Cramming

[BuddyB309]

I need money for college, I found a job that is web site designing and it pays good. I told the guy I can do websites as well as I can do video production (I do make great videos) The only thing is I really don't know anything about making websites . The job isn't official yet but I really need the money.

Whats the fastest way to learn making websites? Is their any program out there to help me? I don't even know basic HTML commands or any type of programing for that matter.

[Brandon Martus]

check out this site: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by BuddyB309

I need money for college, I found a job that is web site designing and it pays good. I told the guy I can do websites as well as I can do video production (I do make great videos) The only thing is I really don't know anything about making websites . The job isn't official yet but I really need the money.

Whats the fastest way to learn making websites? Is their any program out there to help me? I don't even know basic HTML commands or any type of programing for that matter.

Way to basically lie at a job interview. That's not a very good thing.
And, to stick to the topic, I'll second the link Brandon showed.

Very helpful, and it has areas to test code in.

[Timothy D. Ginn]

I'll third Brandon's link and also add http://www.cameronolthuis.com/2006/0...ign-resources/ as a great list of resources.

[JohnBoucher]

Webmasterworld especially forum 48 "New to Web Development"
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum48/

What do you have for software?
If you need a WYSIWYG freebie try NVU http://www.nvu.com/index.php
Image software try Gimp http://www.gimp.org/

Depending on what you want to do a free CMS package will work for you
Mambo or Wordpress

Good Luck

[robot180]

I agree with Brandon's link and would like to add this. http://webmonkey.com/

I learned CSS from that site.

[Michelle Celio]

If you're going to get into doing flash with it, and don't know how to do flash, I recommend the flash lesson done by someone on 1345. It's found : here. Other than that, I fifth* Brandon's link.

*I think we're up to 5?

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by Fruity Pebbles

If you're going to get into doing flash with it, and don't know how to do flash, I recommend the flash lesson done by someone on 1345. It's found : here. Other than that, I fifth* Brandon's link.

*I think we're up to 5?

Don't do Flash, and I 6th that link. w3schools taught me CSS, since I already sort of knew how HTML worked. Really, it isn't that bad once you get know how to do it.

[sanddrag]

Are they looking for someone to hand code, someone to use a WYSIWYG editor, or someone to install, configure, and maintain a CMS? If CMS is an option, I would recommend taking a look at e107. It is a quite nice package.

For an FTP client, if you don't have it already, I extremely super highly recommend FileZilla.

[nparikh]

It probably wasn't such a good idea to say you could do what you can't ..but though HTML is 'learnable'..it takes some time to get used to it, and to start making good websites. Honestly..it's all about experience. I'd highly recommend hand coding simple things first then maybe switching over to Dreamweaver or Frontpage(for real newbies)..that way you'll at least understand and be able to tweak code.

But the best way to learn is to practice. Start making mock websites based off what you've learned. Also pay attention to style guides..there's a lot more to websites than just the coding itself..colors should match, be neutral to eyesight, text should be easy to read, and more!

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by nparikh

I'd highly recommend hand coding simple things first then maybe switching over to ... Frontpage

Don't do it! Don't do it!

[Michelle Celio]

Originally Posted by nparikh

It probably wasn't such a good idea to say you could do what you can't ..but though HTML is 'learnable'..it takes some time to get used to it, and to start making good websites. Honestly..it's all about experience. I'd highly recommend hand coding simple things first then maybe switching over to Dreamweaver or Frontpage(for real newbies)..

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Don't do it! Don't do it!

I'm going to have to agree with Sanddrag here. I used to my web pages in Front page and Dream weaver, then I discovered Syn Text Editor. I wouldn't use it unless you know what you're doing with the code but once you do get to that point it's really good. I've seen dream weaver and front page really butcher a code so I'd stay far from it.

[artdutra04]

I'll nth Brandon's link. So far I've learned (X)HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP (and some XML) from w3schools.com. I'd also suggust cssplay.co.uk for all kinds of amazing uses of CSS and alistapart.com for all kinds of good general information.

Originally Posted by BuddyB309

I need money for college, I found a job that is web site designing and it pays good. I told the guy I can do websites as well as I can do video production (I do make great videos) The only thing is I really don't know anything about making websites . The job isn't official yet but I really need the money.

Whats the fastest way to learn making websites? Is their any program out there to help me? I don't even know basic HTML commands or any type of programing for that matter.

That's just wrong. I'm sorry to say, but I really think you should decline that job and find another. There's a lot more to designing websites than making pretty graphics in Photoshop. It takes a lot of experience be able able to break down any layout design into the equivalent XHTML and CSS code.

Website designing/developing is not that easy, as almost every internet browser displays things a little different, and somehow you always have to find a way to get the website to display correctly in every browser. Although some browsers like Mozilla Firefox or Opera will display things correctly (according to the W3C Standards, there are a lot of others *cough* Internet Explorer *cough* that totally butcher standards-compliant CSS. Once I learned how much Internet Explorer just ignores the industry standards for CSS, i abandoned using it. There is some hope for Internet Explorer 7, but even that does not come close to the performance of Firefox or Opera.

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Don't do it! Don't do it!

Agreed, avoid Frontpage like the plague. Dreamweaver is the way to go if you're not going to hand code the thing entirely. And even if you are, Dreamweaver is just nice because you'll see that it makes some of the redundant things simple. Yet anytime you use a program like Frontpage or Dreamweaver, you're going to get random code that isn't even needed.

Depending on the complexity of the web page requirements, you may be able to do this successfully. If you're looking for some reading references, I purchased O'Reilly's Web Design In A Nutshell. It's a great book that heavily covers HTML / XHTML, and also has sections on Javascript, CSS (all types), Image types, Video, Audio, Flash, XML and more.

But after taking an intro to web design class this year, the biggest thing I noticed is that you don't have to be a great coder to make a great website. You just have to make sure that your content, images and design look great. If you know Photoshop then you can make a decent looking web site easily. Getting it to look great for everyone is the difficult part. Resolution is a huge issue - with everyone running on different displays, machines, and browsers, you have to take into account who your audience is when creating a web site.

For some web oriented Photoshop tutorials, check out this site - www.good-tutorials.com

And in the future, don't lie to your employer. If you want to do web design, take the time to sit down and at least learn the basics first. Chances are this will save you and your employer a lot of trouble down the road.

[BuddyB309]

I'm sorry this post is coming off the wrong way. When during the interview I Thought I could do the whole web site design because I thought it was like editing videos and making pictures. I had no Idea what I was getting myself into. It was latter when I started to panic when I found out how much different website designing is.

The job isn't official yet though. I still have to see if I got the job or not. In the meantime thank you for all of your help.