Trying to keep myself interested in learning web design

[fustercluck]

Everytime I try and learn web design (html, css or whatever), I end up getting bored out of my mind and frustrated a few days later and forget about it. It's not something I would want to do for a living, that's for sure. I hate all the coding and everything. But, I need at least basic knowledge to create a couple of sites for family & friends. I've tried many different programs that promised to help out a lot, but they did very little to help me learn or keep me interested. It's really hard to keep my short attention.

Need a program or something that makes it at least semi-interesting/fun, anything that will keep me motivated. Don't know if such a thing exists though

 

[VinylxScratches]

Gotta find a focus. I'm starting a on site computer repair business so that's what keeps me interested.

 

[alakp]

Find a project or site you legitimately want to create for_yourself_and work on that. Just going through tutorials over and over will make you suicidal. I would suggest creating a basic wordpress blog on a subject you enjoy, choosing a theme that looks decent and modifying it from there. That will give you the knowledge you need to work on sites for other people.

Don't pay for programs/courses, they are rarely worth the money.

 

[Net]

you need a project. its better to learn a language / skill by trying to do something rather than just reading the text book and trying examples.

if you need a project i can help you. i was planning on expanding my website and redesigning it. It would be a great learning project. let me know if you want to take a crack at it.

 

[Woosta]

Easy. Design a porn website.

 

[aceO07]

If you're not interested in doing it, then you're not interested. So, you don't want to do it for a living and you hate coding.. why do you want to create sites for friends or family?

 

[fustercluck]

Well Let's just make it a different question...which coding language is easiest/funnest to learn? Any program might make things easier? Think I tried Joomla before and didn't like it or something...

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I really enjoy Microsoft's new ASP.net MVC framework for web development. You'll need to download Microsoft's Visual Web Developer Express Edition. The primary skills you'll need are C# programming and a little HTML and CSS. The first chapter of Hanselman's book is available for free and gives a walk through of developing a simple web application from end to end.

Keep in mind though that if you go this route you'll need to host your sites on a Microsoft server, the hosting for which generally costs slightly more. You'll have the advantage of using Microsoft's Visual Studio tools, arguably the best development environment available today.

This is not a matter of picking up a pre-made CMS like Drupal, Wordpress or Joomla, but programming your own applications from top to bottom. Sorry if this isn't what you're after but you did ask for the easiest and funnest to learn and I have enjoyed learning MVC a lot.

 

[fustercluck]

Nah any kind of recommendation helps since I don't know nuthin', thanks.

 

[fustercluck]

bump

guess what i'll do is just make up some blueprints of how I want the site to look and what features it would have and start from there. Guess it would help to have a project in mind while learning. Still looking for a 'website making for n00bs" program though.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Start something that benefits you, something you like to do..if it's just a hobby, don't kill yourself over it!

 

[ahurtt]

You need a project. Volunteer for something. Find a local non-profit or charitable organization who could use some help with their website or something and volunteer your services for free. You'll be learning and helping at the same time. win-win.

 

[Noobsa44]

There is a site that I visit every now and again that might be helpful to you. It is all written by a Java programmer, but 80% of the projects can be generalized. I personally have implemented one interesting idea that is listed (LazyString) in C# and have found some of his other concepts really interesting and used as a starting point for my own projects.

Also, if you are interested in just getting something going, take a look at sourceforge and Code Project to see if someone already did most of the work for you.

One other thing... I personally have found web development (in ASP.NET) to be both harder and easier than windows development. While HTML is very flexible, I have found that many the "helpful" tools microsoft provides have major limitations due to the nature of the web. You might find that something simpler, like writing PHP will be easier. In the ASP.NET world you get drag and drop buttons for GUI design, but getting the code to do what you want is painful since you do not generate the HTML/javascript directly. In PHP you write code that is directly translated without any "magic". Both methods have their advantages, but for a beginner I think PHP would be a better choice.

 

[fustercluck]

one more bump

i do want to do it myself, but i want to make easy as possible. I get bored out of my mind so quickly though - Ah well, if I can't do it then I can't do it, and I need to give up. But, going to keep looking for something to keep me interested.

 

[aceO07]

Since your motivation is in doing some sites for family/friends, then get one of their site ideas and run with it. Start slowly with the basics and learn what you need as you go on. It's very difficult to learn all the skills necessary at the same time.

 

[fustercluck]

Found a couple templates I like a lot and could work with but I need a program to work on them. I downloaded a 30 trial thing of dreamweaver but it won't let me see anything but the code (should be an option for Design view but it's grayed out, along with the browser preview options), I don't know why, maybe because it's the trial version They are both .CSS. I can't work on them if I can't see what I'm doing to preview the design at all. I'm lost :X - Maybe need a program specifically for CSS editing.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

I generally have Notepad++ or Programmer's Notepad open with two tabs - one for the HTML and the other with the CSS. I have a browser window open with the HTML page open in it. I'll make changes to the CSS or HTML, alt-tab to the browser and F5 to see the changes. This is a very fast way of checking your changes.

 

[aceO07]

I recommend learning the basics before jumping into using a web WYSIWYG editor program. A lot people don't even use a WYSIWIG program.

Try GodlessAstronomer's suggestion. Use a text editor and have a browser refresh to see your changes.

 

[fustercluck]

I got the Programmer's notepad but I can't get any off the CSS code to display as anything other than text. I can add it to an HTML file but it doesn't load up any of the images the css template came with, check it ooot: http://www.freewebs.com/fustercluck/dunno/dunno.html

so I obviously don't know what I'm doing, even if I already have a premade template

 

[aceO07]

It doesn't seem like you have any content in your dunno.html. It's all js or css. Is one of the js files supposed to get content from somewhere?

 

[bloodugly]

As others have suggested, you really have to be interested in a goal/project. Start with REALLY basic stuff, and just look at it as a challenge, not something to beat yourself up about if you can't get it right at first. If you don't seriously commit yourself to schooling or learning from websites/books, you're going to make alot of mistakes (people still make tons even with schooling), but often you learn alot from them. I'm trying to slowly learn CSS and RTML (Yahoo store specific coding), and I make tons of mistakes all the time, but usually I learn something about how things work from them, and its kinda amusing sometimes to see the tragic results of my coding Basically, its not easy, so don't feel bad if you mess up alot...you'll get it eventually if you keep messing around with it and googling your specific issues or asking for tips on forums. I'd also suggest looking for a good book for beginners, maybe a CSS/Website Design for Dummies or something if there is one, or anything geared towards total beginners. The main thing is to not beat yourself up about not getting it right at first, often you learn best from mistakes. Maybe you can search Amazon for books with terms like Web Design, Web Dummies, CSS Dummies, CSS Design, or stuff like that.

 

[Sadaiyappan]

WebMonkey.com

 

[sthaznpride17]

All you need is Textpad to start out with. On the Mac side, Smultron and Coda are awesome. I didn't get into Web Dev until I took a class and was "forced" to learn. Maybe that would help?