Totally new to web design

Hi,
I am totally new to ModX and web design in general. I need to know where to locate the most BASIC, elementary tutorials possible...you know, the kind that are insulting in their simplicity to those of you who know what you are doing!

Thanks.

Quick question: are you hoping to eventually build your own custom site with all the goodies? If so, you might be better off hiring someone to do this for you - if all you need is one site.

If you want to learn how to make several different kinds of sites then I would start off simple. Adding a complex CMS, scripting functionality and databases, etc can wait.

I would learn how to present lean, valid, error free HTML pages with CSS for the presentation. Learn how to completely separate the markup code content from the presentation (CSS).

There are tools and advanced programs that do this in a "wysiwyg" visual way. The prominent tool here is Dreamweaver. The issue is that Dreamweaver is a HUGE, complicated software program with tons of menu options etc. All that time you will spend learning the program is much better spent learning how to code yourself with minimal (cheap or free) tools. You will be better for the experience.

There are a ton of online sources and books. I really like this book for beginners: http://www.amazon.com/Stylin-CSS-Designers-Guide-2nd/dp/0321525566

You will want learn about presenting the correct doctypes, arranging your folders (support files), presenting containers, columns, headlines, paragraphs, lists, divs, classes, floats, and how CSS makes this all come together. There are many forms of code, scripting languages, and methods. I think knowing CSS is the most useful skill to have in your toolbox.

What you will want to do is get to the point where your skills are at the level where you can open any magazine and be able to visualize the markup code and CSS that would mimic any layout that you see.

Hope this helps...

Max

Quote from: Photowebmax at Mar 29, 2011, 03:26 PM

What you will want to do is get to the point where your skills are at the level where you can open any magazine and be able to visualize the markup code and CSS that would mimic any layout that you see.

Dangit Max... burst my bubble will ya now. And I thought I was making progress when I realized I could see the layout in my head from looking at html and css!

To the OP, the internet is your friend with this stuff and I absolutely agree with Max. From a self taught by necessity person (from the Commodore 64 and XT generation which mostly means I’m OLD...), learn the basics first and when you "get it", MODx might start to make sense. I wouldn’t suggest tackling it all at once. You need the ingredients for the recipe before you can even begin to cook.

There are tons of videos to watch as well. Combine those with written tutorials online. Bookmark anything you want to remember, and make sure to read forum results for your searches.

A few free essentials to help you start (open source):

Notepad++ (way awesome text editor, kill Notepad)
Kompozer (excellent WYSIWYG editor for building html websites. I tried a bunch of others, Kompozer won.)
The GIMP (hands down, the best free photo/graphics program ever. Will open Photoshop .psd files from templates)
Irfanview (never again click to rotate a .jpg, just press your "R" key. also very useful to convert image files to web specifications)
FileZilla (for ftp file uploads/downloads to remote servers)
XAMPP or WAMP as a test server (an essential development tool to test your sites before publishing live.)

I didn’t link any of these, you can search for them yourself by entering the names. Or search the root topic (i.e. "open source ftp") and check out all the other great software out there and use what you like.

That being said... I’m in love with Adobe’s CS5 software. It really simplifies things. I love, love, love The GIMP, but Photoshop and Dreamweaver’s integration is incredible and absolutely a time saver (convenience). I’m grateful to have learned in GIMP however. It made Photoshop seem simple :~}

HTH

Kori

before you get a book have a look through some html Primers

something like this
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/tutorials/getting_started/
or this

http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

open your text editor and just type it in (DON’T copy and paste)

you need to learn the tags and their placement relative to each other so typing by hand is the best way to learn

to view your code just open the saved file in a broswer. they will not look pretty at the start but thats ok.

you could do that in a couple of days

Next have a look at CSS to style your html

http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp is what i used

once that is done start looking at other peoples websites and how they are put together try to understand how and why they did what they did

There is so much in the way of articles and tutorials online that I haven’t bought more than one or two books over the past 10 years, and those I wished I hadn’t bothered with. One disadvantage of buying books is that they are by the nature of the publishing industry at least 6-8 months out-of-date.

Google is your friend.

http://www.google.co.il/#hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=638&q=html5+tutorial+video&oq=html+5+tu&aq=3s&aqi=g1g-s3g1g-s2g1g-s1g1&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=1241l4023l0l9l8l0l1l1l0l410l2079l2-4.2.1&fp=afdbfec587781804

http://www.google.co.il/#hl=en&biw=1024&bih=638&q=html5+css3+video&oq=html5+css+video&aq=2b&aqi=g-b3&aql=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=16550l17008l0l3l3l0l0l0l1l328l817l2-2.1&fp=afdbfec587781804