HTML or Ready Made websites for design?

[KiwiT]

CALLING ALL WEB DESIGN EXPERTS!

I want to learn how to build and design web pages. I have borrowed a book from a friend that gives me the run-down on writing HTML code from start to finish, yet when I do an Internet search online, I see that many webpages offer you quick and easy (readymade) ways of building websites in which code isn't required (I guess because they've already written the code and it's like you are stepping in half-way through?)

Is knowledge of html outdated or still appreciated?

Basically I want to learn web design because I am a print journalist looking to expand my skills into multi-media - web design and publishing.

Can anybody please advise whether I should learn HTML coding, or whether I can still learn a lot of tricks and tips and design good web pages using the ready-made sites?

Here is one free website space and server site I found:
http://www.freeservers.com/
I'm not sure which category this would fit into however - html or readymade code?

There are many more free servers out there. Lastly, can anybody recommend some good ones that also include a simple and interactive teach yourself web design lesson?

Thanks for your advice and help.

 

[phormex]

RE: HTML or Ready Made we

This is an interesting topic...I view it along the lines of needing to know how to build a car in order to drive one.

In this age of Web 2.0, Blogs and CMS, the need for an author to understand website coding decreasing rapidly.
Sure, if you want to customize your site, you should know how to lay it out etc. But, if it is only to publish content then things like Blogger, livejournal and wordpress do a good job with low barriers to entry.

If you want to learn how the web really works, get some web space and go to www.w3schools.com for online tutorials.

 

[floss]

CALLING ALL WEB DESIGN EXPERTS!

I want to learn how to build and design web pages. I have borrowed a book from a friend that gives me the run-down on writing HTML code from start to finish, yet when I do an Internet search online, I see that many webpages offer you quick and easy (readymade) ways of building websites in which code isn't required (I guess because they've already written the code and it's like you are stepping in half-way through?)

Is knowledge of html outdated or still appreciated?

Basically I want to learn web design because I am a print journalist looking to expand my skills into multi-media - web design and publishing.

Can anybody please advise whether I should learn HTML coding, or whether I can still learn a lot of tricks and tips and design good web pages using the ready-made sites?

Here is one free website space and server site I found:
http://www.freeservers.com/
I'm not sure which category this would fit into however - html or readymade code?

There are many more free servers out there. Lastly, can anybody recommend some good ones that also include a simple and interactive teach yourself web design lesson?

Thanks for your advice and help.

not only do you need to learn HTML but also CMS, JAVA, Flash, photoshop, illustrator and mysql. The sites you are talking about are for people that don't know how to design web sites. If you want to do a couple of sites for yourself then go ahead with the sites that are already done, probably using frontpage or something. If you want to make a living from it you need to learn the mentioned programmes.

It sounds a lot but once you get into it it's fun. honest!!!

Diana
web designer.

 

[KiwiT]

Thanks for your replies.

 

[#juan]

The following is the first website I attempted. It is simple but it conveyed what I wanted at the time I did it. I was living on Gabriola Island and quite a few people we knew asked what the island was like. I used a free download of Frontpage Express and a bunch of photos that my wife and a couple friends had taken. It took several days because I tend to skim over directions. It all depends what you want to do. I wouldn't dream of trying to make a living doing web pages. There are other web editors out there now that are better than Frontpage Express. Frontpage 2000 is quite a bit better and it's easier to use. Like I said, "It depends on what you want to do".

http://members.shaw.ca/toad_stool/index.htm

 

[KiwiT]

Diana - thanks for your expertise. What is a front page? And can you explain how the other programs all come into play?

It's interesting because Juan says he wouldn't dream of trying to make a living from designing web pages, yet from what I hear it pays well, and there is a large demand for it.

Can anybody suggest any good online web design tutorials?

Thanks for the interest and assistance.

 

[#juan]

Frontpage Express is a web editor. It's purpose is to let you build a web page without being an HTML "expert". Just go to google and enter "frontpage express downloads" and you can download it for nothing. The web page I've shown was done entirely with frontpage express.

 

[Donuts]

RE: HTML or Ready Made we

There is quite a difference between webpage and website.

For a nice looking webpage, all you need to know are HTML, CSS, and a little bit of Javascript, nothing you cant get from a little google search.

However, a reasonable website is an entirely different idea. Normally, on top of everything above, you have to know VBscript, Javascript or PHP, and at least one form of SQL, plus a general idea of server administration.

w3schools is a fairly decent beginners guide to most of the stuff I mentioned above.

 

[Adamdale]

CALLING ALL WEB DESIGN EXPERTS!

I want to learn how to build and design web pages. I have borrowed a book from a friend that gives me the run-down on writing HTML code from start to finish, yet when I do an Internet search online, I see that many webpages offer you quick and easy (readymade) ways of building websites in which code isn't required (I guess because they've already written the code and it's like you are stepping in half-way through?)

Is knowledge of html outdated or still appreciated?

Basically I want to learn web design because I am a print journalist looking to expand my skills into multi-media - web design and publishing.

Can anybody please advise whether I should learn HTML coding, or whether I can still learn a lot of tricks and tips and design good web pages using the ready-made sites?

Here is one free website space and server site I found:
Web Hosting Solutions - Free Web Hosting Services and Free Websites
I'm not sure which category this would fit into however - html or readymade code?

There are many more free servers out there. Lastly, can anybody recommend some good ones that also include a simple and interactive teach yourself web design lesson?

Thanks for your advice and help.

True, there is software that is drag and drop, no intelligence required, but knowing the basic building blocks, in the end is a great help, especially when you have a dream of a site! And to create it, code freely available may and will have to be modified to fall in line with that dream! When I started I created a simple menu system that comes up with all areas I regularly access on the Internet, then found that there were other languages that did fantastic things! Like Java, PHP, SQL etc. With that knowledge, I had an idea of what questions to ask on search engines, now I run a server at home to tests any of my ideas and innovations! Especially site’s that I ultimately up load to a Host.

 

[marybarbarjane]

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[Tecumsehsbones]

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