Questions about web-page building?

[DioCassius]

I don't know much about web-design and was wondering what I could do to learn more. Are there any good books out there or good web-sites. I know the very basic stuff, but want to be able to do stuff like on dell and gateway, where they have pull-down menu's which dynamically change the next page...like the way they add up prices and stuff. Is that java-scipt? Thanks in advance

 

[Avatar26]

You'll need to learn VBor J Script if you're not already familiar with it, or check out msdn.microsoft.com
MS has LOTS of info on ASP and Dynamic HTML... Also check out Barnes and Noble, they have some excellent books.

 

[Dameon]

Don't use frontpage unless you want to have IE-ONly pages. It makes pages that look like poo in Netscape very often. There are several issues to keep in mind, depending on what your target audience is.

 

[Elledan]

Start simple: use an uncomplicated WYSIWYG editor (like NS Composer) to create your first pages, take a look at the source code and try to learn what everything in it does. You can take a look at Stars.com, they've some excellent HTML tutorials.

I recommend that after HTML you learn Javascript, seeing that VB-script (visualbasic) is hardly supported in many browsers and you won't find many tutorials on VB-script either, while you can get a zillion free JS- scripts and tutorials for free everywhere in the web.

 

[ElFenix]

those are generally server side tools such as active server pages, cold fusion, and other database driven web interfaces. you're on a cold fusion site right now. tango is a good one too.

 

[DioCassius]

How can i find out about that kind of stuff ElFenix?

 

[coder1]

Vbscript is nor supported by Netscape. It is, however suppoerted by IE.

 

[kami]

I recommend Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev. Some people will sit there and say "oh, only real web designers use notepad"...meanwhile, you can get the same results in a fraction of the time with dreamweaver. It's totally unproductive to do all your HTML coding in notepad... I know they'd get rid of me where I work if I did that. I'm much more productive in a WYSIWYG editor.

Learn making basic webpages before you dive into things like ASP.

 

[rootaxs]

here's another vote for Ultradev and what kami just mentioned. i find it very unbelieveable how some recruiters and HR personnel require that you know how to do HTML via notepad or they won't hire you - they won't even look at your resume at other times.

i can't think of any advantages of using Notepad strictly to create a site nowadays.

 

[littleprince]

3rd vote for ultra dev...

i have a couple friends that say notepad rocks. u dont really build webpages unless you use notepad...

my advice for theM?? go mix up your own aspirin out of core ingredients, and go make your own car, and shut your trap fool....

start with the basics man, coz if you just go out and start trying to learn the latest and best of everything, 1. you'll be missing out on a lot, (learn to walk b4 u run) and the software is dang expensive....

 

[Huma]

people who claim only that notepad is the only way to go are idiots.

Wordpad is the only way to go.


but seriously, allaire homesite is the ultimate hand coding tool. You still need to know your html as well as in notepad but it speeds things up by providing macros for your most used tags, and color codes for ease of organization. The find and replace tool is essential when your client starts changing their minds halfway through production.

For more basic sites, dreamweaver is alright, but hand coders are still very essential to a good web company. Dreamweaver can't build pages for dynamic content (and that's where the big jobs are) anywhere near what a good hand coder can do. Good hand coders also have lighter pages and pages that are easier to modify

 

[RaDragon]

<< You'll need to learn VBor J Script if you're not already familiar with it, or check out msdn.microsoft.com
MS has LOTS of info on ASP and Dynamic HTML... Also check out Barnes and Noble, they have some excellent books. >>

ugh... another ms junkie!

go w/ the low-cost solutions: apache, php, mysql and editplus2 as your text-based editor!

 

[coder1]

I have not used UltraDev, But I use InterDev. In my opinion, Using a WYSIWIG can lead to some slopping coding. Especially when most of the work is done in a server side script. The thing I do enjoy about Interdev is the Intellisense, It's great with your COM objects.

 

[rootaxs]

well, Ultradev (Dreamweaver) is very functional and imho better than even Interdev and it's not platform specific (e.g. Frontpage always puts bots and reformats ur HTML to something funky)

besides, in most cases when i use Ultradev i stick to the HTML/Raw encoding window and only go back to the preview window to see my stuff. It also works very well with databases as it actually previews the actual site with db connections/data instead of putting placeholders