# Need Web Design Training Software For A BEGINNER



## techie_xyz (Aug 8, 2005)

I want to learn how to create, design and manage an ecommerce website. At this time, I need to learn from home.

What is the best " user-friendly " webdesign program that a beginner could use for learning how to design websites? Is there a website on the net that offers beginners FREE website development/design training?

When it comes to technology I learn as I " practice " and not just from reading books.

My current technology literacy level is at the basic-office person level (ie. MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Searching the net). I dont know HTML yet. I'm a fast learner, however, I want to start with the *web-design basics* and learn my way up to the more advanced stuff.

Where should I begin? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

Well most giant sites use stuff like Dreamweaver or FrontPage Pro but you still need to learn those programs and there is some tweaking that the designers use, but - not everyone would say this - I'd say go pickup Dreamweaver and start fiddling with it.


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## DrP (Jul 23, 2005)

This looks quite cool for a beginner like me: http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/
I like the way its written and they seem to have plenty of in-depth stuff as well.
DrP


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## deepdiver01 (Dec 23, 2004)

For a beginner like me, I started off using Thundersite free web editor.

http://www.generalia-software.com/thundersite/en/

The only problem I found with Thundersite was my host did not have the page format and was not prepared to add it (.nwp) even though the index page was in HTML.

It did however give me a great insight into how it all works and as I am redoing it all in Front Page at the moment, it is not as daunting a task.

Grab yourself the Idiots guide to Creating a web page. I found it good for starting out.

It was helpful in being able to read printed text while mucking around making mistakes.

As well as web monkey, I also found the tutorials on

http://codepunk.hardwar.org.uk/

Very helpful.

The only problem there is that it is not always up by the looks of it.

It would pay to persevere though.

Hope this helps.


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

I think he is trying to build a really strong ecommerce site. Maybe so maybe not.


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## deepdiver01 (Dec 23, 2004)

Hi neon,

How's it all going. Yeah, I think so too.

So am I.

My experience has been that it is useless trying to get the shopping carts etc, up and running until the page layouts are done.

And, I think that the carts are beyond a beginner. (They are for me anyway).

There are quite a few "free" carts out there that can be used. The web host usually has their favourites.

Just thinking of how to get it all started off for techie.

Will pm you re something else.


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

Yah, for most of the cart-related or forms or stuff that an ecommerce site may use is built into my host and I can just install their packages and put them on the page so I dont have to do much coding, just alot of adminning.


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

iXneonXi said:


> I think he is trying to build a really strong ecommerce site. Maybe so maybe not.


And then they will have to learn some Server Side Scripting.

Start with the Basics. Learn html and css first. Then you can move on to the big stuff.

http://www.w3schools.com/


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

iXneonXi said:


> Well most giant sites use stuff like Dreamweaver or FrontPage Pro but you still need to learn those programs and there is some tweaking that the designers use, but - not everyone would say this - I'd say go pickup Dreamweaver and start fiddling with it.


I made some pretty big sites using nothing more than Notepad :up:


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

Squashman said:


> Learn html and css first.
> http://www.w3schools.com/


That's where I started, along with Master Visually HTML, but since I got a good web host I haven't had to code hardly anything in HTML lately, have done some amounts of CSS to make the site consistant.

Namenotfound, how long did it take you?


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## cperrywebrat (Oct 1, 2004)

Truthfully, you won't learn much by using tools. Learn the basics first. I started picking apart other people's html code. I used text editor for that. Once you learn HTML proficiently, I would take it to the next level, this way if you can't change it on the page (such as trying to change a table in Dreamweaver) - you will need to go in and edit the code, so it helps to know what to change.

Next, pick up a scripting language such as vbscript or php - these take a bit to sink in but once you learn it, watch out! I would also start with the basics there, a great site for all of this is http://www.w3schools.com/.

Hope that helps.


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

w3schools is a nice place to start. And as far as learning PHP I haven't had to actually learn it as to make a site out of it, as theres already tons of PHP software out there, but ofcourse as you said, just like when doing tables etc in dreamweaver sometimes you have to tweak some of the HTML, and in PHP when workin on ur forums etc sometimes you have to tweak the CSS or modify some PHP code to make the site work the way you want. So you don't need to master any of the languages, but to be able to understand and learn as you go works fine with me.


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## cupp260 (Jul 29, 2005)

Get a copy of NetObjects Fusion 8, http://www.netobjects.com. Easy to learn and it has several ecommerce stores built in.
CC


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## techie_xyz (Aug 8, 2005)

Thanks for all the tips! I'll check out the software and training websites that you all recommended. Thanks again for your help!


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## deviance99 (Nov 15, 2004)

I think you should start with notepad. Learning the basics of HTML will really help you when designing websites. I don't think anyone should even touch a WYSIWYG editor until they have a good grasp of HTML. (HTML is very easy to learn, it's just a markup language that tells the document how to format. It is NOT computer programming, it's actually just fancy word processing.)


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

I dont recommend notepad, but I do think a text editor is a nice start, I use Crimson Editor as it will highlite code.


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

IMO you can run an E-Commerce site without knowing any HTML, with OSCommerce or ZenCart.


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## cperrywebrat (Oct 1, 2004)

Why not notepad?


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

I agree with brendan.


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## techie_xyz (Aug 8, 2005)

Thanks everybody. You all are giving me great advice. I really do appreciate it! I just need to put my training in order. This is what I've done so far:

STEP 1: I've gone to www.webmonkey.wired.com and reviewed the HTML info that's for beginners. I found a cool HTML " cheatsheet " that I printed out.

STEP 2: I've gone to www.w3schools.com and completed the HTML training tutorial and quiz. I used notebook to do my practice excercises. It only took about an hour to learn the basics of HTML. I'm comfortble with it and it's actually fun!

STEP 3: Today (8/10/05) I plan to do the CSS turtorial that's on the W3schools.com site.

*QUESTION A: * They have a lot of tutorials on www.W3schools.com. Do I need to take all of them??? I do want to become a real web designer and create and manage an ecommerce website. I have the time to learn whatever is needed to get a good website up and running. I'd appreciate any advice that you professionals might have.

*Question B:* I guess my future steps (after my basic training on HTML/CSS) would be to practice using the webdesign software. I'm still confused on if whether or not I should use Front Page, Dream Weaver, Net Object Fusion 8, or Thundersite??? My office software came with Notebook and Front Page, however, it seems as if more people are recommending Dream Weaver to others on here because of some issues with Front Page (I guess??).

Any input/advice regarding question A and B would be helpful. As always, BIG thanks to all for the help!


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## Jack Goa (Mar 26, 2005)

Go for Dreamweaver, it's very powerful, but as the guys said get your basic code knowledge down before you even touch it...
Once you understand the code Dreamweaver is just amazing in how it can save you time..
You can build your basic site skeleton in minutes with Dreamweaver and then just hardcode the details by hand..


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

You dont have to go through everything on w3schools, once you know some html and css go get an idea of PHP by reading through code, i didnt really need to take a tutorial, just read some code. Dreamweaver helps. Like i said tho, lotsa times you can just install pre-built packages that are usually free or your host may provide them.


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## cperrywebrat (Oct 1, 2004)

This is true, but w3schools is great when you are gaining an understanding as it is very user friendly and one of the best i've seen. For some reason I do not get along with Dreamweaver. I use Front Page to see what it will look like, but basically write all code except for maybe inserting an image or something. Maybe Dreamweaver has improved over the years???


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## I Fix 4 U (Jul 19, 2004)

Dreamweaver is nice, esp if u want flash on ur site.


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