WAHM Forums

Hey everyone!

I have been having success designing blogs and wanted to start self-teaching myself Dreamweaver and other website creation software.

Needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed. I love playing with blog templates and have learned quite a bit about CSS over the past few months.

Do all of you professional designers use Dreamweaver? Is there anyway to start with a very general template and make it "pretty" like you can do with blog templates?

I would love your help! My kiddos are heading to school next year and I would love to make a career (or at least a profitable hobby) out of web design.

I have a few local people (friends and family mostly) already requesting sites.

Any suggestions?
Edited by: simplesahm

I know several people who use Dreamweaver. I, personally, have always used notepad.

For real programming, like PHP and JavaScript, I use Eclipse (it's free). My husband uses Zend Developer (NOT free...lol) but he does really hard core programming.

I have used dreamweaver but am hand coding now. Personally I think you should learn hand coding first. Since figuring out how to hand code, I can see a lot of the problems with solely relying on dreamweaver for the entire development of a site. there are so many little bugs, and if you don't know how to hand code and then you develop the site in dreamweaver and run into a bug it can be a you know what to fix.

plus, hand coding is just EASIER, really, than doing it in dreamweaver. Also, you can just view what you do using your browser, so you don't really even need it for that.

I'd say take a class or learn html by book (and CSS) first, then play around with dreamweaver just for the fun of it. but that's just my two cents! If you are looking for a graet book I love Beginning CSS web Development.

How long did it take you guys to learn to code by hand? Do you ever use templates?

I have been looking around at many of your sites and portfolios and they are absolutely amazing.

I am afraid it will take me years to learn to hand-code...even though I really want to.

Thank you for the book suggestion. I am actually headed to Barnes and Noble this morning and will check it out! =)

Hand coding is definitely the way to go! You have so much more control over the end product, imo. And I would stick with HTML and CSS for a while. Once you get a real handle on that, you can move onto other programming languages.

It honestly didn't take me long to learn how to hand code. Maybe a couple months until I was proficient with it? I can recommend this tutorial from Killersites (http://www.how-to-build-websites.com/).

And when you see a site you like, study its HTML and CSS to find out what makes it tick. Do you have the Firefox Web Developer's Toolbar? If not, I highly recommend it!

Thank you so much for that site "Killer Sites" along with your own site - the Web Design Loft....you have fantastic information there! Nice work!!!


I will be a frequent flyer, I am sure! I also downloaded that toolbar. It is really a neat tool and I am starting to feel more positive that I can figure this whole thing out!


Thanks so much, everyone!


T

No problem! And by the way, if you look at my website anytime between now and tomorrow afternoon, you'll see that I have a mess on my hands. lol I'm moving everything to Wordpress and am experiencing problems. I think it's because I'm operating on little sleep here. ;) I'm going to bed and I'm sure it will be easier for me in the morning. lol



Edited by: Susie N

Well....if there is one thing I do know about it's having a mess on my hands! =) I've moved a few sites to WP....maybe I can help if you need it. =)

Hi,

I use dreamweaver csbut i also know html, php etc. I think it's a lot easyer using dreamweaver than hand coding everything but its also essential to know what the program is doing behind the scenes.

Check out www.w3schools.com (http://www.w3schools.com) for free online tutorials. This is the web designers bible so to speak.

Also if you like you canput my email address in your contacts so if you ever have any troubles with dreamweaver etc you can send me an email and i will do my best to help! http://www.wahm.com/forum/smileys/smiley4.gif

it's webmaster@internise.com

Good luck to you, i hope you get proficient at designing things on the web soon, just have patience. It'll come!

All the best,

Mark

I use XsitePro and I love it. It's just like using Word and it's a What You See Is What You Get, site design program. I am able to put together a site all by myself and it's easy to understand and quick to use. You can check out the site in my sig for more information on it. good luck!