html or dreamweaver?

karlkavo

I want to get into web design and I'm gonna do a course after xmas. I was looking into Doing a html or a dreamweaver course. Which would be the best or am I wasting my time, maybe there's something else?

Creamy Goodness

the html one would be better purely on the fact that you'll be learning html and not how to use a specific program.

post the courses you've been looking at up here, and we can critique them otherwise we - and more importantly - you won't know if they are a waste of your time.

Dave!

There aren't very many good courses out there mate, so tread carefully or you'll end up wasting your money learning out of date practices.

Google 'HTML tutorial' and 'CSS tutorial' and go through a load of them. Particularly ones written in 2010/2011. There's a wealth of good resources online for free, and most developers learn their stuff by following these and trial-and-error/building their own sites.

karlkavo

Thanks I've been looking at this one:
http://www.genesisbusinesscollege.net/index.php/introduction-to-html.html

Dave!

karlkavo wrote: »

Thanks I've been looking at this one:
http://www.genesisbusinesscollege.net/index.php/introduction-to-html.html

Nah don't bother with that one

It's splitting different tags over 5/6 lessons for some reason! You'll learn them yourself in a couple of hours.

tadcan

That course is very basic apart from the search engine www.w3schools.com will show you all that and much more. Having a lesson on tables makes me suspicious that it maybe old fashioned code practices. There is a change with HTML5 on the horizon with tags being replaced with other ones. While most sites still use HTML4 it will pay off in the long run to be aware of the changes.

Short answer, I wouldn't do it.

karlkavo

Thanks lads, I'll reconsider. I find it hard to commit any time to following courses online were as if I do it in a classroom envirnoment I can get stuck in if you know what I mean.

Creamy Goodness

tadcan wrote: »

That course is very basic apart from the search engine www.w3schools.com will show you all that and much more. Having a lesson on tables makes me suspicious that it maybe old fashioned code practices. There is a change with HTML5 on the horizon with tags being replaced with other ones. While most sites still use HTML4 it will pay off in the long run to be aware of the changes.

Short answer, I wouldn't do it.

w3schools.com isn't a great site either being honest, http://reference.sitepoint.com/html would be better.

tadcan

Thanks, I didn't know about that one. Much less handholding and indept explanation. If the OP finds it hard to work at home, the simple lessons could be easier because it just shows you each little bit at a time.

tricky D

karlkavo wrote: »

Thanks I've been looking at this one:
http://www.genesisbusinesscollege.net/index.php/introduction-to-html.html

This is what Dave! refers to: it is way out of date (by around 10 years) and as price is conspicuously not mentioned, it'll likely be bad value.

As for online versus classroom, you need to be able to use online resources to make progress in web design. If you need to rely on courses much, you'll get left in the expensive slow lane. Imo someone without good self-learning abilities is not much use. Best to get used to that early on.

http://w3schools.com, http://htmldog.com, sitepoint, http://www.tizag.com are all good and free, lynda.com video tutorials are great value.

karlkavo

Thanks lads, what about certifications? Do you need to get them for jobs?
Also the title say screensavers but it was a typo I meant dreamweaver.

Dave!

Wouldn't call that a typo, more of a brain fart

There's not really any required certification as far as HTML/CSS goes. Doubt any employers would be too impressed with one unless they happen to know nothing about web development! Certification would only really become relevant for back-end technologies.

You'd be best served at the moment by following as many tutorials and trying out as many examples as you can for XHTML, CSS and Javascript/jQuery. Get comfortable with them and then start developing a portfolio.

I'd also try to get comfortable with Adobe Photoshop if you can.

Jobs-wise, you'd be expected to be 100% comfortable with the above 3 at least for any kind of front-end development role - they're pretty fundamental.

tramoreman

doing a fetac level 5 web development at the moment 20 week course have done so far html and css very good

karlkavo

Thanks everyone for your help and saving me a few quid. If anyone has anymore suggestions or tip I would appreciate them. Thanks again!