Hi, I'm trying to teach myself html and website development. What's the best way to go about it? I've bought books before, and now I'm trying to learn from w3schools.com. But either programming isn't for me, or I'm taking the wrong approach. I am a complete newbie to web site designs, but would like to build my own site. I have a couple of business website ideas I'd like to try, but learning how to program is stopping me from implementing the ideas. Anyone care to share how they got into it, and what the learning curve is? Thanx in advance.
IMO I'd start with a basic understanding of php, mysql, and css... if you run into any roadblocks these 3 are used so much your solution is usually only a google search away.
I have started web design with basic html. First i learned all the things of html then i started php. Html is for visuality of site, php is for programming of site. I think you should care just one way of programming. PHP or ASP or etc. But you should learn html first i think.
IMO you should follow these steps. - Learn basic HTML - Make simple static HTML pages with a text editor. For learning don't use graphical editors like dreamweaver or frontpage. - Learn basic PHP - Make simple PHP page to generate dynamic HTML pages - Learn advanced HTML and basic CSS - Learn advanced PHP - Learn advanced CSS - Learn webserver configuration (usually Apache) - etc.
Learn the basics first, then get some easy opensource scripts, templates, and reverse engineer them. Learn how the functions work, how layouts are formed...how does javascript/ajax get used...you see alot more looking at/changing actual working code then a tutorial on some website. And then try your hand at your original design once you are confident.
learn html solid so that you can build webpages with it...spend maybe 10 - 15 hours on html until you've made a sample site. get a webhost and a domain name and learn to upload and link these pages together...You can use FTP software like fireFTP which works with Firefox. Then dump all that and get Dreamweaver...You can download it free for 30 days...During that 30 days spend at least 15 hours working through tutorials and uploading pages to test out. As for PHP...I personally would wait...Learning PHP takes a lot of effort, especially for a newbie. I would recommend Dreamweaver's built in PHP tools for starters if you get to that point. best of luck to you!
This is the third time I've said this this morning. Spend some time at your local library to pick up some books on HTML and CSS. I personally recommend Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS by Ian Lloyd. Designing With Web Standards, 2nd Edition by Jeffrey Zeldman and Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug are wonderful companions (and are very easy, non-technical books). If you want another book to go along with this (for the "visual" aspect), I suggest you purchase a copy of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird.