Going Web Design Geek!

I just realized that I passed the 100 post mark on the blog, pretty neat to see that happen and I look forward to many more.

On another note I have decided to attempt to teach myself the art of web design through code. Although I have made my few attempts at web design through Dreamweaver using the WYSIWYG based designing I felt like I never really grasped what was going on. Since then I have moved our family site to iWeb on the Mac since it is so simple and elegant although it still has some issues such as the way it publishes if you don't have .mac.

Many know that I have designed a website for a business, I guess I should say tweaked a template to make it their own. I have tinkered around with some other websites including my own and families'. But I really never felt like I was very good at it, I really only have basic knowledge. In my recent hunts for jobs and not getting request for interviews I thought to myself that I enjoy working on website and feel like I can do them if I only had the knowledge. I know that there is possibility to make money designing websites or finding jobs involving web design, but that is not the reason I am doing it. (Although it could possibly lead to that one day.)

I really want to expand my basic knowledge of design and see how much I can learn on my own through tutorials on the web. There are a lot of free resources out there that have extensive tutorials about everything associated with web design. I found and incredible site called w3schools.com and there are tutorials with examples to follow for just about everything. I have just finished the entire section on HTML and throughly enjoyed it and learn a lot of stuff that I didn't know. I did recognize a lot of it since I have messed with code, but never fully understood it. I look forward to what I can learn over the next several weeks and months to come.

I plan on going through the XHTML tutorial next then followed by CSS along with Javascript. I want to learn all that I can about the basics first and then I am interested in learning some actual web programming languages such as ASP, PHP, Ruby, etc... I know that if I take it nice and easy and learn all the basics then I can possibly move into these programming areas, but that is on down the road. I have really enjoyed everything that I have learned so far and look forward to what else I can learn and hopefully put together a nice looking website.

I have been using the app called Coda that is mac only and a very impressive applications that requires you to use the code to build and design sites. Then I may move back to Dreamweaver, if I feel it has a lot more to offer, but if I can force myself to only work in code I know I will be better off for the future. I am excited and look forward to the adventure in coding.