How can I learn web design? What is needed?

[petroskar]

Hello everyone. First post here. I always wanted to learn how to design web-pages but i didn't have any guides. I think there are also other people in the same situation, so I decided to create this topic.
First of all what do you need to know in order to design and publish a webpage.
Second what programs do you use in order to accomplish that on windows mac(which is my personal preference btw "I'm not a cock , I think") and of course Linux.
Thanks everyone.

[godofcereal]

www.w3schools.com
is alot of people favorites they teach html and java and loads of others all for free

[petroskar]

Ok already doing that. Books? anyone? How can I use flash? Books for flash? And finally how can i take adantage of adobe cs3?

[SeachMall]

Ok already doing that. Books? anyone?

You really don't need any books for (X)HTML or CSS, the w3schools.com site covers them all in-depth enough to save you some money. It also teaches PHP, ASP.NET and MySQL but I'd recommend books for these as there is too much you need to know for W3schools to cover however it is still a great starting point.

For PHP, http://www.amazon.com/Programming-PHP-Rasmus-Lerdorf/dp/0596006810/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222012970&sr=1-3.
I really can't recommend anything for the other 2 because I don't know any ASP and my MySQL knowledge comes from various sites. Google is your friend

How can I use flash?

I'm not sure what you mean by this, you can use flash for anything you want. A header, an image gallery or the entire site.

And finally how can i take adantage of adobe cs3?

Buy it a few drinks, maybe slip a little rohypnol into one and when she passes out have your way with her

Is that what you mean by take advantage?

[Zelth]

I agree with the previous posts. w3schools cover most of the basics really well. Just make sure you understand it to some extent where.... you don't really have to rely on checking what something does or what you need to insert to do that, etc.

Right now, I'm reading "Beginning PHP and MySQL", and... it's kind of hard, not because it's complicating, but because I can't concentrate on it but oh well.

[Dr_Phil]

...

How can I use flash?

I'm not sure what you mean by this, you can use flash for anything you want. A header, an image gallery or the entire site.
...

It is not recommended to make an entire site in flash.
Google and other search engines (crawlers) haven't learned to read flash yet.
And still, 2008, there is some slow retards who doesn't have a webbrowser new enough to show flash, even if it is few of them. But there is some persons who prefere to have flash turned off.

For games, headers or moveable images you can use flash. But nothing more.

[SeachMall]

For games, headers or moveable images you can use flash. But nothing more.

There are tons more you can use flash for, as mentioned above you can use it for the entire site. No, search engines don't like flash and there are some people still on dial-up but that does nothing to prevent you using flash. Hundred of thousands of professionally designed and commercial sites use flash and do so successfully.

From a SEO standpoint I wouldn't recommend flash but it can have many advantages over traditional pages and depending on the target audience it may be a worthwhile choice.

[The_Computer_Wizard]

ok, to end the flash argument
whats the first rule in web design? Determine who your target audience is
some sites can get away with using flash (like adobe's kuler website) because they know their target audience is most likely going to be computer savy with ok internet connection
however, a web site for a mom and pop store in your local small town, their user base is most likely going to be less computer litterate, and potentially have dial up connections

while you are deffinatly going to have crossover on both those examples as far as their users, the main point is who is the site going to be geared for? if 90% of your user base is going to be fine with flash, go ahead and use it
if a majority is still ok with it, but not that large, say 55% id say flash would be ok, but at the very least write a second page not in flash that users can access if flash is turned off or they dont have it

[Frisch7]

I learned by installing Dream weaver Cs3. then how i learned was by making a website with all the features they had and by adding something in like a button that went to a different page when clicked. then i would switch from the design tab to the code tab and look and study what the code was.

Hope that helps
BTW - dream weaver is free for the first 30 days so you might just wanna give it a try.

[The_Computer_Wizard]

no offense frish, but thats a horrible way to learn in my oppinion
it teaches you nothing of good layout, typography, code, good web practaces or really even how to code a webpage

all you're doing is clicking a button and it does it for you

if you cant do it yourself with just notepad, its not really coding the webpage yourself (not saying im discounting dreamweaver, i use it and its a descent program, with tools that make my life easier. However i CAN and HAVE programmed entire webpages using nothing but notepad when ive needed to)