html

[oscartony]

is it reletaviley easy to get to grips with?, would like to learn web design ta!

[Ethel]

Start off with the basic stuff. Some people find it really easy, others don't.

I like this as a simple guide:

http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&u serid=mr_plopster

[WoWo]

I find it easy but I'm a computer programmer. The web has evolved somewhat and while HTML is still the main building block, Javascript and CSS are both as important when developing decent sites.

[OBonio]

With web design I would go as far to say that CSS is more important than HTML nowadays.

XHTML and CSS are the buzzwords for static web site creation at the moment.

CSS is a dark art in my opinion though. For all websites, cross browser compatibility is very important (ie, the site looks the same in IE, Firefox, Safari etc). CSS renders differently in different browsers (Microsoft deem themselves superior to the W3C CSS standards so do their own thing) so you need to learn how to write cross browser CSS from the out. Will make your life easier in the long run :o)

[willowman]

I am just designing my first ever website - huge learning curve. Never done any programming before. I found an excellent book, Creating a Web Page with HTML by Elizabeth Castro ISBN 0-321-27847-X

I just started to work through the book, and it made sense. very easy to follow and simple steps. Having achieved the first page and been able to understand the logic behind HTML I am now looking at more advanced stuff.

I highly recommend this book. It's available on Amazon at a discount.Good luck.

[fo3nix]

Web design is very different from web development, which is in turn very different from _good_ web design.

As WoWo and OBonio say, CSS and JavaScript are equally important. Though it's not really computer programming (sure, JS can be, as ECMAScript), so it's pretty easy to pick up.

Essentially, HTML is for the structure of your page. You use it to tell the browser what bit is a paragraph of text, what's an image, what's a title, what's a list, etc. Nothing else, apart from the structure (if done well).

CSS is for the design of the site: fonts, placement, colours, etc.

JavaScript adds any fancy (and ideally useful) features to your site that run after the site has loaded. So for a form with several boxes, each accepting a guaranteed number of characters, you may choose to make a short script that jumps from one box to the other, to make it easier for your visitors.

As much as I hate recommending Jeffrey Zeldman's book, it really is quite good (so I believe),

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321385551/qid= 1141664290/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_3_1/202-4476353-2925448

[bluesmartiew]

im only 14 and i managed to help my mom (who had never heard of HTML) to set up a geanology site from scratch. It can get really confusing though, so it's best to start off with the basics, and sometimes trial and error is the best thing :)