Hy, I've just started teaching myself web design at home and I was hoping someone could maybe save me some time and point me in the right direction. I'm not really interested in learning how to do simple websites from templates, I would like to have total control from start to finish as I'm very particular. The thing is I don't really know where to start, a friend of mine lent me a book called 'Sams Teach Yourself to Create Web Pages in 24 Yours' He explains how to make them using Frontpage Express. Would this be a good place to start or am I barking up the wrong tree? Any help would be much appreciated
First you should learn and understand the basics: HTML and CSS. I personally wouldn't recommend using WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor like Frontpage. If you really want to learn and want full control, you should start learning by doing it by hand. For start you can create web pages in simple text editor like notepad or you can use some free basic HTML editor. When you are ready to move on, take a look at Macromedia Dreamweaver or similar program. Its not hard to learn HTML, although it will take more than 24 hours. Then move to CSS and eventually work your way to more complex stuff like php and mysql (that will take more time and devotion). Good place to start is at w3schools.com. Go through HTML and CSS tutorials. Hope this helps a little.
Yes if you are learning your self than i think frontpage would be the best ,even i have learned from it myself at home .
That is absolutely one of the worst ways to go. FrontPage, DreamWeaver and other wysiwyg html generators churn out crap for code (FrontPage is the worst of a bad lot). Get yourself a good text editor. That's all you need to produce the code. I use Emacs, but only because it's the most powerful editor in existence. Google "html tutorials" and "css tutorials". Work you way through several of each, starting with the html. Ignore the parts that discuss frames, iframes and laying out the page with tables. Those are obsolete concepts. HTML and css are not rocket science, but there is a lot to learn. Forums like this are excellent help. Don't just ask questions; try to solve other people's problems. You don't need to post the answers, just figure things out before reading someone else's solution. You will need Firefox and the web developer add-on for your testing. You will eventually need to add fixes for IE, but if you start there, you will learn and write bad code because of its overall bugginess and poor support for css. cheers, gary
cool, thanks for great advice guys! Once I learn a thing or two will make a concerted effort help others as you have me!