[brandolin411]

I have been doing graphic design for the last 7 years or so as a hobby and have made a little money off doing freelance work. All of this has been in print and production; however, I now want to explore new vistas and move on to the web.

I'm looking for a comprehensive list of how to go about being a designer (not necessarily a programmer or webmaster - I do want to create, organize, and design the look of the sites but I don't want to have to encode everything nor be in charge of the daily monitoring after they are launched). So what software I should buy, what classes I should take, what books I should read, what kind of experience I should try to obtain?

So far this is the info I have gathered and the actions steps I've taken:

1. I need to know basic HTML -- I've taken an online course on basic HTML through New Horizons Computer Center, and I'm reading a good handbook on it as well. I'm going to start practicing on my own browser this weekend.

2. I need to know Dreamweaver. -- I am taking a non-credit course on this at a local college.

3. I need to know Flash. -- Hoping to take another non-credit course on this next semester.

4. I just bought Adobe CS4 Master Collection. I had CS2 but never upgraded to CS3 so I just skipped 3 and went for 4. I already know Illustrator, InDesign, and PhotoShop pretty well, but my only experience of working between these programs and the internet has been saving my Illustrator files in a way that I could post them on Facebook. Aside from that I have zero knowledge of how these programs would interact with web design.

Beyond that, I'm kind of stumped as to where to go from here. What else might I be missing?

[ScottGem]

Sounds like you have the bases covered pretty well. Other things you might want to get into are Java, PHP, ASP.Net and similar.

[retsoksirhc]

Along with HTML, I would get into some CSS. HTML puts things on the page, and CSS tells the browser what the things should look like (location, size, colors, and tons of other stuff).

Dreamweaver isn't really necessary, though it might help. If you learn HTML, you can basically do what dreamweaver does with text. Dreamweaver just makes the process go faster, because you can place things explicitly on the page. I'm not a big fan, because I like to tell everything exactly where to go, but some people really love it.

[crigby]

Hi,
Must agree with the previous post; CSS is pretty much a necessity and Dreamweaver is an automated tool. You might what to look at FirstPage, also. Just another automated tool.
It can possibly help with some of the other things as it has PHP options. A text editor might be Notepad++, which is open source and has spellcheckers in umpteen languages. It will automatically format for different extants when working with it. Has more options than anyone I know will ever need.
Peace,
Clarke

[retsoksirhc]

As for Notepad++, I've heard good things. I haven't tried it. I use TextPad myself for my PHP coding, it doesn't pretty well with color coding and formatting.

[crigby]

Hi,
Try iit, it wiil do CSS as separate sectiones that can be tried separatetely.
Peace,
Clarke

[Zurvan]

I'd highly recommend you do some research in to Usability. It's probably the most important thing when it comes to designing a good website, and too many designers ignore it in favour of something pretty or flashy.

Start with Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug.

[Artem]

CSS and PHP(+MySQL)