Good resources for beginners?

[ChrisHunt]

I have a friend who's taking his first steps in web design - he's just become responsible for his cycling club's website. He's fairly computer literate, but a newcomer to web technologies. I'm providing some hosting and some technical support, but this is to be his project not mine.

So the question is, what resources should I be recommending to him so he can learn to do it right? Websites, books, magazines, software - I'm interested in your opinions. It might boil down into a good FAQ for this site too...

I'll get the ball rolling with

http://www.w3schools.com

, which is quite good as a reference, but less useful as a tutorial IMO. I also like the look of

http://htmldog.com

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[ca8msm]

Maybe also w3.org (although mainly used by more experienced developers they do have tutorials such as

http://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/011/firstcss

which will get the beginners off on the right foot by introducing CSS at the same time as HTML).


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[ChrisHunt]

Thanks, ca8msm.

One I forgot to mention:

http://www.yourhtmlsource.com

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[feherke]

Hi

I also think W3C is a good start. That was the first documentation I read about HTML and later about CSS. I found it very usefull.

One thing I missed that time : a helpfull browser. But now we have it. I always propose FireFox for all web designers/masters/developers, mentioning the HTML Validator, Web Developer, Web Accessibility Test, LiveHTTPHeaders, View Source Chart, Link Checker and other extensions.

Feherke.

http://rootshell.be/~feherke/

 

[Foamcow]

Standard, must read (in my opinion) books...

Theory and best practice...
Desiging with Web Standards, Jeffrey Zeldman
Web Standards Solutions, Dan Cederholm
Bullet Proof Web Design, Dan Cederholm
Search Engine Visibility, Shari Thurrow

More technical...
Webmaster in a Nutshell, O'Reilly (might be a bit out of date - my copy is quite old)
Dom Scripting, Jeremy Keith (made me rethink my stance on Javascript)
Begining PHP, Wankyu Choi (the man with the funniest name in the world, a damn fine book if you want to go Server Side)
MySQL Cookbook - O'Rielly (hefty)

Websites...
W3Schools - learn HTML here, work your way through the tutorials
A List Apart
Simplebits

argh, you know all the usual blogs etc

Personally I've never understood the interest in k10k, I think it's junk... pointless and badly designed eye candy.

CSS Zen Garden - looks good, perhaps not best practice


Browsers
As many as you can get!
Firefox (with web dev toolbar)
IE (with web dev toolbar)


Get a Mac and use Textmate for editing


<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Earl & Thompson Marketing - Marketing Agency Services in Gloucestershire

 

[Stretchwickster]

I've found books from sitepoint and Peachpit Press to be very useful.

Clive

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