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Web design qualification!!!?

2006-08-04 06:00:58, Category: Programming & Design
I am studying an open university course in october i want a jump start as i know nothing,but hubby does. So any advice on programmes i might need i.e flash, any insight would be greatly appreciated by the way it is not cheating to get started early. The course itself consists of 6 courses i won't list them all. Web basics design development and management i just need some easy literature or step by step templates anybody know of any???

Answers

  1. Carlatyahoo

    On 2006-08-04 06:20:27


    Here is what I would recommend get the Dummies book for HTML it is an easy read and a good place to start. After learning HTML move to XHTML which is HTML formated to run as XML. After that you need to learn script languages both VBS (Visual Basic Script) and JAVASCRIPT. If you have any prior programming experience pick the script language closet to your knowledge. If you know BASIC go with VBS first if you know java go with JAVASCRIPT first. After all of that you need to learn server pages ASP (active server pages) JSP (Java server pages). After that learn JAVA and SQL (structured query language). After you have mastered all of this you should be able to charge about $100 an hour for your time.
  2. Greg D

    On 2006-08-04 06:54:51


    In terms of programmes feel free to use adobe products like flash, for html editting i recommend using a HTML-Kitits a free piece of software that will help you code html documents also it features very user friendly GUI and quick buttons to insert HTML codes like and . Incase of any javascripting you may have to do i recommend jcreater again a very powerful tool. Depending on what exactly your getting taught you may use dreamweaver or publisher however be aware these products add in commentry to all html documents which results in a bigger HTML document. And a good web designer should optimise a website as much as possible and about 20-25% extra unneeded lines of commented code is bad design. I hope this helps a little
  3. take two

    On 2006-08-06 10:10:48


    not a clue
  4. GO AHEAD

    On 2006-08-04 06:06:40


    go to cheapdomains.com and play with what they have there
  5. rightmark_web

    On 2006-08-05 03:07:35


    If you are about to start a course in October then you don't have long to gen-up. Don't worry about Flash, PHP, ASP, Javascript or anything like that, you will learn those if you need to. Your first task is to learn XHTML and CSS. XHTML is very very very similar to HTML except that is has more rigid ways of doing things. Anyone worth their salt in this game will be already using XHTML. This is the basic stuff you will need to know before anything else. CSS is used to format the XHTML so that it looks pretty (in HTML formating was part of the code but it is now redundant). CSS is used to layout the page, tell the browser where blocks of text/images need to be displayed, what colour they are etc. The combination of XHTML and CSS allow search engine friendly, accessible pages. If you are completely new to this then look out for a teach yourself type book about XHTML. Learn to hand code don't rely on wisiwig programs (FrontPage, Dreamweaver). You will use those skills throughout your career as a web deisgner. Eventually, you will need a good HTML editor (at the moment use notepad to handcode) Deamweaver is considered the standard for html but it is overbloated and expensive, there are many other cheaper options and more relevant choices depending on what type of coding you end up doing e.g. Visual Studio for ASP (expensive) a graphics program (industry std - Photoshop). If you decide to learn Flash then get Flash when you need to, but by the time you finish your course you may realise that flash sites are no longer the fashion (I think they will be used for adverts/banners) as they are not search engine friendly or accessible.
  6. peabrain noggin

    On 2006-08-04 15:05:06


    There's a great book that teaches the basics of graphic design and flash all in one go. It's learn design with macromedia Flash, isbn1-904344-00-3 and I got my copy from The Works for £8. I also got Making the Web Work : designing effective web applications isbn 0-7357-1196-8 from The Works for £6. If you want a head start then I'd also suggest you learn Photoshop and Fireworks, and get comfortable with graphics. The Sams and Dummies manuals are both good. There are also some online resources, a great one is http://www.visibone.com http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/ which is a resource for the websafe palette, have a play around with the online tools. I'm sure you're going to enjoy this course and get a lot out of it, good luck!
  7. Moi

    On 2006-08-04 06:08:44


    Ring up the contact you have OU. The books are expensive so you dont want to be spending loads on stuff that you are not going to use, or waste time on learning stuff that is not going to be used. They should be able to at least give you guidelines as to what the actual programming language is that you are going to use. I use PHP and SQL, but many people use ASP - you really need to know that first. Software wise - once you have the above, I am sure you can find ways of getting what you need and then move forward from there! Good luck. Hope it goes well - and nope - you can never start to soon - as long as you dont pick up bad habits before you start the course!!