I'm new to web design, and looking for advice

Hello,

I am looking to start out at some web design, I am fresh out of college and i got hired to do some web design by a company and they are going to pay me to learn it. I have no previous html experience but know C++ and C# software programming so they are confident i can learn it quickly.

as for my questions (please bear with me if i ask something thats common knowledge, really have no real knowledge of HTML yet)

whats a good book to get me started?

any recommendations on an FTP client?

where is it recommended to get server space for the website from? (my current employer pays for it outsourced and is looking to move it "in house" and believes they will remove it from their servers and i will have to get new server space somewhere for the new one when he switches from them doing it to me)

should i buy a book and learn personally or would it be recommended to find a professional class or workshop for html?

I will probably have a million questions about this over the next few months but looking to find the things i need to get started and finding a forum is my first choice, figured id see what you guys use and recommend

thanks,
Arcken

The book for you depends on your learning style, I would recommend going to a library and looking to see what they have, maybe even use theirs. Also the tools I recommend a FileZilla (FTP Client), for basic web pages for code the best is Notepad++, if you are doing PHP or JSP I would recommend Netbeans or Eclipse, for raster images I use GIMP, for vector graphics i use Inkscape, to build PDF you can use OpenOffice. If you are always on the go with the company, I would recommend portable apps to take software with you on the go. By the way the total software bill for the programs i listed above is $0.00, because these are Open Source Software Programs,

OK thanks for the suggestions, i already have GIMP and notepad++ as i used them for C++ and C# programming, i'll check out the others you suggested

thanks!

anyone else for recommendations?

Arcken

i would recommend some classes walking you into properly doing html / websites.

a quick overview / guide you can try i would recommend:
http://lifehacker.com/#!5790955/how-...complete-guide

as for a ftp client i am assuming you are on windows, would be filezilla:
http://filezilla-project.org/ if on a mac i would recommend fetch but fetch is payware.

ok thanks i'll check it out

I was in the same boat as you 5 years ago!

My two suggestions.

Everything you need to get you started is at:

http://www.w3schools.com/

Use that site to learn first HTML then CSS. You can then branch out to Javascript for client side programming and PHP for server side. Then combine the two for Ajax! lastly but not least learn mySQL.
Everything you need to program a fantastic website/webapp!

I suggest that you use Netbeans IDE to write your code in. It is a step up from notepad++ (where i started to incidentaly!)

Also have WAMP installed on your home PC. Just so easy to get running compared to manually installing apache, php, mysql and phpmyadmin

Becoming a serious webdeveloper will involve you practicing by writing plenty of projects then storing code snippets that will be used again and again.

Not sure how to do a particular function! Google it!

Keep hanging out on this forum as well. Some of the best resources are those who have gone through the same thing you are right now.

Belrick is right. the best place to learn is W3schools, their short but to the point lessons will take you from start To learn HTML http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp and to learn CSS http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp

When you get to know the basics then you need to see how others have structured the websites. there are thousands of free samples available on internet which you can download and see how they code, try these free css html templates