How long does it take to know what you're doing?

[DebraBellRN]

Hello people.

I'm just starting a website and I know nothing but NOTHING about HTML.

Question 1. Where is the best source to go to for learning basic HTML?
Question 2. How long does it take?

I realize I can do a search and I will, but in the meantime; all suggestions appreciated.

BTW, I realize the link on my page doesn't work, I don't have time to fix it right now.....we are leaving in the a.m. on a trip so it will probably a week before I can fix it....

[drhowarddrfine]

How long does it take?To do what? Learn the basics? A few hours. Get good at it? Three years.

[MetalStorm]

www.w3schools.com is great for getting the basics of most things.

I learned by looking at other people's pages, taking the bits I liked and trying to figure out how it worked.

Start simple and build on it from there.

And of course www.google.com

[blain]

You never stop learning, I find something new about HTML & CSS nearly every day.

[mlseim]

Debra ...

Your very best learning tool will be to see what various HTML code
looks like on various sites.

Using the menu bar on your browser, click "View", mouse down to
"Source" or "HTML Source" and click to see the actual HTML code
for the web page you're viewing.

Some sites are simple, some are more complex, some have Javascripting,
some have CSS, some have tables, some have frames ...

The internet is full of every great example and you can copy and paste
any of it into your own web page HTML source for experimenting, or
seeing what it does.

Knock yourself out and keep learning ... :thumbsup:

[Graft-Creative]

It's a funny business really Debra,

When your chops are good, you kinda feel like you've nailed the whole thing...

But then something will come up that will make you feel like a beginner again...

The absolutely best thing you can do is to have someone mentor you, this really is worth more than tutorials etc, find a good web person that will share their knowledge with you - if you can't find anyone, then let codingforums.com be your mentor :)

How long? Forever really - I've got 6 years in the web, and 15 in design, and still feel like a learner most of the time :)

Gary

[many_tentacles]

I agree with all the messages here...

I'm not too sure how good you'll find this but www.htmldog.com looks pretty good to start you off. I find that the best way is to think of something you want to achieve and work it out as you go along. May take a while depending what you wanna do, but when you get it right, you feel proper smug.

[gsnedders]

You'll never know it all. Everyone is still learning.

As Gary said, something can change, and it'll make people seem like beginners again. I expect W3C's XHTML2 and WHATWG's HTML5 will do that.

Doug Bowman, IIRC, quoted the first verse of City of Blinding Lights (U2 - HTDAAB) at WE05, and I feel like copying him, so:
The more you see the less you know
The less you find out as you go
I knew much more then, than I do now
* I hope got it correct *

[mlseim]

But then something will come up that will make you feel like a beginner again...


Gary ...
That's kind of funny because I recently started something new.

I partnered with a non-web design person that knows nothing about web
creation, but is a graphic designer. So, she thinks of the design, does all
of the graphics, and creates a .pdf of what the site should look like.

She emails me all the stuff and it's my job to make a website that looks
just like her .pdf file ... the vision she had in mind.

Talk about "feeling like a beginner" ...

I have to code everything by hand (CSS) because the tricks and tweaks
needed to make the site not only look like her drawing, but render properly
in all browsers, can't be done with Dreamweaver. Each project is a whole
new experience.

It's important for beginners to realize that you will always be learning ...
you will discover new things, figure out some tricks of your own, and
most of all, know that there is no "correct" or "perfect" way to do
something. If your results render correctly in all browsers, and loads
quickly, efficiently, and looks great ... you've done the job. You'll
always feel like your own creations are not adequate, and always feel
like you could do them better ... that's the mystery of web design.

[john2964]

It will probably take you about a month or so before you start getting a good hang of how it works. Tables may be a little complicated at first, but you should get the hang of them quite easily.

The place where I first started html is: htmlgoodies