I'm interested in learning how to build websites. I worked with HTML a little bit when I was back in college but I am, for all intents and purposes, a complete noob to this type of thing.
What are the cheapest programs that I can purchase? I know of Dreamweaver, but I'm relatively sure I don't need anything that expensive nor that extensive since I'm so new to everything.
Also, what are the best websites/books to start with that will help me learn the basics and work from the ground up? The "For Dummies" series comes to mind, but I don't know enough about such things to know anything past that.
Help me, Advice Forum. You're my only hope.
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First of all, using dreamweaver is kinda looked down upon in the web dev world. It's probably best that you use a text editor with syntax highlighting and maybe code folding. I don't really work in a windows environment, and I haven't coded HTML/CSS in it, but Notepad++ is a decent programmer's editor. I'm sure others will give you more info on editors.
For tutorials, www.w3schools.com is the standard for learning HTML/CSS. Just remember that you don't have to memorize every single attribute, or html tag.
Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of sites these days implement a CMS such as wordpress. You'll still need to know HTML/CSS to customize the look (and look at php code), but there are tons of templates to start modifying.
If you want some fancy-smancy stuff, you'll need to use javascript. Jquery makes it dead simple to use and you can download and install plugins.
And if you HAVE to use a WYSIWYG editor, Nvu is free.
Hope that helps.
Also, MySQL if you want a free, effective database.
Thanks a ton, forum bros.