Archive for the ‘Website Programming’ Category
Your Questions About Learn HTML CSS
March 9th, 2011 | 
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Donald asks…
I’m looking for a course to learn html/css to build a site.?
I’m interesting in learning html and css but rather than go through the motions I want to be constructive and follow a course which actually ables me to build a site whilst I’m learning. I find these difficult to find. Anyone out there? If the worst came to the worst well Dreamweaver but you don’t really learn hard core html and css with that programme.
webdesignerscotty answers:
For books I highly recommend the “For Dummies” and “Sams 24 Hour” series. Great for reference and for learning! Sams just came out with a great new HTML and CSS book:
http://designmyownwebsite.net/go/sams24hourhtml.html
I love using it as a reference!
Carol asks…
Do I need to learn HTML or CSS first?
I am trying to begin a career in web design. I know a very little bit, but I really need to know something. Do I need to learn CSS to understand HTML or do I need to learn HTML to understand CSS?
webdesignerscotty answers:
Learning both is extremely helpful. Start here for some great online tutorials:
http://www.w3schools.com/
James asks…
Where could i find the best free or paid video tutorial to learn HTML,XHTML,CSS etc.?
Hi guys, could you please tell me the place where i could find the best paid or free video tutorials of HTML,CSS which is easy to learn for beginners. I am totally beginners in IT fields.
webdesignerscotty answers:
I personally love learning from books. However, for video tutorials you’d be surprised how much stuff youtube has on it. Just do a keyword search for what you’re looking for on youtube and you’ll find some great video tutorials
Paul asks…
What is the best way for a beginner (who knows no html) to learn CSS?
Is there a way for me to learn CSS if I don’t know HTML? To give you an idea of what my objective is here, I’m creating a blog on SquareSpace, but it’s not as customizable as I would like it to be. It looks like a lot of the aspects of design I want to achieve can only be done by using CSS, but I don’t know how that works at all, and I don’t know where to start.
webdesignerscotty answers:
There is no point in learning CSS until you learn HTML. Otherwise you are not really going to know how to apply what you learn about CSS.
Http://www.w3schools.com/ will give you tutorials for learning both CSS and HTML.
A great book to get offline is “Sams 24 Hour” series for HTML and CSS
http://designmyownwebsite.net/go/sams24hourhtml.html
Also for an ebook, Web Design Mastery is a fantastic reference and set of ebooks
Lisa asks…
What’s the best way to learn HTML, CSS, Photoshop and Dreamweaver?
Ok, I have bought myself a few how to books. I know of w3schools.org.
I’m eager to learn. Efficiency wise however, how would you recommend me to go about it?
Books obviously only offer theory. With w3schools, I actually get to do it hands on. So I’m thinking of reading books, then testing myself and improving while using w3schools. Any other tips on how to do it?
Thanks.
webdesignerscotty answers:
The right book will offer more than theory. It will give you guidance, take you through the process, and help you write your own code.
No book will teach you anything worthwhile without practice, but a good book can be a priceless guide.
You can only learn web development by doing it, but it’s best to do it with the guidance of an experienced teacher who’s taught thousands of others to do it, who has carefully thought about the sequence (what order you should learn things in), who has carefully picked out the important things and culled away all the older ways of thinking that are no longer valid, and who gives you challenges appropriate to your current level of skill.
Once you know the basics, you can move on to more complex and powerful tools like JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, and AJAX,
Robert asks…
What languages to learn after HTML/CSS ?
I’ve learned html/css and was thinking about moving on to php. should i learn php next or something else? Thanks.
webdesignerscotty answers:
I highly recommend PHP as it will dramatically improve any website you build. PHP is a serverside scripting language which allows you to pass information between a website and the server. You should also learn MySQL because it deals with databases. It will be best if I explain it like this:
PHP will allow you to:
-Create “locked” websites that require login.
-Display/Hide stuff based on certain conditions
-Generate HTML more efficiently (like use loops to generate the same HTML multiple times)
-Give HTML forms functionality and send data to the server to be used.
MySQL will allow you to:
-Combine with PHP to STORE data in databases. (such as login information: username, password, signup date, etc.)
-Search databases and retrieve data for PHP to use.
-Store actual forum posts and messages for others to see. (If you’ve ever been on a website’s forums, then everything you see is stored in a database and retrieved every time you load it!)
So in reality, PHP is not as powerful unless you combine it with MySQL! The ability to create forms for your users to fill out, retrieve the data and store it is a giant leap to making a good website. You will be able to store many things in a database. You could even create some sort of online store where you create a database that stores product information (Name, Cost, Description) and use PHP to do the math to calculate tax. Also both MySQL and PHP can remember information really well and create a sort of online shopping cart sort of thing.
I highly recommend PHP and MySQL.
Chris asks…
Is it easy to learn HTML and CSS like it’s easy to learn BBCode?
Question says it all. I want to learn HTML and CSS but I don’t know where to start…..help?
webdesignerscotty answers:
Its relatively easy to learn HTML and CSS. But I would suggest you to start with some HTML editor in design mode. This will help you in visualizing the GUI design and check the code generated by editor. I personally prefer and recommend Dreamweaver. It generates clean HTML code and you will be able to understand how HTML can be coded effectively. Yes, it also allows you to write styles inline as well as external stylesheet.
To start with try to create a basic web page using HTML editor. Then see how HTML code has been generated by editor. You may then want to optimize it. This will give you command over HTML gradually. Similarly start with inline styles and then start writing external style sheets.
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Web Design: Back to Basics!
Just a quick word out to you all.
I have been busy with website projects (fancy that) but I still plan to be back here soon with more interesting things. I think the most difficult is trying to figure out where to start. There is so much to talk about and so many different levels (I am guessing) of people coming in here. I almost want to just start from scratch and then go from there.
So with that said, what I hope to come back to soon -the basic steps of designing your own website. For now I am going to take a generic approach because there are so many reasons people are designing a website.
It can really be divided into two categories
1) Personal
2) Business
(And of course there’s quite a bit of overlap)
Personal I will say is generally a person, couple, or group writing about themselves, their life, or their experience.
Business I will say is generally a business (fancy that) wanting to sell a product or rather fulfill a need.
Personal can take many forms from a blog (like this), to a forum, to some other interactive site.
Business can also be a forum, interactive site, providing of services, providing of products, etc.
The design you take for each of those sites will vary greatly, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and say most of the people coming here are for personal sites OR small online business sites which may overlap quite a bit with personal sites.
So what is the next thing?
1) Figure out the purpose of your site
2) Figure out how you would like to accomplish that
3) Go to other sites you like that may do something similar and get ideas for colors and designs
4) Pick a domain name (VERY IMPORTANT) and register it
5) Get a hosting company. With few exceptions I always recommend a paid hosting company. Free hosting or free blogging sites have their place, but in general hosting is so cheap these days ($5 a month!) that if you really are dedicating time to this, I’d say pony up the money – not only will you get a better product but in your mind you will be that much more committed (very important!!)
From there, you can go two ways
1) Design your site from scratch
2) Modify someone else’s site to be your site
I prefer the second – I don’t want to build my own car. I want to buy a new one (or even used one) and then customize and modify it for me (better wheels, nice stereo, and fuzzy dice!). This means you will have a combination of two things to look at
Fortunately there are so many ways to go about this. You can easily find many templates out there (I’ll point you to some when I go into more detail about this). At the same time you can build up some paintshop or photoshop skills to help with graphic design. You can also learn HTML, CSS, etc. to work on look and feel.
Okay, that’s the general direction. I’ll go into more detail on those steps in the next few weeks. Until then!
Web Design Mastery = Effective Web Site Design
Hello, Scotty here ..
Since a few of you inquired, this is a really good web design book:
web design Mastery = Effective Web Site Design
I’ll admit that I have moved on to other projects and other web design “tactics”, but I would say that book is my foundational reference and it is really good.
So for you impatient people who just want to be told how to design your own website, here’s the course to pick up now. It’s called web design Mastery by Shelley Lowery. Seriously this course is pretty much the foundation of my effective web design knowledge.
What really stands out to me about Shelley Lowery’s web design Mastery:
It has a very synergistic “big picture” approach. What I think most web design books consider “beyond the scope” Shelley includes it all.
The first section itself is the “Preparation” ebook. An entire first ebook learning nothing about html or technical design, but asking you to think what the purpose of your site is. I absolutely LOVE that and still use that to this day
Also Web Design Mastery introduced me to internet marketing! She has an entire ebook on marketing! It is because of this that I actually have moved on to “bigger and better”.
I don’t know any other web design ebook or course that does this.
Or at least the ones I’ve bought (both books and ebooks) were not this complete and concise and “big picture”.
Which leads me to the third thing I like about web design Mastery: It is compartmentalized and organized well
You get fifteen ebooks, not one big long book. Each ebook is specifically dedicated to a topic.
Here is a screen shot of the ebooks you get. (Hopefully she does not mind me “leaking” this). Having separate ebooks really makes it easy to read, digest, AND more importantly refer back to.
That’s why I really consider web design Mastery as a “complete” solution for learning Effective web design
Click here and check out Web Design Mastery by Shelley Lowery
A BONUS DOWNLOAD WITH PURCHASE!
She has a money back guarantee on her product. You already can’t lose. And she offers some nice little surprise bonuses with her product.
And now I will offer you a bonus too! As I have gotten in to more internet marketing, I will be putting up for sale some products in the next few days: Article Marketing Magic ($17) and Article Writing Magic ($17). It’s a great introduction to some internet marketing basics and making money with content. It will go great with your web design Mastery book as a foray into internet marketing and making money with the websites you want to design.
I have already been selling copies of these offline for $17 each. When I launch them on my side I plan to have an introductory price of $7 each.
If you email me your receipt of your web design Mastery purchase, I will give one of these products (heck maybe BOTH) Article Marketing Magic and Article Writing Magic …FOR FREE !!
So while you could wait for me to launch my two products and then buy them from me (which I’d appreciate), I’m offering you this $34 incentive of free gifts for you to check out Shelly’s book. I feel like since web design Mastery was so helpful in getting me my start, I owe it to the books to do this (that sounds funny the way it reads but you know what I mean) . And of course I want to encourage all of you to save some headache and get this nice complete system.
Click Here and check out Web Design Mastery by Shelley Lowery
Check it out! You’ve got nothing to lose and so much to gain.
WebDesignerScotty