I have been playing with web design for a few years and starting to get pretty good at it. I now would like to try and create a site from a psd, what is the best size and way to go about doing this? Also, is it difficult to convert it over to html and css with out tables?
Theres hundreds of thousands of tutorials on the internet for photoshop/layout design. I'd start there, my favorite site personally for this is www.psdtuts.com. As far as splicing/coding, it isn't difficult but it does take some commitment to learn properly for valid tableless css, tons of tutorials for css/xhtml online too.
I recommend using dreamweaver along with photoshop. Just design your site as a regular image than use the slice tool to slice out links. Transfer it over to dreamweaver and link all your buttons. Its very simple and theres youtube tutorials for it.
i will have to second that, there are still alot of people using that size, i made a mistake by making a site based on my own screen size. Always think about your potential visitors.
Also, there are many places out there that will teach you how to slice templates in photoshop with ease. All it is, is practice.
The usual resolution majority of people use is 1078/800, design Ur PSD with that size, throw all your creativity on the canvas, slice it and get on to CSS/HTML/XHtml Coding, depending on your needs.