[Bill Kinkle]

What web design software would you all recommend for a beginner on a tight budget? html, ftp... Thanks in advance.

[The_Equivocator]

I'd recommend searching the internet for some HTML tutorials. Heck, if you're just starting out, just go out there and pick up XHTML. Once you're comfortable with that and have cranked out some nice looking pages on a simple text editor, learn CSS.

Cost for this would be nothing, and it will be much more beneficial to you than just cranking out code in some web editing software. Plus, the pages will almost always look better and work on more browsers since web editing software can create some of the most ugly code imaginable.

[Millennium]

If you're just beginning, then start by learning to hand-code. Aside from being dirt cheap (literally; you should already have a text editor, Web browser, and FTP client, and those are all you need), having a good knowledge of how HTML works will serve you well even if you decide to move to WYSIWYG editors later on.

http://www.w3.org.MarkUp/Guide/ has arguably the best tutorial out there for starting out with HTML and CSS. Very basic, but it gets the job done, and lays a good framework for learning more.

[philzilla]

BBEdit Lite is a great, free editor. try that

[derbs]

Damn man, so many people tell beginnners to start hand coding. What the ****!? You trying to put this guy off?

Bill, try to pick up a copy of Dreamweaver 4 cheap, as the latest version is 5 (MX). Even Dreamweaver 3 would do. It's dead simple to use, and allows you to see what's going on with the code while actually being able to create something vaguely attractive. It's a better way for beginners to start HTMLing than just staring at a blank piece of BBEdit paper.

Dreamweaver includes an FTP feature, but it's not particularly good. Try downloading Interarchy (shareware) FTP package - www.interarchy.com

[redJag]

I started out hand coding and couldn't get enough. Now I own my own web design company. I'm not saying its the only way, but it obviously works. Maybe its not your way but it could be his; it would certainly be cheaper to try hand coding first.

[brapper]

Originally posted by Millennium:
If you're just beginning, then start by learning to hand-code. Aside from being dirt cheap (literally; you should already have a text editor, Web browser, and FTP client, and those are all you need), having a good knowledge of how HTML works will serve you well even if you decide to move to WYSIWYG editors later on.

http://www.w3.org.MarkUp/Guide/ has arguably the best tutorial out there for starting out with HTML and CSS. Very basic, but it gets the job done, and lays a good framework for learning more.

Millenium,
that link's dead...I'm in the same spot as that guy was.
Any new links/suggestions?
I've found some decent ones on my own, but I'd love to find the 'gold mine' of html!
thanks

[Chris O'Brien]

Use http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ - it was a slight typo by Millenium.

[brapper]

Originally posted by Black Book:
Use http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/ - it was a slight typo by Millenium.

ahh....awesome. thanks.

[skalie]

Originally posted by derbs:
Damn man, so many people tell beginnners to start hand coding. What the ****!? You trying to put this guy off?

Bill, try to pick up a copy of Dreamweaver.....

Because it's a lot more fun having control of what you are doing and seeing results from what you have just done than spending hours trying to figure out what some piece of software has just added to your code?

Html is easy-peasy, learn it from the bottom up, it makes Dreamweaver and the likes a lot more, er, usefull?

[philzilla]

Originally posted by skalie:
Because it's a lot more fun having control of what you are doing and seeing results from what you have just done than spending hours trying to figure out what some piece of software has just added to your code?

Html is easy-peasy, learn it from the bottom up, it makes Dreamweaver and the likes a lot more, er, usefull?

i agree. the satisfaction from seeing my first page work, after i typed it all out in Notepad was just cool. i'm sure most of you know that feeling, and i doubt the feeling of seeing it done with Dreamweaver being anywhere near as satisfying

[Chris O'Brien]

Philzilla, I'm 100% with you on this one. It was years and years ago when my dad showed me the first ever version of Frontpage and said "have a go with that, it's great" (or something like that).

It was OK, but then, so was doing practically the same thing in Word.

I then went and looked at the code of what I'd done and took it further. Never looked back and have never been a WYSIWYG kinda person since. My first stuff was in Notepad on windows, but I've never enjoyed the whole web development thang as much as when I've been doing it on a Mac.

Anyhoo - I'm hammered after watching Celtic lose to Villa Real (I may start crying), but at least one British team (Newcastle) went through.... I'm sure I used to be more alert after 8 pints not too long ago. I blame revision for exams, crappy VB programming at work and less time in the pub....

Back on track though - writing HTML yourself is a lot more rewarding, and also means you have an idea of when things go wrong. I'm quite an HTML semanticist (sp?) so I would say that, but I truly do think there is a skill involved in all this - something you'd miss out on in taking a WYSIWIG (easy?) approach.

[Arkham_c]

I remember when I started using the http protocol. You had to compile NCSA Mosaic from source and run it on SunOS. When I saw a cool page, I'd telnet to the port, type "GET /" and look at the output to see how it was done.

I was so impressed when they came out with tables.

Hand-tweaking HTML is the way to go. With that said, learn the right way to do it, with CSS instead of nested table hell.