What programs do I need for web design?

Howdy. My name is Chad. I am looking for a career change. I want to stay home and build professional websites so that I can have more time with my family (2.5 hours a day of drive time eliminated). I am an accountant with Access programming skills but my website building experience is basically Office Live. I want to do this right but have limited funds to start. Here is what sort of guidance I could use: What programs do I need to buy for starters?

PhotoShop? Dreamweaver? I think I need to learn html from scratch for starters but if I need any of the above mentioned programs, I am a little confused about all of the packaged options that Adobe offers. I did notice that I have PhotoShop Elements installed on my computer.

My long range goal is to build professional websites from scratch for Mom and Pop "work at home" families via word of mouth while building my own content sites to generate adSense revenue. I only have about $200 total that I can spend today. I am on unemployment for now and I want to see what I can accomplish right away on my limited budget while I have a little free time on my hands. I expect that I will be employed in a few weeks so I want to make my little budget and my little unemployment stint work hard for me. All constructive comments are greatly encouraged and appreciated.

Respectfully,

Chad

 

You NEED to learn HTML (xHTML) and CSS. Javascript will probably also be a good tool to learn. I recommend you spend some money purchasing a well written book.

The software you will need to write this code will just be a text editor, notepad will suffice but I would recommend Notepad++

notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

A graphics program will also be required if you are planning on making these sites look semi decent. The gimp is a good free option,

www.gimp.org

However the choice of most designers is Adobe's Photoshop, very expensive. There are other free tools such as Paint (not mspaint) avaliable for download from www.getpaint.net

Fireworks is also an option for some designers.

Those are my tool recommendations.

Now I ask you a few questions, what makes you think you will be able to master all the required tools in a "few weeks". It really isnt as simple as you may think, many people are still learning after years of working professionally.

 

99.99% of 'web design' software is fat bloated rubbish from which all you can learn is how NOT to design a website. (Topping the list is Frontpage, visual web expression (which is just frontpage with a new name, and of course the steaming turd known as dreamweaver)

As Nicangeli said, get yourself a plain text editor like notepad++, and learn how to actually write markup. I prefer Crimson editor myself, but any flat plaintext editor is vastly superior if you are SERIOUS about designing a website.

Me, my design process is write the HTML, design the layout USING CSS, and then and only then start up the goofy paint program (photoshop, paint Shop Pro, Gimp) to create graphics to hang on it.

Pretty much that's all you need for PROGRAMS to do web design - a free text editor. You want graphics you'll need a paint program (starting out? Gimp is free) - anything more and you won't learn how to do it right in the first place.

 

Thanks for the guidance. It sounds like I got exactly the type of advice I was seeking. I do not expect to be more than just a beginner in the limited time that I have. I was just concerned about spending a lot of money on software that would not really teach me anything. I prefer to actually learn what I am doing instead of just doing. I think I will go with the free HTML and learn how to code and then look at Gimp. My goal is to just be able to do a simple 12 page content site within the next two weeks. I have the articles written but did not know how to get them visually appealing. Graphics can wait for now. I just need to start learning some HTML with a free program.

Thank you, Thank you.

Chad

 

Intype for a text editor, and serif page plus for sketching your web layout, making headers, and logos, etc. is what I use because adobe is so pricy.

 

NVU is a nice free software. Check it out.

 

Ok, I think he asked "what programs to I need", not "what shit do you have to diss web design software" or "how many years to I need to spend and and what codes do I need to learn?"...

so I think when you are a beginner you can use Frontpage if it comes with your computer, or if you have CPANEL then use the website editor.

 

If you are just starting out then I would get dreamweaver and go through the tutotrials in the help file that will get you a solid start and foundation. Then you can graduate up to learning better practices and utilizing good coding. I recommend a book called bullet proof web design to start off with also.

 

I think the following would dissagree with you...

 

If you want to learn how not to do it, churn out fat bloated rubbish that is going to cost more in hosting just to use, isn't going to work cross browser or even likely use valid markup, and in general don't give a shit about designing your websites.

But then GOOD web design is called 'work' - you don't want to put the work in, what the devil would anyone be doing showing interest in DIY the first place?

Because again, the only thing you can learn from Dreamweaver, Frontpage or any other WYSIWYG sleazeball shortcut is how NOT to design a website. Me, I'd rather see him pointed the right direction to learn to do it CORRECTLY in the first place, than struggle with the HELL that is WYSIWYGS wasting time learning something that if he's SERIOUS about it will end up being wasted time, effort and money.

 

I used dreamweaver for a couple years. Didn't know much about coding when I first started, didn't know what all the tags meant but the program helped me create sites and get them published.

Looking back, the sites I put out were pretty bad. Wasn't until I took the time to learn coding that my sites started looking more professional.

If you learn to code from scratch like you mentioned in your first post you won't need to spend money on a program.

 

get dreamweaver!!

 

try w3schools.com

 

nicangeli and deathshadow gave you good advice, though ds was his usual politically correct self. If you have something to say, ds, spit it out—don't pussyfoot.

The point is, the most important software is your own brain. Applications like Dreamweaver don't teach you how to code, and if you know how to code, you know not to use its design mode. That leaves you with a very expensive text editor.

So get yourself a good text editor. You can get anything you want for free. Since you will spend a lot of time, no, I mean a whole lot of time in your editor, there are some things to consider:

• The editor should work on all platforms, Windows, Linux and Mac. No matter which machine you sit down to, you can install and run your editor.
• For highest productivity, it should be completely usable from the keyboard. Every time you go to the mouse or other pointing device, you slow yourself down.

My recommendation is Emacs or Vim. Both were developed by programmers, for touch-typing programmers. They run on all platforms, including a bunch you've never heard of. They are designed to work without the user ever lifting his hands from the home keys. The principle is that with nothing to slow you down, you're more likely to enter the "hacker zone", where your productivity soars. Both are based on the idea that time spent up front to learn the editor (and they do have a steep learning curve) will pay high dividends in productivity. Vim takes a minimalist approach, and Emacs is extensible. Vim is guaranteed to be on every *nix machine[1], which is most web hosts. In the interest of full disclosure, I worship at the Church of Emacs.

For graphics, you need, though outsourcing the graphics may be indicated, a general image manipulation program, a vector graphics generator, and a command line suite of image transformation and conversion utilities.

Suggestion:

• The Gnu Image Manipulation Program, the GIMP, is free, and runs on Linux, OS â…©, and Windows. Photoshop is more comprehensive and expensive, but you won't need the print oriented stuff anyway.
• Inkscape. A free, cross platform vector graphics generator/editor. Said to be more xml+svg compliant, and my graphics designer says it is more powerful and easier to use, than Illustrator.
• Imagemagick. This free suite of utilities is cross platform and integrates with PERL and PHP on the server for server side transformations.

cheers,

gary

[1] If you telnet or ssh into your Linux host, you will know that Vi or Vim is there for you. Even if you select another editor, you should learn at least the basics of Vi.

 

nothing to it. i recommend photoshop and dreamweaver. all you need to create sites. very easy.

 

I have tested Dreamweaver, FronPage and Expression Web. Most functional is dreamweaver. So go for it.

You should study flash too

 

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You still need to learn the HTML and CSS. Dreamweaver design feature have problem that can only fix with html skills

 

Another free graphics program is paint.net. Along with Notepad ++, that should be all you need to begin designing websites.

 

If you've learned about html and css, try playing with Joomla from joomla.org
You can easily modify the templates and they have massive add-ons for about everything that your clients need.

 

This is easy, photoshop and knowledge