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Where should I point someone to learn the basics of HTML/CSS? I personally got my start from HTMLGoodies way back in the day, but while I thank Ken Burns for getting me going, I'm loathed to send someone out to that site nowadays as I think it's dated.
Obviously there are many sites out there that cumulatively contain all the information needed, but where to send someone new who you don't want to scare off?
edit:
I honestly thought I'd been missing something by not having used w3schools.com, but I see that within three pages of the tutorial (both html and xhtml) they use <b></b>. Damned shame they're not encouraging semantics.
Anyone know something that gets people off on the right foot?
I can't believe how many people are answering with w3schools. I couldn't recommend enough that people never EVER mention this place again. It is a terrible resource.
A few good places:
Addition for HTML5: http://diveintohtml5.ep.io/
http://alistapart.com
http://www.quirksmode.org/
http://www.thinkvitamin.com/
Not complete, but alistapart.com is required reading for any web developer we hire.
Also, never underestimate the power of reading the source on well-written websites.
I can't believe that people here are recommending W3Schools. That's the last place I would recommend anyone to go.
The one place I would recommend the user heading to is SitePoint. A lot of the articles there are aimed at advanced users, although the sheer quality of the forum and the beginner articles are too good to pass. I would also agree with Mike's recommendations as places to send a complete novice.
As far as getting the practical skill, the one thing I would recommend is opening up a text editor or a good IDE in text-editor mode and just writing a website to see what happens. Head to the Open Source Web Design page and see how others have created basic layouts, then apply that skill to your own.
HtmlDog has a good set of guides for beginners, intermediate and advanced users. It also has useful references for all things HTML & CSS.
I really like yourHTMLsource. Quirksmode and AlistApart are great. And Ajaxian is more advanced and wide resource of things.
I began on w3schools, however soon this site became the one I avoid the most.
Read this book (Designing with Web Standards by Zeldman)
To keep this answers to this question up-to-date, the Opera Web Curriculum is, as of 2011, the best way to learn front-end web development. It is comprehensive, encourages best practice, and is generally a superior resource for those completely new to the field.
I think you should check www.tutorialrepublic.com. This site has great tutorials on HTML/CSS. I learned HTML/CSS from this site and I really like this, they explains the topic very clearly.
Exactly, I personally started off on HTMLGoodies, also. I think tizag.com is more updated.
I can't believe that people here are
recommending W3Schools. That's the
last place I would recommend anyone to
go.
For me its a great...
Maybe isn't "the" reference website, but is a very good and practical cheatsheat about html and stuff...
The htmldom section is one of the best for me...
If you speak German, the best Site for learning HTML is:
http://selfhtml.org
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I've downloaded the source code of my favourite program.
At school they taught us that the entry point is the main.c(pp) and then follow the headers, but I realise that is not always the case. In some cases there isn't a main or It deep buried somewhere where I can find it.
And the documentation in most cases describes only how to compile, what deps you need and etc.
Bottom line, you've downloaded the code, untar'ed it.. now what?
I don't have any particular example to ask (help) for, so if you have any example to help me it's welcome
Reading code is often more cumbersome than writing code. This inquiry does not have a single answer and you should explore multiple opinions and see which works best for you. One practice you shouldn't engage in is reading the code start to finish. This will lead to eye bleeding and mind-numbing frustration. So don't approach it like a book, since reading it like one, cover to cover, is very inefficient. Reading is not learning. Applying what you read is learning. One key point to remember is don't get discouraged. You will be hard pressed to find a programmer that can quickly pick up on a foreign, large base of code quickly.
The best 'book speed readers' skim through something they are about to read a form an outline in their head. They take mental notes of logical sections and paint a thin picture about what to expect. When your brain has seen something before, it is more likely to be engaged with the material. I would skim the header files as a way to form this outline. If there are no header files, then try to skim quickly though class interfaces and take note of which are connected and what is their general purpose.
Make a second pass through the sections of code that interested you. Try to identify a subsystem of the code and make a second, more detailed pass through it. I personally would look for connected components for identifying the subsystems (look at imports). Jot down some of the data structures used and associated algorithms and design patterns. Make associations between them and try to understand why they were used.
Lastly, don't be content with just reading the code. Since you are looking at open source, challenge yourself to add a feature. Take one of the subsystems you were intrigued with and add on to it. If this still intimidates you, take the last bullet a step further. Make a quick flow chart detailing the flow of the code. Bust out your favorite IDE and leverage breakpoints around areas you don't understand the flow. Try to put yourself in the mind of the designer and think why he made certain decisions as your stepping through the breakpoints. Bottom line: It is easy read something and think you understand it. But, doing is where the real learning takes place. You will find yourself asking more questions and researching more into the code when adding a new feature. Having this direction is all it takes sometimes.
If the source code leverages an OOP solution, I would strongly recommend studying a Design Patterns book. I was going to include Design Patterns as a bullet, but I didn't know if the source code you are viewing uses an OOP approach.
Hope this helps! This was the approach I undertook when learning to code a couple years ago.
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Hey everyone I just bought the master cs5 suite mostly for design purposes, and now I have a lot of peoPle telling me I should start using DW instead of hand coding my HTML/CSS because it will speed up my production and it's what all design shops use and is an industry standard . I was curious if this is accurate and how much would it really speed things up?
I (personally) disagree. I use DW in CS5 for code editing view only (it has the best markup/code highlighting I've found); the generated markup is not great, so I don't use it, nor am I highly trained in the workflow it entails. A lot of designers will not understand hand coding markup, but that's usually because they don't understand how to or don't care to do so because it's not what they get paid to do.
However, if you're working on (a) lower level, you have a better understanding of your markup/styles/code. It may take slightly/significantly more effort (depending on your abilities hand coding), but I personally think it's worth the effort in many cases. However, I am not a piece worker nor am I paid on deadlines.
There are other reasons I use DW (WebDAV support, searching capabilities), but I will likely never use it to author my markup. Also note I don't pay for it.
Used unwisely it won't speed it up at all. You'll spend more time pulling out DW's extraneous code. Use parts of DW that will make you faster like snippets (for storing snippets of code you use frequently) and find and replace (using f&r with regex is a very useful skill). I use it to cram in table markup quickly (for data tables). Dragging files over for internal links is quite nice and the keyboard shortcuts help (you can create custom ones).
That said, I like the product at work. Check in and check out has been very helpful there with multiple coders/designers.
So, there are plenty of parts in DW that will speed up your hand coding. Root them out.
Dreamweaver CS5.5 made a lot of improvements over previous versions. As a designer you may appreciate Live Preview and the design integration's. As a coding IDE, it's still considered sub-standard and many developers choose to go another route. I use PHPdesinger 7 for ~$70, its got in-line xdebug integration and pretty good intellisense for PHP, CI, and jQuery. I use DW5.5 and PHPdesigner and I find it's far less bloated then Dreamweaver for what I use it for, coding with PHP/Jquery and web API's. I also feel that it's closer to how I worked before using advanced IDE's like this, coding on my Macbook with Coda. But if your designing web pages you may like Dreamweaver better.
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Imagine somebody today, March 1 2011, has never written a webpage and would like to know what they should read to start building web pages today. They don't care about backwards compatibility, but want to build with web standards so that they will be portable amongst as many browsers as possible (Yes I'm saying I do not care if my web pages don't work with IE 4-8, Opera, Netscape, Mozilla, etc, I really don't care, because I've never used them, and that's likely true about those who will use the tools I'm building).
This person has zero biases or bad habits because they've never done it before. They're also hyperactive, so if they have to read 200 pages as to "why to use web standards" or "why web standards are better than "the old way"", they'll get discouraged and distracted and throw the book away, and go swimming. Speaking of which, my hair is wet.
They're looking for references that are engaging and concise. They're not stupid, this person is a real-live engineer who has done a tiny bit of development, a decade or two worth of systems administration, and even built a successful company or two. They just didn't go to college because they really aren't book learners, and are better at applied hands-on learning than at absorbing mounds of useless data in order to get to the two or three things they really need.
Given all of that data about the individual, and I know it's a lot about that individual (this individual is me, of course), what books or resources would you recommend?
(Zeldman's books are out because I already threw them away and then went swimming today.)
Some good resources to start:
Mozilla Developer Network: For HTML, CSS, Javascript, & DOM.
Dive into HTML5: For learning all about HTML5
JSfiddle: For fiddling around without having to build a whole page every time.
HTML Validator: For making sure the HTML you write is valid.
CSS3 Preview: Run-down of some of the new features of CSS3.
Official HTML5 spec: For when you need all the detail straight from the source.
jQuery: Arguably the best framework for making writing javascript for websites easier.
A List Apart: "For people who make websites". Definitely not for starting out, but good to read regularly.
Firebug: If you're using Firefox, this is a must-have.
Developer Tools: built in to Chrome & Safari (essentially firebug for webkit)
Also, do not use W3 Schools. Please see W3 Fools for a long list of reasons why. W3 Schools will often come up at the top of search results, but please resist the temptation to use it.
For someone that has never coded a webpage make sure you dont get sucked into the hype of HTML5 and CSS3 just yet. Although they have great features they all assume quiet a bit of knowledge of previous versions and all of the 'previews' will show you snippets related to enhanced interactivity rather than supported structural elements.
Stick to learning CSS2.1 and HTML4.01/XHTML which will give you a good grounding on which you can apply the new stuff later.
Im sure people will give this answer some negative feedback but if you need a JS snippet at the start of your code to enable the new HTML5 elements in one of the main stream browsers then it should be used for commercial purposes just yet.
I self-taught myself web design and development, and I have a background in engineering. You are comfortable with computers, so you are in good shape. To get started, I took a few online courses from http://www.hwg.org/. The courses are self-paced but moderated, and you get a lot of hands-on experience right away and you get an online community to help you bounce ideas around.
I took the HTML course, almost all the CSS courses and some JavaScript. Once you get some basic experience and learn the fundamentals, you can decide how much of the other stuff you need, for example, PHP/MySQL, or whether you need some design courses to make things pretty.
I would say, you need to put in about 80 hours of practice to master the basics, so give yourself a month of self-learning to get to that point. The reason to get to that point is that you will be fluent enough to ask good questions that will get you to a higher level.
About books, go to your local library and skim through a few books, find one that you like, buy it, skim through it and skip the parts that don't appeal to you.
Finally, if you really want to learn how to build web pages, get a good text editor and hand-code your HTML and CSS. In the long run, hand-coding is more efficient and you save quite a bit of money by not buying expensive tools like Dreamweaver. However, keep in mind that tools like Dreamweaver are often used by professionals and they serve a good purpose in production environments typically found in commercial web design firms. I actually use Dreamweaver in code view where I hand code my pages, but I have a few other editors that I use depending on the project.
Best wishes as you venture forth into a new and exciting field, and remember to have fun!
for html5: Dive into HTML5
for css3: http://www.css3.info/preview/
and if you want to use javascript it would be good to use jquery: http://jquery.com/
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It's well-known among teachers that some people can program and some can't. They just don't have mindset for that. In a nut-shell, I want to ask if the same is true about web-design.
I have a friend who is a good designer in general and can produce reasonably good-looking sites with WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver. But, since we're starting a common project, I'd like someone who can 'get hands dirty': work with html and css code directly. For many reasons, I'm sure you understand.
Now I'm thinking to incite him to learn, but not sure what're the chances of success.
So, do you also need some 'programming abilities' to profess css and html, or it's just a matter of training for regular designer?
I would especially like to hear particular experience from web designers.
PS I intentionally leave out JavaScript, let's keep it simple
The best web designers I have worked with know a small amount of html but don't use it when they are designing the sites. They do their work in PhotoShop (a minority will use GIMP). The reality is that I would rather they concentrate on laying out eye catching websites instead of trying to code it and lay the site out on the fly.
A web designer is absolutely not the same person as a front end web developer. That person has a skillset aimed towards converting the designers work into a set of working html/css templates.
Let me be clear that I am not saying that there is no cross-over between the two skillsets, but rather that very few people will be excellent at both design and development. If you are willing to settle for less than stellar results, at least be sure you go into the project with your eyes open.
Not at all. HTML is not a programming language, it's a markup language.
It shouldn't take you long to figure it out; I did it when I was 12. I personally think you need to be a better, how do I put it... artist to design websites than a programmer.
Of course websites nowadays are a lot more interactive, and for that you'll need some sort of server scripting (PHP, ASP, etc) and Javascript - and these are real programming languages.
A web designer who can't hand code HTML/CSS is not a web designer. The lack of such skills shows more of an aptitude problem(wanting to improve one's self). the graphic designer + front end developer combo doesn't always work well, because chances are the developer doesn't have the eye for the details in the design, such as margin, line-height, text kerning etc etc. Also it's hard to convert the interactive elements as well.
edit: this topic has been debated within the web design community on and off for a while now. You may find some interesting links in the blog post I wrote regarding this issue.
you are much better to know how to code a website HTML / CSS / Javascript before you go saying your amazing with a WYSIWYG editor. Sure you can use software to create a nice looking site but when it comes down to it how do you solve cross browser issues? How do you add dynamic content (even without server side) a WYSIWYG editor is just like designing a website in powerpoint or word but a lot more smarts. Though without the backing knowledge you are not going to go far.
As for learning plain HTML / CSS is fairly simple its an easy markup to get the understanding of. But then with that comes more, learning how to SEO plain HTML for example. There is always more to a site than HTML / CSS for it to be successfull.
This seems like a life question; I suspect it is true about almost anything. I think it can be hard to guage someone's aptitude for programming without seeing them actually try to program for awhile, however. Many people need to struggle with it for awhile before an "AHA!" moment is reached.
Nevertheless, I don't think design skills and abaility to work with CSS and HTML necessarily correlate to an aptitude for programming, per se. Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive,
It is not important for the designer to be able to program/markup/code in HTML or CSS. However, it is important for the designer to be aware of the current constraints imposed by HTML/CSS. With things becoming more dynamic, it is also important for the designer to understand how things are going to interact with each other. For example, you cannot become a real architect, without being aware of the constraints imposed by civil engineering.
But that's it. It is not important for a good designer to even know Dreamweaver or Photoshop or some other software :)
I am a university teacher, and I have also written both computer programs and HTML. Although I teach math, I understand the point about teaching computer programming. Although it might seem like there is no gray area between being able to program and not, I would say that writing in a markup language is one. You shouldn't divide the world into "cans" and "can'ts" with a question like this.
If he's a generally bright guy, yes you should encourage him to learn HTML and CSS. I wouldn't propagandize it as the thing that real men do or the greatest thing since sliced bread. Rather my argument would be to have a more complete perspective of what, after all, he's already been doing. Just as a racecar driver shouldn't necessarily need to pick up a wrench, but knowing what to do with one is useful for a deeper understanding. If you offer your friend a positive sell, the worst that can happen is that he'll say no and not take your advice. And who knows, he might even like it.
A lot of people either can't program or just wouldn't enjoy it, but don't mind writing in markup all that much. Most research mathematicians these days write their papers directly in a markup language, TeX/LaTeX, that in some ways looks a lot like HTML. Some mathematicians also like to write computer programs, but most of them don't. If they did like it, there is a good chance that they would have ended up in Silicon Valley. In fact in my profession, the whole question of can or can't write markup, or can or can't write programs, is stale. We're long used to a continuous range of abilities.
In my opinion, you can't have enough knowledge about this sort of stuff when doing any type of computer design or software implementation.
The more you know about the underlying technology, the better you will be at working with the high-level frameworks and constraints you live in.
Even if you work only in Photoshop in order to design a website, having the knowledge about what works and what will be more difficult in HTML/CSS/Whatever will give you an edge when designing that website over someone who doesn't know those details.
Of course, with knowledge comes constraints, which might be bad in and of themselves. Some of the best new technologies out there was built by people who didn't know that almost everyone else thought that what they tried to do was impossible.
But I still hold that more knowledge = Good Thing™
Web site creation especially a commercial website involves a LOT of different skill sets.
Back-end requires:
System Administration, Database Administration,
Web Applications development (anytime a website becomes interactive) requires server side programming skills and knowing various tools like (PHP, Java, ASP, Perl, C, C#, pick-flavour-of-the-month-server-side-language) and client side programming requires knowledge of browser behaviours mark-up languages and browser-side layout systems (HTML, javascript, CSS...)
Web Design requires artistic visual skills and related tools (Graphics programs)
Web Content requires language skills (Knowing how to proof read, translate, etc.).
Site Optimization requires knowledge of how to make sites appeal to various readers and audiences (both human and robotic)
A professional website involves several folks working in-tandem to bring all of the above together in various quantities.
If you are going to pursue something as a career, you need to know a bit about all aspects of that space and then follow in on what really excites you. So if someone is good at creating visually appealing content they should simply plan the content, and collaborate with someone to "program" their vision into the site.
Learning tools, and knowing about various components, is good as it tells you the boundaries and the playing field scope, but you don't need to know all of it to achieve professional competence in one specialization.
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I'm looking for a CMS system that works similar to CushyCMS, but that I can install on my own server?
I love the functionality and ease of use CushyCMS provides for simple, small sites where setting up and installing a traditional CMS (Drupal, Wordpress, TYPO3) are not necessary.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!
Troy
Perch is an excellent lightweight CMS.
For what you're after I'd reccomend ImpressPages CMS
http://www.impresspages.org/
It doesn't use html tags, but its a very easy "drag and drop" style. with clear toolbars available to the site admin, obviously WYSIWYG editing isn't everyones favourite (it's not mine) but for 5 or so pages, it's perfect.
Orbis CMS is an open source alternative to CMSs like CushyCMS. It's built on the same priciples (simplicity, ease-of-use) and features a stylish interface, but is self-hosted and free.
"modify html pages simply by adding a class but that I can install on one of my own servers"
Unify does this very nicely unify.unitinteractive.com it costs $24.49 per domain, simply upload the unify folder to your webspace and add class="unify" to the areas in the html you want editable.
Another one ideal for a site of 5 pages is pulsePro http://pulsecms.com/
If you're looking to write some of your own code/html it might be worth looking at django-cms
Well, I don't know of any yet, but if you want an alternative online service then check out Surreal CMS. You can also try out Simple CMS, but it's still very new (released into beta a day or two ago).
You should look at Zimplit!
SnippetMaster is pretty cool. It's too bad that it's not open-source and free, but at least it has generous and inexpensive licensing schemes (normal, re-brandable, etc.)
It would be nice if it used class names for the content regions, but it uses HTML comments formatted a special way (like IE conditionals) so it's still valid html.
http://www.snippetmaster.com
I built this one www.kitgui.com so programmers can be programmers in their own language / framework of choice and use a REST-style interface to pull content and HTML 5 javascript reference to be able to let clients manage the editing experience directly on the website pages themselves. HTML 5 allows for the cross-site security to occur these days so everything just made sense to do this. In my ecommerce business its all about how fast you can setup things to get them out the door and get paid. KitGUI makes it so easy you can't really appreciate it unless you try it out. This is brand new so I have no idea if programmers like it or not except for my own devs who are biased of course. I know clients do for sure so please give me some feedback on it if you have time to investigate as I worked my ass off to launch it.
Something which is very similiar to CushyCMS is Unify CMS.
They have a demo which you can try before you buy.
You will see that Unify is very similar to CushyCMS and I quote:
You do not need to know PHP, nor do you need to write your code
specifically for Unify. In order to create editable areas on your
site, you only need to add “unify” classes to each element. That’s it.
There is no Database to setup, you just upload the files via FTP (or similar) and start adding in classes where you want to have editable regions. They have repeatable regions as well.
Unify currently costs 24.49 and is backed by a 45 day money back guarantee.
Support is powered by Desk.com
Take a look at Unify requirements and you will see you can run this in almost any server on the planet; well, almost any server :)