include sitepoint.com and alistapart.com. There are so many more but there are just so many good ones to list here. There is also a good tutorial in the beginning of Beginning CSS: Cascading Style Sheets for the Web Design, Richard York, Wrox (Wiley Publishing) 2005. Hand coding and previews in a standards compliant a browser as possible and making fixes for non-compliant browsers is the way to go. All the best, Jay
I don't mean to come off as oppressive, but this is certainly a bad source is learn from. The best I can say for the HTML information provided by this site is that it was true eight years ago. However, there are still many instances of information that was *never* true. The author also has a clear misunderstanding of what HTML fundamentally is. (I can provide specific examples with full explanations for all these points if anyone requests them. I'm not expecting anyone to simply take my word for it.) The CSS section is ok, not great, but ok. Unfortunately, poor information has circulated the Web more so than correct information. As a result the majority of HTML tutorials are written by people who do not truly understand the language. Thankfully forums such as this one exist so everyone can help to educate one another.
I hate to be the "Flava Flav" to FeelLikeANut. But Yeah. That site is terrible. Try http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/ this site was a referral from the Web Standards Project (WaSP) . There are links to great articles like the following argument for web standards such as this one My Web site is standard! And yours? at W3C. For more links like these, that don't suck, go to the resources page of the WaSP site. All the best, Jay
This site actually would have been a decent one eight years ago. But since the latest versioin of HTML was released much of the information presented here has become outdated. Though it does delve into topics beyond HTML, such as finding a host and domain and working with search engines that may still be useful.
100% agree. start from w3 they cover all parts of the subject , then follow books for a deep understanding.
Web design has two parts to it, I’d say. One is are the graphics and the other is the coding. HTML is fairly simple once you know it. I started out with Netscape editor, now I mainly use UltraEdit (html/php), HomeSite (html), and VisualStudio (ASP.NET/C#/HTML). My recommendation to you would be to practice, practice, practice. It is one of the reason why I ended up setting up my own personal website, so I could practice/learn the things that I don’t deal with in projects I am working on.
Absolutely correct. Do not even consider using a wysiwyg editor/code generator. You will turn out crap for code. Just remember, HTML is neither rocket surgery nor brain science . Run through some tutes—w3schools is good—but the real lesson is that all html does is put labels on your content. Eg., this is a paragraph, this a header, oh, there's a list, &c.. Ignore anyone who starts talking about using the table structure to lay out the page. Doing that, now that we've had css-p support for more than five years, is stupid, and there is no reason to go there. You'll also need tutorials on css. Again, w3schools is a good start. As for layout, avoid absolute positioning until you reach at least advanced intermediate abilities; there are too many gotchas for a beginner. Just my 2¢ American. cheers, gary