Help/Advice with getting into web design?

NightShadow

NightShadow

NightShadow

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Hi,

I want to get "back" into web design after about 6 years of not doing any! I made quite a few websites when I was in college using a combination of HTML in Notepad and DreamWeaver and then did a bit of Javascript when I did my HND. I'm just looking at making some websites again but it seems a lot has changed! CSS were mainly used for keeping content consistent across multiple pages, now it seems you can make an entire site with them!

Basically, where do I start now? What is the current "preferred" language for the web? Any recommended programs or resources? I would also like to learn some PHP so I can build forms etc. I have plenty of experience with VB, some SQL, .NET and Java as well so should be able to pick stuff up relatively easily, just need pointing in the right direction!


NS
 
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Umm, well I guess I'm after advice for both? What about layouts? Most of my old sites were organised using tables to place content where I wanted it, surely there are better ways of laying things out?
 
I've just made a site. Designed it in photoshop first, cut it up into images e.g. Header, footer, nav bar. then put these in dreamweaver as Div tags.
 
Whoa there, you have been away a long time. Most things are done with divs. Have a look at some of the tutorials at w3schools to get up to speed.
 
fez said:
Whoa there, you have been away a long time. Most things are done with divs. Have a look at some of the tutorials at w3schools to get up to speed.
Click to expand...

Lol, tell me about it, web dev seems to move so fast! Checking out W3 now and looking at divs.

Thanks
 
fez said:
Whoa there, you have been away a long time. Most things are done with divs. Have a look at some of the tutorials at w3schools to get up to speed.
Click to expand...

No they aren't, as little as possible should be done with divs. You should be marking things up semantically.

This means, using lists for lists (i.e. navigation menus), dl/dd/dt for repeated blocks etc.

A div should be a last resort and kept for major containers.
 
I think my post was a little brief maybe but yeah, use divs to get the layout which is what tables used to be used for and they you use all the other elements to create the contents of the divs. Reading the W3Schools tutorials will explain it better than I can in a few lines.

Im pretty sure that anyone who has made a website knows that you wouldnt use divs for everything but he wanted to know how things have changed since table based layouts and layouts are now governed by divs as a general rule.
 
Well, I am certainly having fun with divs and getting the hang of them. Just working on somthing basic for a friend (www.ttop.nu/fbh), have managed to get 2 divs side by side (thank you google!) and have an image overlapping the second div, quite like the effect. Anybody fancy taking a look at the code and letting me know if it seems ok? seems to work ok in IE7 but I han't tested it in FF yet.

Edit - The image is low res as I just borrowed it off the web to experiment with.
 
Cheers chap, will check out the book. Really do like working with CSS though, can't believe what it is capable of compared to what I have done with it in the past!
 
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