|
Web-designing : For for non IT starters like me its worth giving time.
What's web designing ?
The answer may vary from simple to complex. With increasing speed and bandwidth of internet everything possible is tried to be incorporated into the websites and hence the concept is just broadening. Few years ago when I started it was just HTML,
JavaScript and a little work around with some image editing software's that was enough to create pages. Soon knowledge of flash , animation and server side scripting added
to it. The more you get into it - the more you realize that your knowledge is so
meager and there are hundreds of more things to learn now. Don't worry about all that, its just matter of time and interest.
How to start : Get yours hands dirty with html: Using page designing softwares (WYSIWYG) like
FrontPage and DreamWeaver is not a good idea to start with. These softwares will help you create nice pages but idea of html is must for further upgradation of your
knowledge. Once you have created few pages with hand-written codes you can shift to WYSIWYG softwares (what you see is what you get).
Search the web for html tutorials and you will get hundreds of good web tutorials on HTML.
Why to learn html :
1. WYSIWYG softwares never provides full control.
2. Its required for future knowledge addition. Heard of XML ?
3. The server side scripts like ASP and PHP are created around the html pages,
i.e. The server side pages are actually html + codes.
4. Its the easiest to learn, Knowledge of English is enough as most of the tags
spells out their purpose. Only little bit of practice ! .
HTML : Practice and use the various HTML codes you see while browsing.
HTML codes are called tags. You can easily see the html of any page by
navigating to "View > source" in the browser. Theoretically the HTML tags should
generate the same kind of output everywhere, but its not the truth. Formatting
changes do occur with different kind of browsers, Operating systems and even
different screen resolutions.
The next simultaneous experiment should continue with Image manipulating
softwares like Adobe Photoshop / Image Ready and GIF animator. Simple
animated characters can be created as GIF images. Getting into flash is a
better option if time permits. A lot of free graphics and image files are
available on the web.
You might have noticed fancy colour changes, automatic pop-ups, funny cursors
and other fancy functions in some websites. These functions are made possible
by JavaScripts. JavaScript's run at client side i.e. they use certain
capabilities of your browser for their functioning. Scripts can be broadly
divided into : 1. Client side (JavaScript) 2. Server side (Almost all other
scripts - PHP, ASP, CGI's etc).
Server side scripts are programmed to do their magic at server level and
pushing it back to your browser when pages are requested. e.g. Data submitted
by you through the web browser goes to the server and as per the algorithm
performs it task , and throws back the result to your browser.
Tools you may need to check out for Web designing :
1. Microsoft FrontPage
2. Adobe Photoshop / ImageReady
3. A FTP software like Cute FTP , WS FTP etc.
4. HTML Buddy
5. CoffeeCup HTML editor
6. Macromedia Dreamweaver
Designed a page now what ? FTP : Selecting FTP Software (s)
You need some webspace (server space) somewhere to upload your creations. To
transfer the files to the server you need to use FTP sofwares. FTP is a
protocol to transfer files (FTP : File transfer protocol). Normally the
Webpages for viewing are supplied by server using the HTTP protocol ,
while the same pages have to uploaded to the server with FTP. Go to a free
software download website like
www.download.com or www.tucows.com and
download a FTP client like CuteFTP or WS FTP.
Lots of free FTP clients are available on the web, but selecting a good
software helps for the future. I tried using lots of silly free FTP clients
which lacks some or other features - forget about chmod - they fail to change
directories even. Select something like Cute FTP which is capable of
other functions like changing file permissions (chmod files) in the server or
uploading the whole hierarchy of folders without separate commands.
USING CONSOLE OR COMMAND PROMPT FOR FTP >>
| 
