lost

[airhead]

Hi Everyone

I have been playing with the trial for a few weeks now and still none the wiser on what ways best to learn

My html is ok, but no experience with css but would love to be able to change a layout but when i do it just goes wrong

Just wondering how you all began and if you all know html/css as im rather dishearted

Any moral comments would be good because at the moment my first site might end up with a webhost site and didnt want to resort to that

Cheers

Rob

[gabrielcrowe]

learning html and css is all about structure.

the most basic building blocks, are exectly the same structure as the more complex things that can be done. it looks daunting to begin with, but once you realise the complexity you are looking at is merely diversity, you'll suddenly find any excuse to do something in html.

i learned html and css by using the internet. i'm self taught. no one showed me anything. same as php, vb and loads of other languages.

i suggest you find yourself an install for dreamweaver. this builds html and css for you, so you can investigate the syntax.

dont rely on any fruity tutorials. learn by doing.

[completerookie]

never ever forget to right-click and look at the source of the page you are looking at.
you can learn a lot just by reading existing code, anything in the <> is a command, after a while you will see the same commands, and if there's one you don't know then google it.

[jont]

Like Gabe I am self taught with all things computer. With HTML I started off using a WYSIWYG web page program (Frontpage) which does everything for you behind the scenes... this is great for basic stuff but soon found myself peeking at the code tab to make changes not possible in design mode. As with learning anything it looks very complex at first but soon you start to see what is going on, recognising the structure and the tags that go to make up a web page.

CSS is slightly different but once you use it for a while it becomes far simpler to edit than HTML for making style changes. With CSS don't try and get into advanced layout stuff right away - stick with the font changes, colours, widths etc and edit what is already there.

With the new v8 design tab and a CSS based theme this make editing and understanding HTML / CSS far simpler to see what is doing what, where and the results of any changes.