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I'm new to dreamweaver, flash and fireworks. Although, I'm listing alot for a first time user, but I will need to learn all of xhtml, flash, css, php in about a couple of weeks.


- XHTML 1.0 and CSS (level 1 and 2)
- scripting (php or javaScript)
- depricated tags or attributes (find another alternative instead of using depricated tags or attributes)
- relative instead of exact units
- going from one program to another and linking them all together.

Can someone please reccomended some tutorials, info and some tips. Thanks in advances.

I posted this in the other 'general' forum and got no reply. So I decided to post it here. If you feel the need to delete the other post, please do so =)

Good luck.

http://www.w3schools.com/

Hi rcrystal,
Phew!! No wonder cherry_blossom says 'Good luck!' as would everyone else.
Never mind, let's all try and point you in some kind of learning direction.

Firstly, HTML on it's own is a rather danting task in itself for a beginner and can take a long time to master. These web-based languages cannot be taken lightly as you imply. If that were to be the case then we wouldn't have forums like this, would we now? There are lots of members here ( myself included ), who have much experience of these languages but still post questions for help. So, like any other subject - it all takes time and you never stop learning. However, before you can even begin to produce 'reasonable' websites you have to learn the basics and gain a solid platform to build upon.
Dreamweaver is an expensive development package that enables you to put together a website WITHOUT any knowledge of the underlying technoligies. But you can of course still write your own scripts etc.
Generally, most people who want to learn the languages tend to start off with some useful editor, some tutorials, a helpful forum like this one, then put their head down and get on with it.

There are two main areas of the laguages. These are known as;

CLIENT SIDE ( These run on your/visitors browser );
Involving HTML, CSS, XHML, DHTML/Jvascript etc.

SERVER SIDE ( These run on your Host/Server );
Involving PHP, ASP, SQL etc.

All these languages are quite extensive in their own right and whole voulumes have been written about them.

Then there are Mutli-media scriptings such as FLASH.
FLASH is extensive and Macromedia have people dedicated to this subject alone! One of their ( expensive ), courses lasts 16 weeks and this is by no means at advanced level.

So, as you can see, it is a physical and mental impossibility to accomplish your objectives in such a short time. That is why you did not get a response from;

I posted this in the other 'general' forum and got no reply.


But, all is not lost by any means and anyone willing to learn must and should be encouraged/helped as much as possible.

So rcrystal, I would suggest you start with the Client Side first;

HTML - to get the basics of web design.
XHTML - stricter version of HTML but not absolutely neccessary for you just now.
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets.

then if you wish to enhance this new learned knowledge you can move on to Javascript but bear in mind this is extemely extensive and can take months to master properly.

I don't recomment you try to move on Server Side scripting at this stage but when you do, I would recommend PHP as this is quite a popular ( if not the most ), language at the moment.

As for FLASH, well what can I say? That's another story entirely.

Now here are some very useful tutorials to begin with and are very popular. They are all 'hands on' with examples throughout for you to copy and paste etc.

Take a look at Lissa's first at;

http://www.lissaexplains.com/basics.shtml

You will find more tutorials here ( from the web standards people but in easy to learn format );

http://www.w3schools.com/

And just to supplement them;

http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/

Yes, there are many more out there but if you start with those you won't go wrong and you will find then invaluable no matter how learned you become.

Well, hope this clears your head a little bit and helps to point you in the right direction.
Remember, there are lots and lots of members here that are only too willing to give you a helping hand so keep posting any problems you encounter along your learning path - NO MATTER HOW STUPID YOU MAY THINK YOUR QUESTION IS!

So best of luck and don't kick your PC when that piece of code goes terribly wrong from time to time ( like it will!!!! ). Just use your head and try again until it works.

Regards,
Ges.

PS Although I am not American I take my signature from a past President and I really think it applies right now.

Thank you very much. It sure did help me start. I think I've learnt alot the couple of week. It's enough to get me going and practicing. Thanks for your help.

Another question, I'd like to ask is. Does Xhtml transitional 1.0 provide the use of iframes?

Hi rcrystal,
The simple answer is YES.
From w3c standards;


XHTML stands for EXtensible HyperText Markup Language
XHTML is aimed to replace HTML
XHTML is almost identical to HTML 4.01
XHTML is a stricter and cleaner version of HTML
XHTML is HTML defined as an XML application
XHTML is a W3C Recommendation


Take a look at;

http://www.w3schools.com/xhtml/xhtml_intro.asp

and for a list of supported tags etc;

http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp

Regards,
Ges.

Thanks again! =) Now, that i've read the basic of xhtml and css a couple of time. I'm ready to put it into practice. I've created my image files. Background and flash menu.

I'd like to ask, in your opinion, how should I layout my site to give it a professional look and also easily managable and navigation. Is div a better choice or iframes? Or would you recommend a different way in layouting it out? I've used iframes before, but never div. If you could, reccomended a tutorial on div and express your opinion, that would be awesome.

Also, I was looking around for tutorials and I stumbled on this site. I'm quite curious as to what he/she used. I've checked and the files are html. So, I'm wandering how she lay it out. There's the background with patterns and the sub menu. The site appears like it's easy to manage and explore. But, I don't think he/she used frames. Is this div?

http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorial/Organize-a-website/12548


Thanks for your help and I apologize for all the questions. The tutorial for xhtml you reccomended is a great help! =)

Good luck, i agree that www.w3schools.com will be very helpfull. Also you can google what you need. But be sure to take a look at www.lissaexplains.com

Hi again rcrystal,
It does appear that you are maybe trying to do too much at once. The tutorials I gave you in the first post need going through again and then using as a reference. The answers are all there so take another look at them. Go to Lissa's tutorial and work through the examples. If you do this you will be able to lay out a site quite easily. Remember the saying - 'Rome was'nt built in a day'!
Deciding on a layout is more of a creative task than the actual coding. When you want to see the code of a site, use your browser's View/Source tab. That will display ( usually in Notepad ), the code that is running. Try it with the site you posted.

If you need to see some example sites where you can download the code for free, take a look at;

http://www.freelayouts.com/templates/website

By looking at the code used in those templates it will help you to see how they are going about things to get the results displayed.

Regards,
Ges