Viewing Thread:
"web design - what do I need to know?"

I've decided that I need a hobby. I've picked web design. The problem is I know very little about it. I tought myself basic html (The stuff you can learn in a day)and I'm now trying to improve on that.

My question is, to be a good web designer what do I need to teach myself. The list of things I want to teach myself at the moment is:

xHTML
CSS
Javascript

other things I've heard about and I think I might need to know are:

Java
C (or C++, or whatever it is)
CGI

I don't really know much at all, so If you could explain what things I need to learn and why.

I want to be able to design semi-professional web pages by the end of the year, but I would also like advice on where to go after that. Which order should I teach myself in etc.

All help appreciated. I know this sounds a bit confused, but thats because I don't really know what I'm doing, which is why I'm asking for help.

Thanks

how should a total beginner go about it? any help appreciated

cjh wrote:
> Cool :)
>
> ok last question I promise :) (tonight at least)
>
> On the second line of each of the two links, you have:
>
>
> Is this required on all pages like the > "-//W3C//DTD ... etc etc is, or something that is just there to
> make you look clever???

Yeas. For xHTML and CSS to work correctly it needs to refer to the DTD and the xmlns. xHTML doesn't work properly without the xmlns declaration. So yeah, it's needed, and no, I didn't do it to look clever, i did it as it needs it to work and validate properly. xHTML carries the same coding conventions as XML, it has to be well formed, correct syntax and validated against a DTD.