I need to learn web design Options

[rickysaurus]

I know next to nothing about wed design and coding, and it's high time I start because nowadays you can't get anywhere without being able to do web design. I followed a tutorial to make the website on photoshop which was all fine and dandy but when it came to coding it was a complete fail.

So that being said, I just wanted to know how you guys got started in learning how to code and such because I know there are a lot of coders out there on this forum, hopefully I can gain a few good insights from your stories, and maybe a few absolute beginner links would be helpful too. Thanks.

[Meimiko]

Web design/coding/development are all very very broad terms. You have to pick a place to start then work from there. Ask yourself a these questions first:

- What do I want to do? Do I want to do it all or just one specific thing?
- Where do I want to start? Myspace? Xanga? Personal websites?
- How much do I want to learn? Do I want to stick to the basics or work my way up to the most complicated things?
- Do I have the proper tools? (An image editor & coding software)
- Should I get a mentor?

From my experience it's best to start small then move on to a the harder things. At first I started hacking away at the hard stuff and ended up screwing myself over. Myspace and Xanga are great places to start but when you move on to working on a website you'll have to learn how to properly validate things because Myspace and Xanga aren't so strict about their HTML & CSS like it should be. (Trust me I learned that the hard way it's a little hard to break your bad coding habits once you start them) I suggest starting with your own website and keep it simple. When you work with HTML & CSS do all the HTML first then do the CSS/styling. Leave out all the flashy designs first and just do the "blueprints". Before you even start decide on how you want things to lay out. I'm sure tons of people probably already suggested w3schools to you which is great because it's one of the best resources out there. Don't worry about memorizing every code I've been using HTML and CSS for the past 5 years and I haven't even memorized everything.

Uh I'm starting to blab so I guess I'll just cut myself off here. Feel free to message me if you have questions or anything.