I'm strongly considering getting some formal training in programming and web design. I'd like to know from the experts what you would recommend as the first step. I realize that web development and programming is an on going learning curve but want to start with the basics. Please share your thoughts with me. Thanks for you time!
Start with HTML; it's not a programming language and relatively easy to learn: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp Move on to PHP: http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp And pick up some JavaScript: http://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp You can learn these things from tutorials, through trying out the examples, if you're a quick learner.
1st off don't pay anyone one cent . There are to many so called "Gurus" that don't know shit . 2nd go take an IQ test and see if you have the brains for it . Being a successful webmaster takes intelligence and imagination . 3rd I'd recommend that you learn a bit of design 1st . It will help you more then learning how to code . Most websites are designed like some kind of horrid little things . 4th learn to use CMS . Mastering a basic CMS then a more professional one like Dreamwaver and then Adobe's Ultimate CS5 will ensure that your sites will be well coded , smart looking and functional 5th learn to code . You will need more and more custom scripts and the best way to do it is create them yourself . 6th Learn Marketing 7th Learn Psychology and Sociology 8th Learn Ergonomics 9th Learn Management 10th Profit !!!
The first thing to understand is that design and coding are two hugely different things, and that you might be good at one, and terrible at the other. You might even decide to drop the idea of being a "web designer" and just focus on either design, or coding. If you want to be a "web designer", you'll have to be good at both. 1. Don't bother with formal training. Unless you're hopeless at learning by yourself, formal training will be boring, outdated, irrelevant, and painfully slow. And expensive. Don't even buy books. You can learn everything that you need to know from reading online documentation and from posting on forums. 2. Learn your way around Photoshop, get comfortable with the key commands, noodle around until it becomes second nature. You can do 95% of your design work in Photoshop, especially for web graphics. You can just about get away with using GIMP, but you will be very limited when dealing with the rest of the "professional" world that uses Photoshop. You might eventually need to use vector applications like Illustrator or Inkscape - but that's another story. 3. Learn to code by hand, from DAY ONE. Don't ever use WYSIWYG software. If you're using it now, get rid of it. Get a good text editor and use it. Don't worry about PHP, JavaScript, Flash etc until you're comfortable with plain old HTML/XHTML. Good text editors: http://www.pspad.com/ http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ Oh... and welcome to DP.
Wow guys! Thank you so much for taking the time to write your responses, I really appreciate it. The one common theme I find with all 3 of you is that I do not need formal education to learn these things which excites me quite a bit as I can get started right away and learn at my pace. @ApocalypseXL, thanks for being so straight forward and giving me what you think are the top 10 things I need to learn and do. @ Green T, thanks for providing the tutorials I will definetly check them out and thank you @Kerosene for your advice also.
I learned all my web design and programming through video tutorials from lynda.com, check that website out, helped me alot and I never had to pay outrageous amounts of money for formal training