Crash course web design - Cape Town.

lindsmuse · 2011-03-22T14:29:39+00:00

Anybody know where I can do a quick say 3 day crash course - web design - I understand the basics - need to get to grips with stylesheets, some other stuff a...

Crash course web design - Cape Town.

21Fretter

Since you know the basics already, maybe check out the intermediate and advanced sections of this site http://htmldog.com/ and obviously you can go at your own pace so if you grasp stuff quickly, you could go through everything in like 2 days. I've been learning from scratch for the last few days and seems solid.

lindsmuse

Thanks for that - I received quite a few pointers so I am sifting thro everything - may thanks, will look.

21Fretter

Like links and stuff? If the people who sent them to you don't mind, would appreciate if you posted them. Like i said, I just started learning so I'll take everything i can get ?

RobK

Go through http://www.sitepoint.com - plenty of info and articles with examples on pretty much everything that is web design related, including marketing your site. Some of their books are pretty good too. I got one about css when I was learning a bit about it.

lindsmuse

Thanks for that as well Rob. Here are some of the links I have received - I still have to get to them but they look pretty good as well:

Donovan pointed me to Joomla ( this is apparently a Content management System). He reckons it is nifty and needs very little CSS knowledge - he built some sites with Joomla (need to ask him if I can post) It'll be nice for you to see the end result.

http://imod.co.za/ (A Cape Town Blog by Chris M) - this I haven't had a chance to look at but a friend of mine assures me that this guy is very clued up and can be written to and asked things as you go ...

Then there's these that really look good as well:

http://www.w3schools.com/
(educate yourself for free)

http://www.webmonkey.com/
(at first sight looks a bit daunting - but the goodies are all in there)

And then there's Google Apps which Attila has helped me to get onto - I have just discovered an automated website building app in there! I actually can't believe it! But with stuff where it's all automated I worry about a situation where you need to modify something ...

There's so much stuff to absorb and I guess each person eventually finds the way they feel most comfortable with.

I think I need to ask one REALLY important question a week (like this week's question would be: 'where do I start?)
and then I like to go figure for as far as I can get, and that means really half killing myself in the process! ?

Good luck - keep me posted as well ...

DonovanB

The sites in my signature are done with Joomla.

Though only donovanbanks.co.za was put together by me.

RobK

Joomla(and other CMS systems) are quite simple to setup and get running. There are plenty of free templates to give you whatever type of site you like. However, if you want to build something really custom, using Joomla or any other system as a back end, then you'll need an understanding of how CSS works and what it does. So learning it is a good thing either way, even if it's just the basics.

lindsmuse

Just discovered a true website creator for dum-dums for if you need a quick instant website to tide you over (which is what I am doing, for my fledgling guitar school - shocking I know, but it'll have to do while I get up to speed)

Weebly website creation

You have a choice of putting in your own domain, or creating a domain with them or just having it free, like a blog - from what I can gather thusfar.

It's just that it's a bit clunky and you're not really learning anything - but it's ok for a temporary set up. I think you can actually put Youtube videos in there which I can't do on my wordpress blog - for free at any rate.

Mweb won't let me have 2 websites in one domain so this is it for now. I don't think I would use this for a customer tho ... not sure.

DonovanB

Embedding a Youtube video in a wordpress blog should be possible?

lindsmuse

Yes but then you go up a notch - they call it upgrade or update - which means you become a paying member of the Wordpress community.

AlanRatcliffe

Install Wordpress to your own site rather than using the hosted version and you can do anything you want to. If your host won't let you do this, then they are useless anyway (then contact me and I'll sort you out with a decent hosting company who include everything you might possibly need and more - including Wordpress, MySQL, FTP and no traffic limitations).

Once WP is all set up and running properly it's a doddle to update, change and add content. I find you pick up the CSS and even PHP as you need to, but at least you are up and running in the meantime. First install WP, then the Atahualpa theme (which is customisable to the nth degree. Then start looking at the plugins to add whatever functionality you need).

lindsmuse

OKey Dokey. It's time for me to do this now. what's the support like? The thing I like about Mweb is their customer service. Those people are really helpful - but what i don't like, and what I'm realising now, are the omissions in their advertising. So you as customer - who is perhaps new to ADSL or new to Web design would not be told certain things as you buy into their service - it's your problem

But having said that, because you are not forced into a 2 year contract with them - like Vodacom, you can always hop off the boat when you want to, which is another plus. The thing that's bothering me now is that I have 150 MB available to me in my domain. But my website is a puny 11 MB! So I want to use some of that space for FTP - no can do - as they don't offer support for FTP - too many variables.

And I can't have a couple of websites in there - so its a waste. However it costs me R29 pm!!!! So what now Alan - is there something better I could be doing?

AlanRatcliffe

To be honest, you can only expect so much for a R29 a month hosting solution...

PM me your contact details and I'll give you a call tomorrow about it.