Starting up with Web Design

[ArcticSwirlClock]

I've decided to get a head start before I head to college for it next year, and I got myself dreamweaver and flash and whatnot.

What other sorts of programs/tools/know-how would give me a jumpstart on how to tackle these two adobe giants?

[RenegadeClock]

For design learn Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop like the back of your hand. Learn how to code HTML by hand, and don't rely on Dreamweaver to do it for you. Also, learn how to use jQuery and PHP.

[SageClock]

Learn how to code HTML by hand, and don't rely on Dreamweaver to do it for you.

While this is true, you could probably just use the Code tab of Dreamweaver, and never touch the design tab except to see the results of what you did. Dreamweaver's become a pretty useful tool even for developers over the years, and can save you a lot of time manually checking for site validation, broken links and images, typing out every single character of your CSS class names, html templates, etc.

Dreamweaver used to be absolute shit for developers, but now it's finally become better than notepad, IMO (as long as you're not building a website using the WYSIWYG part of it).

Also, you should start learning the basics of Javascript, and you should master CSS as soon as you can (divs and floats in particular can be tricky, but nowadays you should never use HTML tables for page layouts anymore).

Learn how to Google for the specific element of a website you want to learn how to do, since there are tutorials for all of it if you know what keywords people use to refer to them. StackOverflow.com is a great site to ask questions (or to check for answers if they come up in google) too. Never sign up for Experts-Exchange.com. they have the answers at the very bottom of the page (scroll past the ads), and if they don't they're evil and not worth signing up for.

Buying a technical book or two can help you get a big head start, since they generally do the best job of holding your hand through each concept without having poorly worded and confusing steps, and tend to be the most comprehensive. They're also not cheap. Don't buy a book for an older edition of software than what you're using, if you can help it. Read reviews on Amazon before you buy. Try to buy used online, don't ever buy full price at brick & mortar (unless getting it faster is worth the time investment). However, brick & mortar stores are a GREAT place to skim through the books first and see if they're on your level and will be useful for you. Might even be able to get away with reading parts of it in the bookstore coffeeshop, if you don't have much money.

Check this link regularly: http://www.reddit.com/r/webdesign It'll link you to what other people think is interesting in your field and that site tends to have pretty interesting discussions.

Start making practice websites. Download all the browsers (older versions if you can manage it) and start learning the quirks each browser has that makes sites not look identical unless you use *just* the right CSS that's supported properly by all of them (and sometimes not even then). Don't be lazy, though, and learn how to make these sites look identical, no matter what browser you use (except IE6).

Start building a portfolio as soon as you can. Don't rely solely on school projects to fill it; often these will be limited in scope and won't relate directly to the needs of a corporation. These don't have to be real websites; you can totally make them up (make at least one corporate-friendly, maybe use a little light humor in others). Try to get a few freelance jobs under your belt before you graduate as that should help put you ahead of the horde. Please note that clients WILL take advantage of you every chance they get, and you will under-budget for awhile, no matter how much padding you give yourself.

Try to come up with an attractive, recognizable style if you can. That's another way to stand out from the crowd. If people can recognize your work they'll come to you. An example of a recognizable style: http://theoatmeal.com.

Last, but not least: Pray nightly that by the time you're out of school IE6 will be dead and buried once and for all. Hopefully IE7 will be on its way out also.

(Based on my experiences working freelance software/game/web development and whatever I picked up from discussions online. I am not a web design major, though, so YMMV).

[Loki Clock]

Regardless of whether or not you use Dreamweaver for something, never let it or anything else write a single line of code/markup/styling for you. Another option that's good is the Firebug add-on in Firefox. It not only provides, if I remember correctly, a similar ability to tweak code and see updates easily, but also profiling and line error feedback. If you turn off your browser cache, you can see exactly how long each element of your webpage takes to load, and drop or optimize the bulkier aspects to get a low page time.

Set up Apache on localhost and get PHP, and probably MySQL, running. Dreamweaver might be able to emulate them, I don't remember, but it's good to know how to set up an HTTP server, for personal use or for a client. You can build whole websites with pure HTML and CSS. However, you will need a programming language if you get asked for a storefront, a Content Management System, or automated page generation or updating, so that, for example, each time they add an image it will be posted to the gallery or get its own page with a description box. In other words, if you need the website to change at all without you manually making the changes or the client knowing HTML and/or CSS. Among other things, MySQL or another database system is needed if you want the website to keep accounts, tags, statistics, etc.. Learning the syntax and basics of Javascript is good just to be able to read the code, but I personally hate it, and feel that if you even need something as powerful as a scripting language on your website, you're likely moving to expand to a website that does stuff. It's best to skip investing much time in this medium pond and get acquainted with the big pond of programming languages as soon as possible. PHP is of course not the only option, it's just popular. I know you can for sure get work with Ruby on Rails, too.

Pay attention to usability, and read Alertbox. A lot of it has to do with reducing unnecessary visual elements, but whether you want to go all the way with form evolves from function or not, you have to consider that a website is used by people, not just seen. Functional aesthetics don't have to win out over visual aesthetics all the time, but remember what art form you're practicing, and let the bells and whistles take a backseat.

My mom's a big fan of Django, a framework, and Drupal, a full CMS. So if you're a gay gayperson and you like to let women do everything for you, check them out, they'll probably save you some time and they're pretty flexible, the framework obviously more than the CMS. The non-web programming equivalents there are using a utility library like SDL and using a game engine like OGRE 3D. Letting Dreamweaver or Geocities write your code is then like making something in Game Maker and calling yourself a software developer with 7 years' experience in the field.