16 replies to this topic

[Ahsaniqbal111]

I am a medical student and you can imagine that I can give only little time to my website. I read in many places while doing research on the topic that to become a successful webmaster you must know the HTML at least the basics of it. But I say that in presence of wonderful applications like frontpage what is the need of becoming an HTML expert. Although I do admit the fact that basic knowledge of HTML is very necessary but again what is the definition of basic knowledge. Is it enough to just know that what a complete sentence in HTML is like and what not to disturb in the code when adding something manually to the code. I thing it is sufficient. Although I have found it difficult to understand the concepts like "nofollow" and commands like "rel" that are very much related to obtaining backlinks and improving your website but still I managed to make a website and insert google adsense code to it as well as google analytics code to it. I think this much knowledge is sufficient. Do you agree with me ?

[Quatrux]

Well, not everyone needs to know HTML, but personally there is nothing to know in HTML, it's quite an easy "markup language" which can't do to much, but with which you can do a lot.

Frontpage usually generates bad code, a lot of software which is using only html to generate HTML is bad, especially those wysiwyg editors, as the ones working well with generating css are much better and generates cleaner code.

[Ahsaniqbal111]

Well, not everyone needs to know HTML, but personally there is nothing to know in HTML, it's quite an easy "markup language" which can't do to much, but with which you can do a lot.

Frontpage usually generates bad code, a lot of software which is using only html to generate HTML is bad, especially those wysiwyg editors, as the ones working well with generating css are much better and generates cleaner code.

Unfortunately because of the limited time I can give to my webmaster career I have only learnt frontpage. Would you suggest me other website makers no matter what there price is but they should be easy and quick to learn.
I have heard about Microsoft Publisher Web as the newer version released by Microsoft instead of frontpage. Is Expression web a good application for web development and is easy to learn and use?
Please guide me !

[Quatrux]

I don't think Microsoft Publisher is here to replace Frontpage, as I know it's a publishing software, here is a descriptio link to it:

http://en.wikipedia....osoft_Publisher

It's more something like Adobe InDesign.. Unless We speak about different things..

Microsoft Frontpage was replaced by Microsoft Expression Web and Sharepoint Designer, which were first released in December 2006. It's a much better WYSIWYG HTML editor.

[Ahsaniqbal111]

I don't think Microsoft Publisher is here to replace Frontpage, as I know it's a publishing software, here is a descriptio link to it:

http://en.wikipedia....osoft_Publisher

It's more something like Adobe InDesign.. Unless We speak about different things..

Microsoft Frontpage was replaced by Microsoft Expression Web and Sharepoint Designer, which were first released in December 2006. It's a much better WYSIWYG HTML editor.

I searched through the internet to find the best web design software available but i was stunned to see that I could not find Microsoft Expression Web in top 10 in any website. Does it mean that Microsoft expression web is not a good web design software. I have been using Microsoft applications for quite a long long time and I feel that Microsoft expression web will do for me since I have planned to change from frontpage. But after my research on internet I am again in a state of turmoil that what application I should use.
I have read on a lot of websites about adobe dreamweaver.
How difficulty it will be for me to learn it keeping in consideration the fact that I do not have the slightest of knowledge of it and also that I do not know both HTML and CSS.
Should I go for dreamweaver of Expression web

[starscream]

Well before moving to languages like php and asp i think it's better to understand what HTML is. You'll learn hidden form fields and URL rewriting and many other concepts in other languages where references to HTML pops up. Other than that one thing we all need to understand that whatever you do and work with other languages it ends up rendering into HTML for browser. So that way it is atleast necessary for web developers to know about HTML and CSS. You may argue on this point but to be blunt HTML learning takes 1 hours maximum and you'll never forget what you've read from the book. If you can bang complex languages like php, c++ then i think learning HTML shouldn't take more than 1 hour-2 hours. It's fun to know such simple language.

[Quatrux]

I searched through the internet to find the best web design software available but i was stunned to see that I could not find Microsoft Expression Web in top 10 in any website.

Well, I think you could read this article, it's quite a good review on 25 HTML editors which include WYSIWYG

http://www.smashingm...itors-reviewed/

[jonline]

I recommend html.net I learnt html and css (the webdesign language that goes along with html for styling) in two days using this website. So next time you have a free week end just pop unto the site and learn it quickly. I don't recommend starting your website from scratch though, find a good template and tweek it to get it hwo you like. Once yo've done this a few times your pretty much advanced level at html!

[iBruteforce]

If you have some basic knowledge of HTML, it's ok and it's not tough. You can learn easily from online source. Important is to understand the basic of HTML.

[zenia]

There is a topic with some basic information about building a website with html.
The second post provides a template.
It is possible to copy the template.
The template can be pasted into a simple text editor like WordPad.
It is recommended not to use an usual text editor like Word or OpenOffice.
The reason is that a big text editor usual adds different kinds of inforamtion to the file.
This information prevents the server and the browser from reading the website.

The template can be changed by pasting the template into WordPad.
WordPad can be used to change several parts with information about the website.
The content of the website can be typed into the template using WordPad.


http://www.astahost....tml-t22282.html

[8ennett]

Personally my favourite editor has to be Dreamweaver. The WYSIWIG side makes it very easy to create clean and well formatted html code, where as the coding side offers great flexibility.

For all beginners to html it is highly suggested you use dreamweaver. Possibly one of the best editors out there, especially for me and my php.

[Illustrious]

It is probably recommended to learn HTML -if you are planning to be a webmaster since HTML is like the base of the website. I am a webmaster of my website but I have yet to find the time to begin learning HTML so I just use a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver for my website. I search Google for a Dreamweaver template and edit it in Dreamweaver. Learning HTML in 1-2 hours is ridiculous since learning HTML pretty much consists of remembering tags and the most efficient way to do that is to do it yourself. I doubt that learning HTML in a few hours is not possible.

[8ennett]

Learning html is actually very simple. The tags are not complicated at all and very easy to pick up. You could probably learn it within 2 hours if you just sit down and get on with it. But like was mentioned earlier, html is only a markup language. The real dynamics behind html are programming languages like php, css and javascript. It is these languages which manipulate the dynamic data displayed on a html page. Just using html you couldn't create a site like facebook and also processing form data is very basic, you simply send the form data to an email address and then have to sift through it manually. If you want to become a webmaster offering content people want then it is best to get a handle on html, then learn the other languages mentioned above.

[Ahsaniqbal111]

. If you want to become a webmaster offering content people want then it is best to get a handle on html, then learn the other languages mentioned above.

8ennett I want to make a website where people can register with me as users. I offer them some special content which will not be visible to other visitors. So tell me for this simple website what languages I need to learn.

[8ennett]

Right well for basic output you will definately need to learn html, if you want to make it look nice then I suggest css (although only learn this as you need it if you are short on time). Those two should take at most around 3 hours to get a good handle on and be able to create great looking websites.

Next you will need to learn PHP for processing form data (forms are the textboxes, checkboxes and buttons etc. that you will need for people to login and register) and to display dynamic data such as the users name, information etc.

Finally you will need to learn some basic MySQL queries. MySQL is a database which will store all your users information, such as username, password, email, register date and so on. You can store any information in the database and is a recommended essential to creating a dynamic data website.

I can direct you to a good tutorial on the basics of PHP and MySQL, by far this has to be the best I have ever come across. Just start from the beginning and work your way right through, practicing the examples it gives you. Also get yourself a copy of dreamweaver for editing your php files, it's great because it acts just like frontpage (well actually a lot better) on the wysiwig side (so you might be able to get away without learning much html and css) and the colour coding for your php will really help you understand how the code is structured.

PHP 101 Tutorial: http://devzone.zend.com/article/627

The important thing to remember is that where if your website uses just html, then your main page would probably be called index.htm or something similar where as if you are using php as well as html then it will be called index.php instead.

So run through the above tutorial, if you get stuck there are many php programmers on this forum who can help you with any problem, and also I recommend you setup a developers server on your home computer. The best way to do this for novices is by downloading something called WampServer. I don't like it myself, tedious and annoying for advanced users, but for the novice it's quick and simple. Just download WampServer, install it then put all your files in to C:\wamp\www (default directory) then in your web browser simply type either http://localhost or http://127.0.0.1 and it will display your website. With PHP you can't normally just double-click the files to view them as with html files, instead you need to open them through your server.

Anyway I'll stop going on and confusing you now lol, good luck with learning everything and don't hesitate to ask us anything.

[Atomic0]

HTML and CSS should be essential skills to any webmaster, with knowledge of Javascript (for AJAX or JQuery) and PHP an added bonus.

For create a website where users can register, you will probably need to learn PHP (or ASP if you prefer) in order to handle server side processing of data, in addition to learning SQL which will allow you to communicate with a database containing the user information.

However, I would recommend using ready-built solutions in this case rather than building a PHP and SQL database application from scratch. This is because besides coding the functions, there are other stuff to considering like input validation for security reasons, which is a bit more advanced, and which have already been considered in the development of these pre-built solutions. An example of a pre-built solution is BuddyPress which is based off the popular Wordpress blog publishing platform.

[Xarex]

Usually, if you just go through websites, and read some of the source, you can grasp the concept of such things. There are so many websites out there that make HTML so easy. I remember when I was 12 years old learning.. thought I was so smart to learn a new "programming" language. It's really very easy to grap and understand.

But so many places have made it virtually possible that you don't even need to know HTML. An unfortunate part, for society, to be honest. Everyone should learn some basics of HTML if they plan on building a website.

I had avoided learning PHP or anything new for years. The last thing I learned was Javascript and DHTML. But recently, after almost 10 years of not really touching HTML, I'm back in the game and I've even learned some of the basics of PHP!

I didn't read a book or anything. I learned it through trial and error, looking at code, seeing what it does, seeing what happens if I remove it or add it somewhere else, and that's how I learned. Can't say I'm a Pro. But I know more than I did a month ago.
Good luck