Question:
Do I need to learn HTML to design websites?
Meagen D
2010-08-23 13:04:11 UTC
I've been designing logos and other publications but I want to eventually get into web design. I don't have the money for school. What's the best way to teach myself? Do I need to learn coding? What program is best to use (i.e. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, etc.)? How do you actually get the website template on let's say a Network Solutions hosted site? Thanks!!
Six answers:
Tim
2010-08-23 13:09:01 UTC
Yes.



You need to know HTML to be a web designer. HTML is easy though... it's not even technically a "language." It's more a way of organizing and displaying content.



A complete web site application contains several parts.



Parts handled by a Web Designer:

- Raster Graphics (JPG, GIF, alpha-PNG from Photoshop)

- The actual webpage (HTML code)

- Page content layout (CSS code)

- Client-side Interactivity/asynchronous content (JavaScript code)



Parts Handled by others such as Web Developer/DBA:

- Server-side dynamic creation of content (PHP, ASP, Perl, JSP, etc. programming)

- A Database to hold content (Flat text files, MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, etc.)

- Embedded multimedia (Flash, other Audio/Video content)



To Design website you will need to be able to make graphics, Photoshop being the industry standard. You will also need to create pages using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. You can use a program such as Dreamweaver to make coding easier and more visual, but you will need to understand what's going on.



Learning HTML, CSS, and Javascript is actually easy. This website is a very popular resource at all levels (I still refer to it):

http://www.w3schools.com/





Web Design is an art. To be a good Designer you will need to have a very strong visual sense of what will look good and how things should be organized, but you will also need the technical skills to make the visual idea actually happen in a web browser.
anonymous
2010-08-23 14:01:07 UTC
If you want to do professional web design, then you need to know HTML and CSS at the bare minimum. But if you want to be the best web designer you can be, you'll also want to learn some kind of scripting language. PHP is a widely used scripting language and it's free. A little bit of database knowledge would help as well.



Dreamweaver is a pretty good, but it's also overly expensive, as are all Adobe products. There are many free HTML editors out there. Most are not as good as commercial products, but you may find some good ones, especially for learning. A great and less expensive commercial alternative to Dreamweaver is Microsoft Expression Web. Expression Web is only $150 compared to Adobe's ridiculous price of $400.
Mike W
2010-08-23 13:16:16 UTC
No, but it helps to know the basics of HTML. I learned by saving web pages from the internet, and looking through the code. Even though programs like Dreamweaver will allow you to design pages without manually coding them, you may find that you have to debug the code on occasion to get it to do what you want.
Derek
2010-08-23 23:32:29 UTC
Hi Meagan D



As a print designer myself I have been in the industry for over 14 years.



Yes you would need to get several software apps to learn and HTML is part of the web industry just like Pantone colors and CMYK are part of print design.



I have also ventured out into the web industry myself rather designing my own site and learning basic HTML putting my design passion into a site for myself.



Why not look at promoting your self as a designer and something you enjoy.



This is my passion on the web below and how I did it.



It might spark up some inspiration

Enjoy

Derek
?
2010-08-23 16:19:33 UTC
Web sites are created with the codes of the HTML language. HTML is extremely easy to learn, and it's completely free to code web sites with it.
Tim. S.
2010-08-23 13:09:59 UTC
You don't really need to learn html until you want to code more complex stuff.



Use dreamweaver as it lets you design as you see it and also view the html code too so you can see what it looks like as code too.


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