Wet behind the ears - Where do I start?

I'm new to Web design, but I've been in the design and advertising industry for 'Donkey's'.

I've spent 10 years doing trade adverts and publicity literature.

Where do I start - Take a Dreamweaver course? or work in Flash which I know a little about having done video presentations?

My competence is in Photoshop, Quark etc - so the more I can use thes programs in my websites the better

Can you advise, anyone?

Gareth,
Dreamweaver is a great place to start. You can create a perfectly acceptable HTML based website with this package, and it's so easy to learn. To see a basic example of what it can do you can see our website at www.scribbles-writing-services.co.uk that I created after teaching myself basic Dreamweaver in just a few days. OK, you'll have to have a little design ability, but it sounds like you've got that from the software that you've listed.

You also don't need to do a course. They tend to be expensive, and you can learn far more from the comfort of your own PC with a good book. I used an old version of the software so I used Lynda Weinman's Dreamweaver 3 Hot Hands-On Training which was excellent and really easy to read, I don't know if they've an up-to-date version, but go for a book style you're comfortable with and that contains a basic version of the software to practice on.

Hope this has been of some help.

Richard
Scribbles Writing Services
www.scribble-writing-services.co.uk

Hey Gareth! Welcome to the forumz!

Like Richard said above, course aren't all that great. They costs alot and they are not very up-to-date with the "real" world. You need to learn about Web Standards and Semantic mark-up.

Getting started here:

Getting started with HTML
More Advanced Features
http://www.htmldog.com/guides/
Bulletproof HTML: 37 Steps to Perfect Markup

And the mother of all resources ... straight from the horses' mouth
HTML 4.01 Specification

Also ... have a look at the stickies in the HTML and CSS forum, the Beginners' section has some great threads and the articles.

Last but not least: ASK ASK ASK. we can't help you if you don't ask

Hi Karinne and Richard,

Thanks so much for your help. I've got some Flash SWF's that a friend wrote for me that I'd like to use in my dreamweaver site. I believe I can do this.

'Web Standards and Semantic Mark up' sounds a bit 'techy' which I'm not.

Thanks again.

Gareth

There are some excellent courses around that are up to date and totally relevant to the eindustry today. But, yeah, they cost a fortune.

The above links are great though. I especially like html dog.

Good luck,

Pete.

Thanks Pete, I'm gonna give it a go with a book called 'Dreamweaver MX unlesashed by Matthew Pizzi' to see how I go with it first

hey gareth,

For myself, I found that a web based program can help. Something such as ProfitSitePro software can help you out alot, especially if you want to make the website yourself. They have an html program that looks just like word, so you can easily edit and update. What type of website are you looking to make???

Katharine

Oh I'd be very nervous with a program like that. I'd be afraid of what it would generate for html code. I'd love to see a site built with that but they didn't show examples. hmmmmmmmm

Ya, any program that either doesn't show example or doesn't offer a demo.....what are they afraid of their customers finding out? Interesting......

Don't let the name fool you. It's straightforward once you understand the concept.

Imagine you were writing a book, in English. How well do you think people would understand it, if you invented most of the words? Suppose you used some kind of private language that only you and your mates understood:

I don't think that book would sell very well.

Writing without web standards is a bit like writing in a language that is not widely understood. Readers have to guess what you mean from the context.

Now imagine that web browsers are the "readers", and that HTML is the "language". When you don't write standards-compliant code, the browsers have to guess what you meant to say. Just like readers, different browsers make different guesses, and sometimes they guess wrong.

As for semantic markup? Well, I don't want to stretch my metaphor too much Let's just say it helps some people to understand your writing (including you!).

Web Standards is about doing things the correct way, Semantics is about giving everything meaning within each page (use header tags for headers, div tags to divide the page). It's quite straightforward and is even easier if you learn that way from the beginning. It's harder to learn the wrong (easier) way and then unlearn those bad habits only to start again virtually from the beginning, if you see what I mean.

Roger Johansson has a great Web Standards manual style thingy. Linky link.

Not technical at all... not too technical anyway.

Pete.

Wow, nice description Pete and Mike!