[GeoMac]

for those of you who are proficient in web design, knowing then what you know now, how would you start out? Mind you, I'm 26 and out of school, and while I did know a little html 5 years ago (atleast enough to make a simple web site in comp sci 1), I'm basically starting from scratch. I'd like to get really good, and willing to spend the time to do so. So what books, in what order, and what software woudl you suggest? I've been told that I can't go with Dreamweaver, but like I said, I'm starting from square one and appreciate your input, since there are quite a few of you that seem quite advanced in web design.

[philzilla]

there's a thread around here somewhere, asking us all our favourite sites for web design info. find that, and check the links out

if you're planning on using Dreamweaver, i'd strongly suggest you know what things are doing in the code view too. invaluable, sometimes, when there's a single break space in the code, and it's putting a gap in your design ( )

[york28]

I'd suggest learning xhtml 1.0 Transitional and css.

xhtml is basically html 4, but with slightly stricter rules, and without any sort of display code. You want to keep your content separate from your presentation.

To code in this fashion you need to get comfortable with a few concepts, including the box-model, selectors, etc. I learned this by getting a book or two out of the library or at Borders. It's not hard, and once you understand these things, most other ideas will follow logically.

Take a look at zeldman.com or waferbaby.com or daringfireball.net or jimbdot.net (my site, shameless plug) and view source. That's what you're looking for as a final product. Each of these is a slightly different flaovr of xhtml, but all have many things in common.

You make your now very boring page look better using css, or cascading style sheets. This is separate code that contains intructions on how to display each type of object in your xhtml code.

This site is a good place to start. The complete CSS guide is a great css tutorial, available online for free. I used it to learn as well.

As far as actual books, I've read Designing CSS Web Pages by Christopher Schmitt, Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer on CSS, and some other books as well. Select a book based on what kind of approach it takes, for example, some books concentrate on how to update old sites to comply with newer standards, while other are more of a start-to-finish approach.

Post back with any trouble, etc. Let me know what you find the most useful, since I am working on compiling a MacNN FAQ for webdesign on the Mac.

[GeoMac]

thanks for the advice, I will take it to heart. I was actually at the bookstore yesterday and bought Sams Teach Yourself HTML & XHTML in 24 hours, 6th edition, which covers HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1. I was going to start reading it tonight. have you seen this book before, and if so, do you or anyone else reading this have any opinions on it?

[Mooga2]

If you have a high-speed internet connection and are beginning from scratch, I would highly suggest the Lynda learning series (http://www.lynda.com). It's like a personal classroom, where you watch the instructor's screen as they explain how to put together projects in Dreamweaver, Flash, etc. I cannot vouche for their website design series, but their Flash series was very intuitive. You can see sample movies of their tutorials online.

With a basic understanding of html, I would highly suggest to view other people's source code. Visit a website that you like, choose to "view their source," and copy it into a program like Dreamweaver. You can see how others set up their tables, text, and how they compose their pages.

With more experience under your belt, I would transition over to xhtml and css. Jeffrey Zeldman has a really great book out called "Designing with web standards." I cannot say enough about this book - it's well written, extremely informative and interesting to read! (Those three definitions rarely come together in a computer book, so check this out if you're serious about learning xhtml and css).

That's about all. Enjoy it, and good luck!
- Miles

[Synotic]

Originally posted by GeoMac:
thanks for the advice, I will take it to heart. I was actually at the bookstore yesterday and bought Sams Teach Yourself HTML & XHTML in 24 hours, 6th edition, which covers HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.1. I was going to start reading it tonight. have you seen this book before, and if so, do you or anyone else reading this have any opinions on it?

While the reviews seem good, it doesn't seem to be up to date with new web design methods. Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards like others have mentioned is a really good book for learning XHTML and CSS design. Learning how to use both of them is much more of a way of thinking than learning syntax, which is why I think the Sams book may not be that good. Take this with a grain of salt though... seeing as I haven't actually read the Sams book

[winwintoo]

Hi, I tried several approaches, but when I found htmlgoodies.com, I was on my way.


Margaret