How can I advance in WEB design? (beyond basic HTML and static pages) What skills and what software do I need?

I have created a couple of WEB sites using Microsoft Office Publisher (!). I think it is OK for static WEB pages. But now, I want to advance. I 'd like to handle databases, to create e-commerce sites, stuff like this. I understand Front Page is no good. I know basic HTML,CSS and MySQL. So what should I do? What is the best way to go from here? I do not want to become a prof WEB developer or en expert, just I need to craft some nice looking, advanced pages. Should I learn Dreamweaver? Is PERLor PHP a must? Whata about APACHE? ASP.net covers everything? To rephrase my question: which are the best tools one needs to pass from elementary WEB design to a little more advanced WEB developing?

Public Comments

  1. get yaself linux, and set up a dummy apache server on an old pc. either that or learn ASP. dreamweaver is basically html anyway... mysql you use php anyway. books are the best source I've found, go to your local library, you can also find tutorials oneline
  2. Learn some CSS and PHP A great website: www.tiazg.com Get some examples: http://ineasysteps.com/resources/downloads/ When learning PHP you will need to host your files; PHP is a server side langauge. I suggest this free web host: www.infernohost.com I hope this helps!!
  3. html and css is client sided scripting. You should also learn server sided scripting such as asp and php. For looks, you could/should learn flash, javascript, java (there's a difference) etc. I think MS office publisher and dreamweaver is kind of like cheating because they do the work for you, and you dont really learn anything.
  4. try sitebuilder from yahoo...drag and drop...simplify your life.
  5. I would recommend that you learn CSS, some PHP and mySQL to begin with. There are lots of great books on these topics, and I would recommend starting at the library to save some money. If you don't own dreamweaver, you can get a good text editor such as Notepad++, it is free. PHP, MySQL, and CSS are all easily available to find sources that are free online to help you out. Let me know if you would like some more resources and help as this was the delima I was in a year or two ago.
  6. The question seems to me is like you want to stay in the middle for that reason i would suggest you to check all efficient deisgn software like photoshop dreamweaver etc. they all are made to tailor a website to its best.
  7. Get yourself Dreamweaver This program is great if you are a beginner and even better if you are a pro Its good for starting out as it has a library of html code and even better for pros because of this library because it expands into php, sql, javascript etc I have been using it for around 2-3 years Thoroughly Recommended
  8. www.wampserver.com install it on your computer and you can mess around with php and mysql.
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