Getting into Web Development

[AddictingArts]

Hey guys,

Basically, two years ago I found out that what I want to do when I 'grow up' is to be a graphics artist. I've been designing on and off since then and am currently attending a magnet school where Im enrolled in a 'digital art & media' program. Im planning on going to college in NC at NC State, majoring in their design program. Not until recently I decided that web development would be a good road to head down.

My question for you is how to start this... I do not know ANYTHING about web development; What coding is best used for a website? How should I go about learning this? What books? Tutorial websites? What programs are needed for web development/coding? What should I use to design the site? Any templates? How to implement designs? Publishing...? Basically, how to do EVERYTHING.

I just need a nudge in the right direction. This will all be self-taught, and I have no problems getting ahold of the books/programs, because it's all basically 50-75% off with student discounts, etc. I just REALLY wanna learn how to code the websites, how to implement designs made into the coding, how to publish/host and everything like that...

I hope you guys can get back to me with a little help,
Thanks,
AA

 

[n9ne]

Hello there,

I see you have an interest to learn web design. I am a web designer and as a web designer I would suggest you to start off with the basics, what languages are available in website coding. I pretty much have spent almost 2 years alone learning about coding websites and also all sorts of forum softwares and wiki's. If you want to get started I can teach you. I also run a site which was opened just to help anyone who has the interest in learning a language. You can post your questions and we answer them If your interested PM me mate.

Another great site is w3schools.com they help you to learn to code too.

Hope I was helpful in my first post ^^

 

[AddictingArts]

If you could PM me this website I would be very greatful, specifically which language(s) would be good to start with. HTML and...?

Thank you.

 

[Ryan]

HTML and CSS to start. Then once you have a handle on them, break into JavaScript/jQuery. They are the languages you'll need to get a job on web design (Fron-End).

HTML and CSS go hand in hand, you'll notice this once you start learning.

If you want an editor with a lot of cool features, grab Dreamweaver. If you want something basic just for starting out, then just grab Notepad ++ (free). I used Notepad ++ for years before moving on to NetBeans, but that's not particularly great for HTML/CSS.

Also, any questions you have can be found by Google. Web Development questions are everyone, you don't have a questions someone else hasn't already asked. If you want some general reading, try W3Schools (http://www.w3schools.com/html/)

 

[sp for real]

PM me, I do this stuff for a living, but check out w3schools.com to learn about programing.

 

[MonsterMMORPG]

you have to learn very well CSS and html before starting

as a programming lang i suggest c# and asp.net

database ms sql

 

[AddictingArts]

Thank you guys. I have my CSS and HTML books, already started learning. I downloaded a trial of Coda, a Mac coding program, is there any others out there for Mac I should get? Thanks.

 

[Noam]

Just from my experience, the type of thing you do with Photoshop and the type of thin you do with HTML are completely different. Make sure you are prepared.

 

[Mister Fox]

Im planning on going to college in NC at NC State, majoring in their design program

You chose the right school, yessah! Go Wolfpack!!

Pm'd you some information.

 

[Deacon Frost]

I support w3schools.com as well. They're extensive in their tutorials. tizag.com is also a great tutorial site.

Ryan is most informative. I would add that Photoshop is key to creating pristine websites. You basically design the page, and then splice the images, and code them together to make the page. It's a lot like making a magazine, then cutting up the magazine to make a scrapbook . Your best bet for backend languages (stuff that processes data and such) is PHP with MySQL.

A lot of this stuff is basic at the moment, and believe you me when I tell you that its a pain in the ass to stay caught up. Web Development changes frequently roughly every 3 years. I've been in it for 5 years, and its changed twice on me >.<.

Also, a great forum for help in just about anything web related is http://codingforums.com.

They have some highly intelligent programmers there, including people who work as Nasa engineers and such. Really great group that have given me countless pieces of advice without any bias or insult.

Good luck in your endeavors. It is a great career path with some of the most intelligent networking. Just don't be closed minded. Don't stick to the rules. Seek to break the rules, make something fresh, and you'll do fine . Afterall, web development is a form of art ^.^.

 

[madelinekim]

For web development you should know the basic of web design and various programming languages. For this you can use online tutorials. Why I am suggesting online tutorials because learning from it is easy and simple as these online tutorials will provide you with some examples.