I am a newbie to website design.Where to start?

So I want to start learning html/css so I can build websites.

Where to start?

Not asking for explanations,just a link to a good place to stat learning html/css.

How much time will I need to understand the basics and maybe build my first website?

A month,2,8...year?

Appreciate any help.

 

Web site design is a field that no one can ever master, the more time you put into your work the better you will get and the more shortcuts you will uncover.

A good place to start may be http://htmlgoodies.com/.

There you will find a mixture of everything you will need to know about web design and basic programming.

 

http://tizag.com

I learned it (not completely div-wise) in about a week.

 

HTMLGoodies is a place with a lot of resources (that's where I learned HTML back in the 90s), but there are some better options out there these days. The hardest thing about web design (in my opinion) is finding the right resources to get started or to learn something new. There are SO many things about it online that it can get confusing as to where to go. Here are some of my favorites to get you started, but if you want any more info, let me know!

To answer your question about how long it will take to get good at it... it of course depends on your level of commitment and interest, but I say that if you put an hour of dedicated, focused time into HTML, you will pretty much rock at it in about 3-4 weeks. Its not that complicated with the right training and lots of practice. But once you know some HTML and CSS, I suggest you move into Content Management Systems (namely, Joomla), because you can make some very pro looking websites FAST once you know how to use it. More on that later.

HTML
You can get HTML Video Tutorials for free here:
http://www.easywebtutorials.com/html-tutorial/lessons/intro.html

CSS
If you want to learn CSS, you can go several places... I like W3 Schools, no videos, but they have some cool features and training tools.
http://www.w3schools.com

Also, you can search for virtually ANY computer-related book and download it for free at www.ebookshare.net. You will need a torrent program like utorrent (www.utorrent.com) to open the files from that site. And if you like the book and find it useful, you should pay for it.

Menu Builder
You can build TONS of sweet menus with the website for free. This is VERY, VERY useful! Menu construction can be a huge pain in the butt when you're brand new to web design.
http://www.izzymenu.com/

Graphic Design
You WILL want to use Photoshop. Nothing out there compares to Photoshop, IMHO. You can always download the trial at adobe.com which lasts for 30 days.

You can buy an academic edition for $400 (comes with Dreamweaver and Flash and many other great programs), all you have to do is know someone who is a student in school or college, fax or email in a scanned copy of their student id and/or a report card, and you can get the discount. Also, once you own the program, the license allows you to use it for ANYTHING, not just academic uses.

Content Management Systems
Once you have the basics of HTML down, I STRONGLY suggest making the move into Joomla. Joomla will allow you to build very high quality sites. Building menus and adding pages is all done without any coding. SO many features are built it, the possibilities are limitless with Joomla. You can get premade templates (Free and Paid subscriptions) that you can customize for Joomla.

The learning curve can be steep with it but once you know it, it is so easy and fast to build very high quality sites.

It took me a long time to learn Joomla, because I didn't plug into the community (bad idea), but now there is a free video training course available to teach you the basics of Joomla:
http://help.joomla.org/ghop/feb2008/task167/index.html

That's a great resource for learning Joomla, it will save you lots of time.

Remember, if you want to learn fast, and if you're serious about learning, you need to get plugged into to a community of people who know stuff and start asking questions. There's a lot of time wasting things out there that a simple question to the right person will solve. You're welcome to ask me questions any time

 

You can learn the basics if you really want in a few weeks. There are plenty of sites out there to help you with this such as:
w3schools.com/css/
web-building.crispen.org/index.php?cat=css
web-source.net/css_tutorial/ - the site I usually try and use.

 

I recommend http://www.w3schools.com/ from the bottom of my heart ...

There is where I learn the basics (html and css) Great place to start IMHO!

 

I would definitely recommend checking out YouTube. Most videos are too slow, but they are nice. That's how I learned CSS.
Might want to start with a WYSIWYG type editor, like Dreamweaver, BUT make sure you check out the code view, so you know what's going on when you do something. Then once you start learning the coding, you'll find no need for DW you'll be able to make a website with just the code view.

 

hi

i have some CSS tut sites that can help you.

hope its help you.
thanks

 

Bets off starting to learn tables and css, then you can work on DIVs. Best to learn the basics first

 

I saw it listed above, but the best place is http://www.w3schools.com/

Other than that, I would recommend looking at page coding on sites you go to often for examples. It'll help you learn and figure out how things are placed and used. (firefox: view-->page source | cant remember IE lol but it's a similar command))

 

Get the basics right, you can learn the basics within about a week or two, the switch to a wysiwig editors. Make sure you understand HTML basics though, because if things go wrong visiually (which they do), then you need to look at the code to fix it.

Also, read how to produce compliant code, clean code, and maybe a little bit of on page SEO.

w3schools is my favourite sit to learn, and just keep searching and asking, we won't bite

 

Thanks for all the help guys.

 

Yeah! all resources are great and carries genuine content

 

I'm in the process of learning right now, and if you find it as exciting and fun as I do, it won't take you long to get rolling and you won't want to stop!

 

I recommend this one too...

 

Agreee , good place to start learn html or css

 

I learned everything from

w3schools.com

they have nice organized guides

 

Good information, Thank you

 

I'm in a similar position as you so if you want to get in touch and we can help each other understand certain things just let me know.

I think the only site I've found that isn't listed above is htmldog.com I found that a great help when trying to understand CSS.

 

The best way is to play about and learn from the mistakes you make. Tutorials such as w3schools are very helpful.

Posts from the users above are a good source.

Good luck.