Anyone Teach Web-Design In Waterford On 1-2-1 Basis?

Wilde_37

I want to learn to create a website and am looking for someone who has a proven track record of website design. I want to work on a new website with this person while they are teaching me. This would be done on a one to one basis and would need to be somewhat local. I would need to see samples of their websites so that I can evaluate if their stylings and content (attributes rather than text) suit my needs.

Sully

Not the way it works if you want to learn for future or if you just want to learn the basics to maintain it. Web Design and Web Development are two separate parts, both taking a lot of work. Each project can vary depending on the design, how its then developed. Its not exactly a standard a b c. Plus, most websites contain scripting/programming languages like PHP which can not be learned by overlooking someone.

There are/were nightcourses but they tend to be so unrealistic its just a waste. Professionals don't use frontpage. If you can do a course that teaches photoshop, which software is very expensive, and one on web Development (XHTML/CSS) which usually is done in an advanced text editor, then your on the right track.

rayc

I'd agree with Sully 100% here. If you want a site that looks well but doesn't really do anything except provide information then try learn some graphics tool. Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator are the industry standard but are expensive. There are surely some cheaper decent alternatives out there. CSS is also very useful depending on the size/complexity of the site you're developing.

phil16phil

Was made unemployed recently and in about 2/3 weeks, I learned, dreamweaver, fireworks and flash to a reasonable level. I have since done 2 websites (free for friends with business's) and am currently doing my own. This may not be possible for everyone as the software can be expensive, if someone is unemployed however, FAS are now providing training
CIW eCommerce Designerv5 - 26 Weeks
CIW site design - 10 weeks
Java Programming - 10 weeks
Dreamweaver - 10 Weeks
http://www.ecollege.ie/site/

The point I,m making here is...don't be to put off, there is scope to be able to learn web design without so called HTML, PHP, css, java and all the other programming and scripting languages (although I admit, they have great merit) Dreamweaver is a beautifull application that will carry out a lot of the code for you. The main library in lady lane has books on dreaweaver, adobe illustrator, html, css, you could have a look at these.

Sully

Just a word of warning - software like Dreamweaver is great and helps you see (pretty much) what you are doing but has some drawbacks. It does not really work for anything outside of "very simple".

This is "so called HTML" and other languages are vital for anybody seriously thinking of getting into the design business. HTML is required and while Dreamweaver lets you create a very basic website without it - it gets nasty if you want to change something, solve a problem in the code, update to standards etc. It is not really the best practise to learn without the code. CSS is equally as important.

You are fooling yourself and any clients by saying you are a "web designer" if you only use the likes of Dreamweaver and wont learn any proper code. Its basically using Word or Frontpage but is more powerful. You do more harm to any business doing this and you can not take part in larger scale projects.

Raw HTML editors are the best way of developing a good website.

phil16phil

Dreaweaver is highly regarded sofware for web design.... to say "it does not work for anything outside of simple"... is incorrect. What makes the site, is the content that is created (either in dreamweaver or a third party software) and then added to the dreamweaver site.

You said, "Dreamweaver lets you create a very basic website without HTML" .......... Also not true...
the HTML code is there, if you work in "Design view" the HTML code is automatically created, if you work in "Code view" the design is automatically created. In fact this is a great way to learn HTML, do some design in "design view" and then go and look at the code generated, change the code in "Code view" and then look at the results in design view.

Neither I or the opening poster claimed to be web designers and comparing dreamweaver to microsoft word is wrong. My point was, and still is, you do not need to be an expert or even know PHP. HTML or CSS to create an excellent web site.

Sully

phil16phil wrote: »

Dreaweaver is highly regarded sofware for web design.... to say "it does not work for anything outside of simple"... is incorrect. What makes the site, is the content that is created (either in dreamweaver or a third party software) and then added to the dreamweaver site.

Dreamweaver is not great for more complex websites. Simple websites it will do fine but its a different ballgame being able to tackle larger based websites which are more complex.

You said, "Dreamweaver lets you create a very basic website without HTML" .......... Also not true...
the HTML code is there, if you work in "Design view" the HTML code is automatically created, if you work in "Code view" the design is automatically created. In fact this is a great way to learn HTML, do some design in "design view" and then go and look at the code generated, change the code in "Code view" and then look at the results in design view.

I am aware of the views. I personally think you learn better by studying the code and testing it through a Notepad method. Most people will take the lazy approach and let Dreamweaver do the code for them, not paying much attention to the code it spits out.

Neither I or the opening poster claimed to be web designers and comparing dreamweaver to microsoft word is wrong. My point was, and still is, you do not need to be an expert or even know PHP. HTML or CSS to create an excellent web site.

I meant in general context. Microsoft Word is a very very basic visual editor. Websites to this day are still created using it. I think its completely daft to learn Dreamweaver and not actually learn ANY code at all. Clients expect people to be able think outside of Dreamweaver and solve issues or additions without saying "Eh, I cant code and Dreamweaver doesnt do that for me."

If you are only doing design/development for the craic and not for anything serious, then Dreamweaver is a fine approach. In the professional context, I do not think it is a good approach.

wellbutty

I'm with Sully on this, something like Notepad is the best way to learn websites. Do a search for an enhanced one which will have line numbers and will colour the tags for you.

HTML is a simple language, it's far more efficient to learn it and code the website yourself than using "lazy" tools like Dreamweaver or Frontpage or worse still, Microsoft Word where you'll end up with a ton of code!

phil16phil

Ah look, there are many ways to skin a cat, we don,t need to get into a tit for tat posting session, we obviously have differents views on the capabilities of different software.

Wilde_37, If you can't find anyone, I will do it, but there are better people out there than myself. I can also handle the hosting and e-mail side of things. Or if you just have a few qusetions, I'd be glad to answer them for you.

old gregg

here's a freeware prog I was using nearly 10 years ago. I think it's up to version 5 now, rewritten in Java and cross platform. I even used this to teach HTML back in the day ... when web sites were in black and white and scrolled really fast
http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.php

I know of at least 1 other board regular who can also remember when a text editor was the only game in town and you viewed your pages in Lynx *sighs*

rayc

Again I'm with Sully and Wellbutty on this. I have thought web design and I know lots of professional designers. If you mentioned dreamweaver to them they'd laugh at you. It's difficult enough to write HTML and CSS for a site and make it cross-browser compatible without trying to get a piece of software to automatically generate the code for you. Don't get me wrong, it is fine for relatively simple sites but learning the code well using a simple editor is definitely the way to go in my book.

Raven13

phil16phil wrote:

The point I,m making here is...don't be to put off, there is scope to be able to learn web design without so called HTML, PHP, css, java and all the other programming and scripting languages

There are way too many websites done by people who have no idea what they are doing. Knowing at least basics of HTML and CSS is the bare minimum to start working on your website. There are many aspects of web design that you might not be aware of and Dreamweaver will not do everything for you, i.e. accessibility, cross-browser compatibility, SEO, security etc.

I think you should start by learning those and then you can start working with Dreamweaver, which is a great tool IMHO.

Was made unemployed recently and in about 2/3 weeks, I learned, dreamweaver, fireworks and flash to a reasonable level.

I don't believe in miracles, people are studying web design for years to achieve "reasonable level". I know that you probably can put together a simple animation in Flash and place it in HTML content, but I would recommend visiting websites like A List Apart or Smashing Magazine. Learn, learn, learn

I have since done 2 websites (free for friends with business's) and am currently doing my own.

Could you share the links with us?

And few words for Sully:

Just a word of warning - software like Dreamweaver is great and helps you see (pretty much) what you are doing but has some drawbacks. It does not really work for anything outside of "very simple".

I cannot agree with you, I am using Dreamweaver on a daily basis to create rich and complex websites. Could you specify what drawbacks are you talking about? Dreamweaver has a very good CSS editor, it keeps the code tidy, helps with finding unclosed tags. You can connect to your website and perform live updates via FTP, it also keeps track of all connections between separate files (i.e. all the .css, .php, and .js files are grouped under the main .html or .php file which is very handy).
I am talking here about the code-view editing in Dw, wouldn't recommend it as a visual editor though.

You are fooling yourself and any clients by saying you are a "web designer" if you only use the likes of Dreamweaver and wont learn any proper code.

I agree with you. People who use visual editors and call themselves "web designers" (and have no knowledge of HTML and CSS) can cause a lot of damage to their customers' websites.

Sully

Moving to Web Design & Development.

This topic no longer has any point for Waterford.

Placebo

Dreamweaver is good for starters that have no programming experience.
They can change fonts etc and watch the code change.
Obviously moving forward, notepad will be your friend.

forward
-design view cant design div's ?
-preview will not render jquery/php scripts properly
-dreamweavers extra inline css and tags will make editing frustrating

Bob_Harris

Wilde_37 wrote: »

I want to learn to create a website and am looking for someone who has a proven track record of website design. I want to work on a new website with this person while they are teaching me. This would be done on a one to one basis and would need to be somewhat local. I would need to see samples of their websites so that I can evaluate if their stylings and content (attributes rather than text) suit my needs.

Give http://w3schools.com/ a go and see what you think.

You may find "self-teaching" does the trick.

Hoku

www.pixel2life.com might also be of use. It has tutorials for just about everything related to Web Development and Design and more.

And about divs and Dreamweaver - although the design you make is generally in table format, DW has a nifty tool for converting your tables into divs.

However what is most painful about it, as Placebo mentioned, DW will add tonnes of inline CSS that will make working with the code rather difficult. This inline CSS can then be converted into a <style> or a <link> and from there you case use its regular expressions to delete the extra lines, leaving yourself with a load of unpossitioned divs.
You better get to grips with the basics of HTML and CSS before attempting to use Dreamweaver to convert tables into divs.

hayesphilip

Hi,
I run a web development company based in Dungarvan.
I'd be happy to give you a couple of hours introduction to web design if that helps you.
Give me a call on 058 64042 or goto our website at www.deewhy.ie

Regards,
Philip

aidan_walsh

As the OP was looking for this last September, I'm going to close this presuming they have found a solution by now. The OP can PM me if I am incorrect.