Book advice

Alfreado

I had a read through the recommended books thread and while it was a lot of help I do have one question.

I have quite a basic understanding of HTML and CSS. I can login to a Worpress site and, with the help of the WP community for more complicated stuff, manipulate the code of the template to look pretty much however I want.

My question is, now that I want to learn a little more, am I better off getting a book like Head First HTML and CSS and learning html AND css from scratch, or something more CSS focused? I'm not a developer by trade, site's I create are pretty much all WP based and for my own personal/business use. However this will be my final year of a Business Degree and having a good working knowledge of how to create and maintain WP sites can only help me in the long run

I suppose in a nut shell, if WP is my main focus, do I need to learn HTML in depth or can I focus more on CSS?

lemon_remon

HTML is really quite simple and certainly won't be too difficult to learn even for a beginner. In order to properly understand what you're doing with CSS you will also need to have a knowledge of HTML, so yes I would recommend learning them at the same time.

The Head First book would probably be a good start, the two I have a read (Head First Java and Head First Design Patterns) were both informative and entertaining.

If you're interested in creating your own WP themes from scratch you will also need to learn some PHP (basic knowledge will be enough to edit existing themes). However, I suggest you focus on HTML and CSS for the moment! You will learn the most from creating static pages from scratch using a text editor, HTML and CSS.

Paddy GT

To be honest what I would do is find a good HTML & CSS online tutorial and step through it, play around with the CSS and you will learn it very quickly.

For learning css and html the firebug extension for firefox is a must as you can edit and manipulate things on the fly and get a good understanding of how it all comes together!

Raging_Ninja

I was once told that if I ever want to get a good book on computing, find a picture of the author. The more ridiculous the beard, and the more he looks like he should not be left alone in a room with a child, the better the book will be.

lemon_remon

Paddy GT wrote: »

For learning css and html the firebug extension for firefox is a must as you can edit and manipulate things on the fly and get a good understanding of how it all comes together!

Firefox comes with a really good tool for that built in now so it's not really needed anymore.

dwayned

Hi,

I would check out the html tuts on W3 Schools which will step you through the basics.

Then as somebody else suggested find yourself a good css tut and use W3 as reference.

I always refer to it when needed for examples etc for HTML, CSS and PHP which if you start writing your own plugins will be handy.

Dwayne