Hi guys,

I'm currently designing my own site - which isn't new for me. What is new is the coding side of things. I want to start doing my own sites completely rather than just the designing side of things. I am hoping you might be able to point me in the right direction as to what language etc is best for me (or essential) to learn.

Does anyone know where I might be able to source any online tutorials for coding from?

Thanks

HTML & CSS.

javascript is useful but not essential.

www.w3schools.com

I know this probably isn't what you want to hear lakota but it's sound advice...

As Chris says, HTML & CSS. When you're happy you're familiar with that then move onto another language.

I've been hand coding HTML & CSS for years now but still learn something new or a new way of using the same code each week.

You're always learning in this game...

I agree with the above 2 responses with 1 modification: learn XHTML as it's substantially more forward compatible than HTML. When learning CSS, go through the tutorials and don't stop until you understand the point of http://www.csszengarden.com/ . Now, for the record, I said "the point of" instead of something like "how to do things like". The reason is that those on csszengarden are brilliant works (in the large part) by seasoned professionals, but if you understand the intention then you can strive for that.

AND please, do NOT use tables and invisible images for layout. That's one of the worst ways to start out and you'll see a lot of amateurs suggesting that b/c they don't take the time to learn the proper way of doing things.

When you have gone through the basic tutorials, learn how to read the standards because that will make your coding more compatible.

Good luck and remember to post on this forum for help when you get stuck b/c there are some really awesome people here with solid foundations in proper techniques (chrishirst, for example, is one person I think highly of -- and that's rare for me) [not kissing *** either, chrishirst -- you've earned that compliment.]

Everyone is right here! Get a good understanding of both CSS & HTML and then build your knowledge up. You will learn new things and get new ideas and then you will want to achieve new things. I have found that designmeltdown.com is a good site for ideas and then to learn from. Also www.smashingmagazine.com has some great CSS ideas and tutorials.

Good luck

This may be a bit more advanced but in case you want to start making dynamic pages I suggest PHP. I've learned it at www.freewebmasterhelp.com , it may be that some things are outdated there but I found the tutorials very good (It also has a bit of HTML altough it has things like the "font tag" which isn't used anymore).
For CSS I also saw the tutorial from FreeWebMasterHelp (under Stylesheets) and guided through www.tizag.com

Hope it helps you...

Originally Posted by InfinitySchima

For CSS I also saw the tutorial from FreeWebMasterHelp (under Stylesheets) and guided through www.tizag.com

I used many different websites and books to get where I am today in HTML and CSS, but I think that tizag is the most fun and interesting tutorial to use.

I learned all my html from http://www.lissaexplains.com/ and I just kinda looked around randomly for php. I'm still learning css so I can't help too much with that.
I'd say html is the best for beginners, and php comes in handy later

My best suggestion besides learning HTML/ CSS , is that just keep working. Just tinker around. Your sure to get confussed and mess up alot, but solving this confussion and these mess ups is how you learn. Focus alot on using tables with html because they are used alot especially for layout of the page.

Good Luck
Regards
Marcus

Originally Posted by iammarcus

My best suggestion besides learning HTML/ CSS , is that just keep working. Just tinker around. Your sure to get confussed and mess up alot, but solving this confussion and these mess ups is how you learn. Focus alot on using tables with html because they are used alot especially for layout of the page.

Good Luck
Regards
Marcus

Okay. Let's get this straight. Are you saying that he should use tables?

In my opinion, and I think it is an opinion that I share with most of the other people in this forum, is that you NEVER want to use tables for the layout of a site. divs with HTML and CSS is the exceptionally better way to go.

Hey I just wanted to thank you all for the input It's been fantastic to get so many replies and in such a short time. I will start with the html over the holiday period. Will be sure to post if I get stuck.................so on that note I'm sure you will all read something from me soon

Safe holidays everyone

I would recommend ColdFusion. It's simple enough to learn fast and powerful enough to do anything you would need in the future

Hi There -

Great question, and answers. You've got a lot of good advice, so I will second it and suggest a couple of free, open source editors you can use.

Seconding good Advice: Focus on (X)HTML (keep the X in it, especially since you are learning it now. This will help you in the future). CSS for styling and layouts. Forget about tables for layout -- use CSS. Use tables for tabular data. That's it.

Free editing programs (download and compare):

• Kompozer - Cross platform with full WYSIWYG editing. Probably the easiest to use of the three... but don't rely on WYSIWYG at first... learn to code. Use "the code," Luke. (Note -- Kompozer is a bug fix version of NVU which was kind of shakey -- see Features here).
• Amaya - the W3C.org's official cross platform editor, it forces you to write XHTML properly (and thus teaches it to you as you code).
• JEDIT - A technical programmers first choice, it features hundreds of plugins (see comparison article).
• Aptana - Pick this one if you really want to flex your muscles and start learning to program with AJAX (see overview tutorial).

I'm sure you'll find your own personal preference, but I recommend you at least play with Amaya now to learn about XHTML.

Yours, Scott

lakota19, from one "newbie" to the other here is a HTML tutorial site to check out....

A great tutorial
http://www.pagetutor.com/html_tutor/index.html

Once you start to learn, test yourself
http://www.funbrain.com/html/index.html

Start your first class with w3schools...

this is another supposedly good one too
http://htmldog.com/

HTML is esential for any programmer in the world wide web, seeing as its implemented into PHP and so forth.

CSS, from what I know, is a web 2.0 language which will basically give your website a much nicer, cleaner and more pro look.

So, in saying that, start with HTML and CSS, then once you've got to grips with it, and you're confident in using it, move onto a bigger stage and start using other HTML denominations as I call, such as XHTML and so forth. Then, move onto the bigger stage, and get going with PHP!

Hope this helps

if you are beginner, you muss learn HTML and can a Html editor download like ( evrsoft ). HTML is very easy, you do it easy

seeing as its implemented into PHP and so forth.

Erm? No. PHP can be used to write HTML to the browser, as can ASP, ColdFusion, Perl etc.

CSS, from what I know, is a web 2.0 language which will basically give your website a much nicer, cleaner and more pro look

What's "web 2.0" got to do with anything.

CSS is a means of styling HTML elements.


PHP is NOT a "bigger stage" of HTML. It is a different animal entirely.

Focus alot on using tables with html because they are used alot especially for layout of the page.

AAAGGGGHHHHHHH !!!
Tables for layout is the WRONG way to go. Tables are meant for tabular data and they always have been ! Tables for layout is soooo 1997. Use HTML and CSS for layout and you'll be going in the proper direction.

CSS is web 2.0 ?? Wow..that's a new one on me.... you totally misunderstand what CSS is if that's what you believe.

Cold Fusion -- it's ok, it's come a long way since 2.0 when I started with it. However, not many web hosts support it. PHP is probably the better way to go if you want to get into that kind of server side programming.