Need Some Advice

[proton32060]

Hello All,

I Posted this is in the new member area but realized it probably belongs here.

I could use some help from you guys if you don’t mind.

First, I have been using Computers since 1992 so I am not a novice. I have built every computer I own so I am pretty good at figuring out the various problems that arise.

Ok- Here’s the deal.

I am in a position of having to create and maintain a Web Site for my wife’s Real Estate business ( I am not going to run the server, a hosting company will handle that).

I have read several thousand pages on HTML and XHTML and have a pretty good understanding of the basics. Although I will admit Cascading Style Sheets is a complicated subject.

Her site will require Flash intros, java effects, etc.

I decided to try to learn Frontpage before moving up to the Macromedia Suite of products. And I have read about 1500 pages on Frontpage so far.

It suddenly occurred to me today while I was trying to figure out how to manipulate a Web template on Photoshop to put into Frontpage, that I probably have another thousand pages of Photoshop to read too. Not to mention a thousand on Corel and eventually a few thousand on Dreamweaver and Flash.

I must admit that I have a whole new respect for all you Website designers out there. This has become a very complicated subject.


The advice I need is the following:

I am assuming that you would probably need a good understanding of a simple program like Frontpage before you could ever hope to comprehend Dreamweaver and Flash?

The Web Page I am designing in Frontpage will never see the light of day but I figured I would learn the easy stuff first and then tackle the hard stuff.
Is the best way to proceed or am I just wasting time?

I am assuming that to understand Macromedia products you would probably need a reasonable amount of prior knowledge.
Is this true?

Also, I own Coreldraw 11 and Photoshop and am starting to count up the thousands of pages ahead of me to learn them too.

Years ago when I read HTML 1.0, Website design could be confined to one book. Now this is more like getting a College degree with a long list of subjects to master. The problem is I don’t have the course outlines.

I realized today that I could spend the rest of my life reading and never get around to actually making the Website.

I realize I am getting an advanced degree here and I am not looking for the minimum subject matter. But since I have committed to do this it would probably be helpful to know what I really need to learn.

I just need someone to drop a stack of books on front of me ( regardless of how tall) , and say, “ Here, learn this!”.

I would appreciate any help you guys can give. I am not afraid of the work or the time it will take, but I do need to make sure I am heading in the right direction.

[Webforumz Staff]

To be honest Frontpage is a waste of your time, skip it and go straight to Dreamweaver or better yet hand coding.

Skip Corel too, Photoshop will do everything you need.

My honest advice is open up Notepad or a good hand coding program and start making pages with HTML and CSS. Basic CSS isn't too bad and you can always get help here when you need it.

You really don't need to be a photoshop master to make good looking pages, the basics will take you really far and you can more or less figure that out as you go with help files.

I learn well from books, but my experience is that you can read a whole stack of books, and once you're done with them and ready to start trying stuff out you've already forgotten everything. So read one at a time and then start using it until you feel comfortable with it. That'll also give you time to figure out which things are really worth learning for what you want to do.

[Smokie]

Catalyst took the words right out of my mouth! [:P]

one other thing, practice makes perfect, start the site now and learn as you go, you cant expect your first atempt at your wifes site to be the final version.

[Webforumz Staff]

I'd agree with Catalyst 100%... but here's what I have to add.

Concerning Frontpage... As nice as it may seem to use it when you're starting out, I would avoid it. It uses MS-created code that isn't used anywhere outside of IE for the most part, has a bewildering interface (in my opinion) and creates hugely bloated code. Dreamweaver on the other hand does a very good job of producing what I would consider probably the smallest amount of code a graphically-driven editor could do. Of course, that still doesn't beat designing it by hand in notepad. I personally do the basic layout in dreamweaver and then edit the code substantially.

Again, just use Photoshop. It's the industry standard for a reason - It's complexity and power are unparalled.

I would say you could probably learn Flash without knowing any HTML or graphics whatsoever. It's in it's own niche in that you can create fairly good stuff just from inside the program and not needing anything external. It doesn't use HTML in any way, except to make itself viewable in the browser in the first place. I'm fairly confident that anyone could cover the basics in flash in a few hours. That doesn't mean to say that they would produce quality work, but they would have a good understanding of the program. Experience is the most important factor in producing good flash and graphics (and code).

I'm a little worried about you wanting to use Java... It's pretty outdated, slow and often not even installed on WinXP systems. I would say that flash can do almost everything you would want to do in Java, faster and using less bandwidth.

And of course, as Catalyst said, we're here so if you want help with anything feel free to ask.

You see that in most of the major forum sections there are recommendations for books and links to amazon for them. I would also suggest buying them one at a time and working through them seperately. It doesn't matter how many books you read - If you never put it into practice then it's pointless.

[Rob]

I would seriously DROP front page like a bad smell. DreamWeaver is the best of a bad bunch and you should (especially whilst learning) use notepad for a while at least until you know how to do everything yourself without the aid of third party tools to bog down your code.

Creating a real estate site is a very big challenge (I know that better than anyone here) for a beginner and you would probabally be best starting much smaller and building up. Of course there is the view that often the deep end is best, so I guess it depends upon who you are really.

Good luck!

[proton32060]

I wanted to thank you guys for the help.

I really appreciate it and found it invaluable.

I had a feeling about Frontpage yesterday while I was using it which is what prompted me to ask.

It seemed that most of what I wanted to do was beyond it or extremely confusing to implement. It was getting to the point that I understood the book on straight HTML more than I was the program.

I ordered the Macromedia Suite today and will start boning up on Photoshop and not waste any more time with Corel.

Again, thank you for your advice, I am very thankful you guys took the time with a rank novice to lend a hand.

[Webforumz Staff]

Anytime.

[courtjester]

if you see this, one key to webdesign is time.. Webdesign takes time to learn, no matter how well you know the books or the code. Practice on some simple pages and practice the features you want to implement into your site before you just jump in there and do it.

[orlanime]

I made various freehand sketches on paper of the whole layout of my site before I started. I wish I could find them to show you guys, it's pretty cool. It's like storyboards to a cartoon, lol.