First and foremost let me thank all of ya for i have learn a lot from this forum...this is my first post anyway. iam very much intrested in web designs,but prob is iam not artistic...my questions are;can i still go into web designs,and if yes what are the things i need to start with...mind u i hope to do this for a living someday...
thanks

Well if you wanna know how to design.. it only your determination, that matters and if you have the determination you gonna make it.. and lay your hands on graphic tools.. Okay

thanks! i believe i have that determination,so what are the tools i need and how do i get them?,are they available online...once again thanks

First of all u have to get ur hands on a web designing software such as micrososft front page or macromedia Dreamweaver. The latter is far more superior to its microsoft version but if it is to expensive and finding it is too hard, only then should you result to using front page.

After u have the software down you should go pick up a book, like html for dummies. This is a really good book to start with because it breaks down everything to the simplest form so ur background is very strong. Once u have any HTML book though they will take u through step by step in creating basic websites. In order to be a really good webdesigner you have to have lots of experience and experiments, do not give up if its hard in the beginning, things will seem to become easier and become part of u sooner than u expect.

Back to the software, both of the softwares i recommended above both have three parts while making a webpage, you could work soley on code or on design or both at the same time. Knowing that you are just starting it i would advise you to focus more on the design part, it makes it easier for you to create what you want. it is known as WYSIWYG (Meaning What You See Is What You Get). This means that what ever you type or the pictures you put in your design would look like on the web.

well i dont want to get you bored or over saturated if u have another question dont hesitate to ask

There are two specialised areas of web design: web programming, and frontend design.

Web programming is where you write computer programs to run a website.  For example, if your website allows people to upload images, you have to write a computer program to handle that upload.

Frontend design involves what your website actually looks like.

If you want to do web design for a living, you probably want to specialise in one area first.  It's tough to get good in both areas.  But it's not impossible.

My guess is that you're interested in being a frontend designer.  For that, you need:

HTML
CSS
Photoshop
FTP
Flash (recommended, but not essential).

Note: some designers don't know HTML/CSS.  They simply use WYSIWYG programs, as the post before me suggested.  It's up to you which way you go.  Personally, I don't use wysiwyg programs.  I do everything in html.  HTML is very easy to learn.  Take a look at my tutorial: Teach yourself HTML on http://ffa.oasisoflove.com/

Once you've gotten comfortable with frontend design, you can then ask people how to learn web programming.

Yes, yes. They've said it all. You might want to check this link out anyway: http://www.w3schools.com/

i will advice that u learn html/css then go forward to learning html editor like dreamweaver. its gonna make ur work faster. But knowing html will gv u a start to learning other web programming language like asp,php, etc.

@oasis, i didn't say HTML ain't good oooo but for me before i started design or will i say before i joined the world of been Web designer i learnt HTML and CSS but to me now i guess with HTML you will be able to design a website to a stage

Infact let me say it has Limitation, cos there kinda skill you will want to archive, but with HTML alone bro far from it broder.

Leave the WYSIWYGs please (i.e. dreamweaver, frontpage). Go the cheap and better route, learn to hard code as some others have said.

Open up note pad on your PC, go on www.w3schools.com and start learning XHTML(its just a better structured HTML so to say) and CSS.
You don't need a server, download apache and use it as your server. Don't spend any money (yet). Need a graphics program? if you can't
afford photoshop or fireworks, get linux on your PC (its FREE!) and use gimp! Tutorials? Google is your friend (once again FREE)

Eventually go on to learn PHP and MySQL (all open source i.e. FREE!!!)

Where are located? I might have a quicker solution for you if you are interested, another question is, do you know any other languages?
Or have you done any programming at all?

hi.
i am a fabulous-web-developer-wannabe and most times when i google naija-related stuff i usually get some nairaland forum discussion.

have looked up a number of the discussion boards, some interesting topics. i think this is great and and the forum is one great method of assessing naija sentiments on stuff. i am really interested in that.

well, so this is me a wanna-be and please do check out my site: http://www.livingnigeria.com/
of course it is so grossly still-under-construction!

cheers

Infact let me say it has Limitation, because there kind of skill you will want to archive, but with HTML alone bro far from it broder.

What kind of limitation?

The only limitation I know is if you don't understand html/css enough.

The problem with wysiwyg is that once you start using them, you're trapped. You can't just jump on any computer and start working, unless your favorite wysiwyg program is installed on it.

In my case, I use only notepad to write my webpages, and that is available on any computer.

another great HTML tutorial can be gotten here: http://pagetutor.com/pagetutor/makapage/lesson01.html

i am based in a rural community currently and we had a few "webdesign-tutors" come by who were trying to teach web-design using the WYSIWWIG, which truly left a lot of the kids here lost. i am a firm believer in learning hard-coding, cos if you don't get the nuts and bolts down first, trying to figure out how to get other "cool effects" or customised behaviours to your page will be impossible.

over here we are also believers in FOSS

qleyo:

Leave the WYSIWYGs please (i.e. dreamweaver, frontpage). Go the cheap and better route, learn to hard code as some others have said.

Open up note pad on your PC, go on www.w3schools.com and start learning XHTML(its just a better structured HTML so to say) and CSS.
You don't need a server, download apache and use it as your server. Don't spend any money (yet). Need a graphics program? if you can't
afford photoshop or fireworks, get linux on your PC (its FREE!) and use gimp! Tutorials? Google is your friend (once again FREE)

Eventually go on to learn PHP and MySQL (all open source i.e. FREE!!!)

Where are located? I might have a quicker solution for you if you are interested, another question is, do you know any other languages?
Or have you done any programming at all?

even if linux is not as apealing as windows

i also think it (the PageTutor site) walks in line with Jacob Nielsen's "usability" rules to a great extent. Mr. Nielsen is like this hotshot web-design consultant. this maybe jumping the gun but http://www.useit.com , his site, is a site to look up when planning/organising your content-layout. oh and the OOL site works too.

HTML is fun and easy - I learnt it at www.w3schools.com. My advice - use a simple text editor like notepad if you are using Microsh*t and vi or textedit if you are using MAC, vi and emac are good editors on unix as well. When you are very comfortable hand coding HTML and you need to develop bigger sites, you can using HTML editors like dreamweaver (the best HTML editor on the market), you can download a 30 day working version for your platform and use it. Otherwise you can use free HTML editors like 1stpage and others (use the FBI tool google to give you answers).

For editing - Photoshop is the best, try and get it. if you want to dive into web programming, PHP is the way to go, it's free and fast and it's simple to learn.

Whew!! Its really good reading the oldies

hello, anyone here.

I sure say d guy wey ask this question go don turn guru by now

Adrenaline123:
Whew!! Its really good reading the oldies

the gudt ol days ..