Creating my first website

What reading resources would you suggest should i start with?

[Lady_helix]

Hi,

I've been following your forums for months now and want you to know how much you help me understand some key issues about the internet. I have recently accepted a job as Internet Marketing Specialist and had quite an experience of information overload. : D
I believe that marketing strategies online would only pay-off once you have establish a good website(with good structure and content). Currently our company is making revisions in the companies websites. So to test the strategies that i have researched, i decide to come up with my own website and test the techniques before making any recommendation. I have taken some lessons in dreamweaver mx and quite familiar with it and currently doing some follow up readings.
Can anyone recommend a reference as to how to create a website that complies to web standards? Should i learn CSS and XHTML? There are so many programmng langguages and im quite confuse as to what should i focus on...

Thanks...

[goodroi]

Get your basics down first, learn html and css.
Then expand and learn mysql and php.
Next step is to learn python programming.

As you build your website you will quickly discover what you want really need to learn and what you can just pay someone to do (ie how often do you need a flash animation?)

You can take a course or buy a book. The idiots guide for #*$! & #*$! for dummy's are generally good introdcuctory books. If you have a staff underneath you, you may not need to know these skills but you should understand the capabilities and limitations so you can better guide your staff.

[cmatcme]

Just like goodroi suggested books are quite good and you should start off learning the basics.

But if you'd rather learn online then this site [w3schools.com] is the best. It covers a variety of languages from html and css to asp and cgi as well as php. If you take a basic script from there, test it out with notepad and edit it, you'll have your very own personalized script. If you muck it up, ask one of us to fix it!

[Nutter]

I'd like to second the 'Learn HTML / CSS' first thought above. When I started learning ASP & PHP my HTML knowledge was limited to writing pages in FrontPage. I had to do a whole lot of backtracking.

- Ryan

[pixelkat]

greetings, all!
I highly recommend any of Lynda Weinman's books for beginners. they are project driven and that is the best way to learn, using practical, real-world examples. go to www.lynda.com for sample book chapters and code.

in addition, no front-end developer should be without elizabeth castro's html-visual quick start guide, which is a great reference guide for specific tasks.

I also endorse the other posts encouraging you to learn the basics first, however I believe you should concentrate on html only, at first. then xhtml. when you are comfortable with html/xhtml,begin using a little inline css. css is very,very complex,and is not a beginner's coding language. it can humble even the most seasoned developers. it is also important to gain at least a bit of javascripting, as well. while css2 is now capable of driving much of the interactivity that javascript used to do, it still is an integral component in forms validation.

it is with this basic knowledge that you would move into the data-driven languages like php, asp, jsp, etc.

also know that there are no shortcuts to learning all this stuff. it just takes time and practice, practice, practice.

good luck and happy coding!

kat

[jetnovo]

As cmatcme says, w3schools is very good.
I also found www.echoecho.com handy - I'm not sure that the site is updated often, but then the basics of HTML don't change that often either.
It has a useful section on learnin HTML and CSS, broken down into areas like tables, forms, etcetera.
Good luck! :)

[Lady_helix]

thanks for the reply...
has anyone learned to code HTML via using a WYSIWYG code editor like dreamweaver? Im also trying to find a free copy of "Dreamweaver MX:The missing Manual". Does anyone know where i could get these resources?

Thanks

[bill]

has anyone learned to code HTML via using a WYSIWYG code editor like dreamweaver?

I picked up a lot through FrontPage. Using a WYSIWYG can be a great hands on learning tool if you don't mind getting into the code and trying things out.

[cmatcme]

When you mean a WYSIWYG editor, do you mean like Notepad and browser editers becuase I do, never used a web page maker like front page before.

[webmstr]

has anyone learned to code HTML via using a WYSIWYG code editor like dreamweaver?

I learned how to do webpages on Dreamweaver. Just trial and error. It helps to have a graphics program background though, and also learning how basic html works is important. Then just get in there and play with it for about 2-3 years and you will be amazed at what you can eventually do! lol

[larryhatch]

The best way to learn HTML is to learn HTML.

Learning HTML via WYSIWYG or any other "cheater" is self defeating.
Its much like hiring an interpreter in Spain instead of just learning Spanish.
You are forever fixing the small but important mistakes of the interpreter!

Take the big dive (it ain't THAT deep) and learn HTML.

Then come back for the other goodies, but Bach comes before Brahms. - Larry

[cmatcme]

That's what you mean. I learned all languages the 'hard' way too.