First steps in website design, is html a neccesity?

hi,

i am currently jumping on the band wagon and intending to learn how to design websites?


could u help...


1) do i have to learn hmtl, or is it passed that stage now?

2) can a novice teach himself html and effectively execute a good visable website?

most appreciate any feedback from you guys

dr.web

 

Dr. Web, I use the html editor NVU. It is free, but what's good about all html editors these days is the "What You See Is What You Get". Meaning you can build a webpage like a ms word doc. The html code will automatically be written for you. You should download a free html editor and play with it some.

 

many thhanks goscopio,

i will check it out so i guess the old or normal html is passed its use by date now?

 

Hi there

I write every single char of my html. Altough editors may look easier, up to time I quit using them they were really messing up the code.

You can start with an editor and design easily WYSIWYG style, but you'll soon need to modify the html code.

So my advice is, get a good editor and learn these languages (at least briefly)

(x)html, css, javascript


regards,

 

Absolutely you must learn html and css and javascript if you wish to develop web sites. Additionally you need to learn SQL and PHP or other server language if you want to create anything more than brochure sites or cookie cutter-already-written-cms-just plug-it-in sites. Anyone who suggests otherwise does not know what they're talking about.

There is no wysiwyg html editor that produces anything other than crap for code. MSWord is possibly the worst of a bad lot, and NVU produces cleaner code than most. Dreamweaver falls somewhere between those extremes of bad coding.

Get yourself a good plain-text editor and have at it. Go to htmldog.com, and start with their tutorials. Read some books if you wish, but mainly start marking up content, and coming to a forum or list when you can't search out some solution on your own.

Don't fall into the idea that web design is about graphics. Graphics is important to enhancing the visitor's experience, but is just that, an enhancement—not a core functionality.

cheers,

gary

 

in order to design a website you dont need to be able to master html - although it is very easy to learn

but it helps to have a understanding of it


for your second question yes a novice an quickly teach themselve how to code in html

for visualls thats another matter - you need to already have some creative juices going and learning html will not really help you there.


the tools available today will allow you to create website with little knowledge .

 

you should learn HTML, at least the basics. and concentrate more on CSS after its done.

 

wow dont scare the guy! (sql,php,asp,javascript,xhtml,css)

hes just wanting to start out


html,css i agree with but i dont think he needs to rush and start learning javascript (but it would be useful in the future - once a good understanding of html,css is gained)

learning html and css should be all you need


small steps mate .. small steps

 

many thanks for all your contributions, much appreciated;

1), tutorials online - week or so
2) purchase html book, basic one i guess
3) move on to css ( whatever that is)
4) make money on adsense lol

cheers guys

 

thats like willing to learn english literature and asking if learning the alphabet is a necessity hehe

Yea, HTML is crucial but as already stated, focus on CSS just as much if not more after you've learned HTML

some great sites are
http://www.w3schools.com
http://www.alistapart.com

^^ those are just some of the many available online recources. I learned almost all I know through tutorials, and online research. A book will ofcourse help, but it is not absolutely necissary.

hope it helps, definitely spend some major time on the sites i mentioned

edit: forgot to mention

CSS resource:

the CSS Zen Garden : http://www.csszengarden.com/

 

You can feasibly pick up the basic html you need in about 2 hours. Skip the junk on tables. Read up on the rest and get the gist of it. It is amazingly simple to learn. CSS( Cascading Style Sheets ) lets you apply styles (formatting, colors, font alterations etc) from one file for an entire site. It is harder to pick up though but worthwhile. Javascript, I say skip it. Unless you have a deep dark secret to be a master of AJAX most cases you can find the scripts you need to get the job done. I will second the learn a server side programming language, PHP is the obvious pick. If you are serious about building sites, it will help you when its time to step up to dynamically generated sites to at least understand what you are looking for in a programmer. Or if $$'s is tight, you can do it yourself.

But all of that isn't important. What is important is to write HTML code out by hand. It's the fastest way to learn it. Do very simple documents to start with. Then come back and start asking bunches of questions.

 

check out www.subtraction.com (guy who is in charge on nytimes.com) and www.alistapart.com nice webdesign sites.

 

Learn HTML first..that is the most important thing, then learn css, php with mysql.

 

I started out with a wysiwyg editor then slowly I would need some special script to do something and it made me mess with the code here and there. Eventually after building a bunch of sites I realized I new HTML. From there I made a couple of sites from scratch and sometimes use templates and modify the hell out of them. It's very easy to learn so it's worth spending a little time each day towards it.

 

I have been web designing for quite a while and html is something that you are able to learn as you go, there are so many things and places you can just copy and analyze that learning the language (although easy) is not that big of a deal. The thing with design is mostly look, not the code, I use dreamweaver and the only time I need code is to do something new or really advanced that I can find somewhere. Dreamweaver does all the coding for you. the good thing about knowing the code is you know what is possible to do when you want something to happen.

The best combo is fireworks for layout and imported into dreamweaver to make functional as slices.

html is made for the layout, which you can do without using the code now, and graphics and images make the site look good and fill up!


good luck
feel free to pm all you would like for any help!

 

I agree with the posts, learn html & css and go from there.

 

get dreamweaver and learn by using the wysiwyg editor and then playing with the html

 

I agree with Wallarookiller, Once I played around with wysiwyg editors and templates, I suddenly realized that I already knew HTML. If you start working and experimenting, starting some projects and everything, It comes to you slowly whether you like it or not hehe.

 

I think that it's easiest to start by playing with Dreamweaver, or something. You could even download a trial edition, while you learn. That's how I learnt, and it all came quite easy.

 

even if you use a WYSIWYG software like dreamweaver, html is needed