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General discussion

Web Design help

Dec 25, 2007 2:58AM PST

Hello all, I am very new to web design. So I figure I start to learn. I have no Idea where to start. I want to learn some Html because I heard it's best to start with. I was going to use my myspace to practice on. What got me thinking this is I saw a myspace page with a whole different set up, not the colors or anything, I mean the template. ( not sure if thats what you call it). Could you guys give me some tips on where to go for this info?

Thanks in advance!

Discussion is locked

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Re: myspace
Dec 25, 2007 3:18AM PST
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Personally
Dec 25, 2007 5:06AM PST

I never read a html book in my life, simply because I learn better by hands-on experience. So I recommend you get yourself a cheap host... $4/month will do, perhaps a domain name, and that way you have a good foundation to start with. Then download any kinda of web template that you like and change it. Look at the source, make changes in the HTML and then watch the changes on your site. If you have dreamweaver, frontpage, or even the freely available NVU, that would be even better, because you start with a blank page then you drag a table on to the design view and look at what "codes" have been added to your HTML.

If you do get a template, try to get a template with CSS integration, meaning it's got an extra file something like style.css included. This is where the trend is going and it also makes websites load faster and easier to maintain.

If you like to read, sure, go ahead and get a book on HTML- there is nothing wrong with that. Just another method of learning HTML. Best case scenario, get both Happy

~Sovereign

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I'm wanting to be able to create...
Dec 25, 2007 7:11AM PST

I'm wanting to be able to create and edit pages without the help of online editors ( is that what they are called?) you know build from scratch Happy

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All good websites
Dec 25, 2007 9:25AM PST

use some kinda of online editor or interface. To learn HTML, it's best to take existing things and modify them, otherwise you will drive yourself crazy trying to create everything from scratch. Once you can modify things, you can create things.

Take a look at typo 3, it lets you build websites from scratch. It has a very basic and powerful interface, but the design is all up to you.

~Sovereign

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Ttypo3
Dec 26, 2007 9:49AM PST

Kewls, I'm kinda picking typo3 now. Happy

Thanks

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Answer toy your looking
Dec 27, 2007 2:31AM PST

You can do this by building a website using Notepad. Here's the start of your page:

<html>
<head><title>Your website title here</title></head>
<body>
Put everything you want to appear on your website here after you've erased this text.

</body>
</html>

This will give you the whole page to write on. The page will be white.
To make this page viewable by your browser you will have to save the Notepad document as .htm or .html (it varies on the browser) then, for good measure go back and under File hit Save As... instead of .htm or .html save it as .txt
You don't have to do this but it helps make sure you wont lose your work. To see any of your changes after you've saved it as .txt you'll have to go under Save As... and save it as .htm or .html.
I hope this helps you out!

www.computerempire.wordpress.com Admin.

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I didn't understand that book
Dec 25, 2007 11:36AM PST

I got that book from the library once, I was totally lost in that book. Another question is what is the difference in html, html 4 and xhtml?

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Re: html4, html, xhtml.
Dec 25, 2007 6:14PM PST

Html 4 is just the current version of html. The previous one was html 3.

xhtml is a totally new version, more or less. No need to learn it to build websites.

Kees

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Html3!
Dec 26, 2007 9:53AM PST

I didn't even know there was a Html 3. I'm a tech student geez they can at least keep me up to date lol

Thanks

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Great advice so far
Dec 26, 2007 8:08AM PST

Just thought I would add my two cents in here. I think one of the greatest things about web design is that there are just so many options available. You really just have to decide to start somewhere and learn the rest when you need to.

Figuring out where to start is usually the hard part. One of the places I recommend is http://www.w3schools.com/ this site will help you begin to get a grasp on some of the many aspects of web design.

It was said above that some of the best web sites are created with some sort of interface or program. I never like to give blanket statements such as this, but that is a fairly good assumption. An interface does not necessarily mean that it is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), it could be something that simply helps format and color your text based on what type of file you are creating. Something like notepad++ is a great program for that. I am still creating the code from scratch, but it is easier because the text is formatted and colored for me to easily edit it and ultimately write it.

When you get beyond a simple site (static and a couple of pages), it is sometimes a better idea to use something that will help you with the type of job you are doing. This is where dream weaver and even MS Visual Studio can start to come in handy. This is something you can get into later. The MS Visual Studio express editions are available for free and so is notepad++. Visual Studio web developer is a great interface to use for writing html pages. I have started to use it more and more lately.

I think one of the best ways to learn is to probably design the page in a program such as photoshop. Most websites are designed in such a manner. Then slice the image up and write the html and css to make the page look like the design you created in photoshop. There are many tutorials on how to do this. Just use google to look them up. You will be surprised at how much of the page you create using just html and css and how few images you will use, once you get better. You want to use fewer images to help with file size so the page loads faster. Using VS web developer you can also create master pages which is basically a template. So you create the first page as a master page and designate your editable regions. Then when you create additional pages based off your master page, you need only create the editable region and the rest of the page (navigation, menus, header, footer, etc) are already there. Makes building additional pages very easy. Dreamweaver has this ability as well, using templates. The best thing about master pages/templates is that when you want to change them it will filter the change to all of the pages that were created using them. This comes in handy when you need to change a menu item on 150 web pages. Could you imagine doing that by hand? Yuck!

That is just some of the reasons why programs to help you build your pages can be quite useful. You just need to find the right tool for the right job. If you are really serious about web design I would start with photoshop. I know that sounds weird, but I use photoshop more than I use most any other program when I am designing a web site. My clients sometimes even ask for the psd file (photoshop file) so they can edit the images later if needed.

Remember that every designer started where you are at right now. Some of us did not have many of the options that are available today. So take advantage of that, and you will learn much faster.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

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Thanks bunch!
Dec 26, 2007 10:12AM PST

w3schools.com since like a pretty good place to start, I also found another site called "html dog". Oh and I got a book from the library called Head first with html, css and xhtml. And you're right, working with photoshop, since I don't have the cash to shell out for that program, I use The Gimp, in which I'm trying to get familiar with.

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No worries mate
Dec 26, 2007 2:00PM PST

I think w3schools is a great place to start personally. HTML dog is good too. I know photoshop can be quite expensive and for most people it is not something that is really neccessary. Gimp is great for home users and should do well for you right now. One of the issues with Gimp is that there are not as many tutorials as with photoshop, that can be a problem when trying to learn. You can try this site though www.gimptalk.com

I think the best thing is to learn as much as you can about many different tools. It is always about the best tool for the job. If you are a student, you could always get a student edition of CS3 or something. There are other ways of getting it for a much cheaper price, but I doubt that I can tell you about that on here (I am not sure if I can talk about torrents on here, but you could always google "top bit torrent search engines" and look up "utorrent" while you are at it).

Anyway hope this all helps.

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Thanks for all the posts!
Dec 30, 2007 3:22AM PST

Thanks a bunch guys for the help. I've have been playing around with html over the weekend and I think I'm kinda getting it. if I run into any problems I'll post again! :-D

Thanks

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Website Hosting
Dec 27, 2007 2:23AM PST

You are right the HTML is great to start with, I use it almost daily building my website. I wouldn't use MySpace though, there's a lot of stuff going on there that isn't supposed to be, also there's are some problems with MySpace. If you are like some you might keep a digital journal of your emails, MySpace doesn't let you do that. This is called Stickiness. You might not be interested in this but it's one of the many downsides of MySpace. You should use Wordpress or just build your own website using Notepad. If you just start from Scratch you will have much more control over what your site looks like. You can edit everything if you just build from scratch. You don't have to know a lot of HTML to do this, just enough to know where to put things. You can download Templates and then play with them until they suit your needs.

www.computerempire.wordpress.com Admin.