Need recommandation on web design !

[ALstonLoong]

HI ,
Recently i am very interested on web design. Can you guys the web design expert out there recommand a book for a beginner like me ? thanks ! Pls tell me the author and the book name ...thanks alot

 

[DefRef]

It depends on what you want to do and how involved you want to get. The "[Progam] For Dummies" books are popular and I like the "Teach Yourself [Program] In 24 Hours" and "[Program] Weekend Crash Course" books. (Various publishers and authors.) Once you learn some stuff, the "Visual Quickstart" series of stuff is a good reference to flip to a specific thing.

For beginners, FrontPage holds your hand fairly well. Dreamweaver MX is very powerful, but is overwhelming for beginners. What are you planning on doing?

Webmonkey is a good resource and I'm sure others will suggest other places.

While it's also important to learn some basic HTML, DO NOT get beating by the old-school macho web coders who prowl around here and thump their chests and grunt, "Ungawa!!! Use Notepad! Real man use Notepad!" Yeah, right, why the heck spend the time hacking out:

<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr align="left" valign="top"> <td><img src="/support/dreamweaver/images/icon_dw_oneline.gif" width="55" height="45" alt="Dreamweaver Icon"></td>
<td><img src="/support/dreamweaver/images/h1_using_css.gif" width="350" height="58" alt="Macromedia Dreamweaver Support Center - Using Cascading Style Sheets"></td>
</tr>
</table>

...when you can use a layout app to do the grunt work?!? It's not a replacement for knowing some coding, but sheesh, life's too short!

 

[ALstonLoong]

well , i am planning to learn how to do a webpage for my sociaty. Things like, introduce my sociaty and give some links of places to visit in my country ....some sort of that. Ofcourse have to learn basic stuff like HTML .. how to upload to a ftp server for my webpage ....how to link to other webside ...That is just beginning ....after that i hope i can learn how to build a web server, which ppl can download picture from my ftp server..those kind of things ...any good guide for me ? I have been looking for this kind of web design reference book in the bookstore ...but those seems like for a person who already know how to design ..

 

[Hullboy]

Head on down here: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

remember that html is only a markup language, it's not a programming language...............

learn html, which is very easy, then move on to the programming side with stuff like server side scripting (php.net) or client side (javascript).

go and have a good read about all this stuff, especially the html bit. create some html pages on your pc and view them on your browser. make sure you follow all w3 standards, because seeing the page in your browser doesn't mean everyone else can see it in their browser.

do all that or something similar and you will be able to produce something cool.

drop back to anand when/if you get stuck................

 

[ALstonLoong]

thanks for the guide ..i will take a look at that.

 

[teknodude]

For some really good tutorials, and quizzes to test your newly learnt web knowledge head over to http://www.w3schools.com/. It's a great site!

I could quote you loads of great books and sites, but you may find it best to decide exactly what angle you want and do some Googling I would however agree that the Visual QuickStart series is good.

PHP is a good next step to take once you have a good grip of HTML. Combined with MySQL (a DB system) you can create killer sites.

I would recommend you learn HTML properly before you start using WYSIWYG editors such as Dreamweaver MX as you will come unstuck when your code screws up (which it will inevitably will - it happens to even the best of us ).

Don't just concentrate on your coding and design skills, make sure you learn about optimising images and usability techniques etc. Sites such as the previously mentioned Webmonkey will assist you in these areas. The home of web usability god Jakob Nielsen is worth a look: http://www.useit.com/.

All the things that I've mentioned may seem a little overwhelming to start with; just take it one step at a time and, most importantly...have fun!

Feel free to PM me with any queries at any time, I'd be glad to help

L8rs,

teknodude

 

[teknodude]

Originally posted by: DefRef

While it's also important to learn some basic HTML, DO NOT get beating by the old-school macho web coders who prowl around here and thump their chests and grunt, "Ungawa!!! Use Notepad! Real man use Notepad!" Yeah, right, why the heck spend the time hacking out:

<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr align="left" valign="top"> <td><img src="/support/dreamweaver/images/icon_dw_oneline.gif" width="55" height="45" alt="Dreamweaver Icon"></td>
<td><img src="/support/dreamweaver/images/h1_using_css.gif" width="350" height="58" alt="Macromedia Dreamweaver Support Center - Using Cascading Style Sheets"></td>
</tr>
</table>

...when you can use a layout app to do the grunt work?!? It's not a replacement for knowing some coding, but sheesh, life's too short!

Naw man! Notepad code hacking is too much fun Long live Notepad!

 

[ALstonLoong]

thanks teknodude ....that is a great side