Let me throw in “CODA” and TextMate as awesome editors, which built in FTP features. I like Photoshop and Illustrator, as they are industry standard. So unles syou are gonna go commando freelance, you might as well LEARN those. but I have been hearing GIMP and Inkscape as alternatives… Tho… if cost is all that mattered… why not iWork.
I tell this to all prospective developers… In the words of a dearly departed friend:
-
“The only thing you can learn from Dreamweaver is how NOT to build websites.” – This is because the WYSIWYG generates rubbish code, their templating system breaks good code, their demo templates are some of the WORST outdated code out there, and their wizards make the templates look good. As such, everything it comes with are bad examples to try and learn anything from.
-
“The only thing about Dreamweaver that can be considered professional grade tools are the people promoting it’s use.” – if your pages, regardless of the site size, are complex enough to need ‘project management’ you’re probably doing something wrong; like not leveraging a SSI properly or poorly organizing content… the only other thing is a FTP client; and that’s only useful if you’re DUMB ENOUGH to try and do live edits (instead of maintaining a local copy) or too lazy to hit alt-tab.
Fat bloated overpriced pile of rubbish that in order to even TRY to make a decent site with it, you have to ignore pretty much everything that makes it any different from a decent free text editor.
Like Flo’s Notepad2
http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html
or EditPlus
or Notepad++
http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
or if you’re on a Quackintosh, Text Wrangler:
http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/
In fact, I’ve rarely if ever seen a website produced using Dreamweaver that was worth a flying purple fish.
I like the simplicity of the google videos “HTML, CSS and Javascript from the ground up”
The Mozilla docs look good from a glance and go into more detail.
The Opera Web Standards Curriculum looks good too.
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/1-introduction-to-the-web-standards-cur/#toc
I’d suggest watching the Google videos, then just create your first page.
Ask for help in the CSS forum when you run into something you don’t know how to do.
There’s lots to learn but trial, error and asking for help will get you most of the way.
Great suggestions. I’d like to add Espresso to the mix. A solid editor for OS X. It’s by the same developers who created CSSEdit. It’s a robust application.
To get an affordable photoshop you must go to adobe’s online store.
The main difference b/w FTPs is security. i prefer Winscp .
No, you need to be a student. Outside of that, PS Elements is a nice product for the normal user.
I prefer using a PHP version of Eclipse with Komodo Edit being option 1B as my IDEs of choice.
I hate to jump in and only answer the original questions, but I think that it could be useful. I’ll just give my own preferences:
-
A Web or Text Editor
A: I use Notepad++ as my code editor. I love the features that it has (tag highlighting, auto-indent, keyboard shortcuts for firing up webpages in different browsers, read through the documentation for more) and think it’s very useful. I’m still unsure about what exactly Contribute does. All of the Adobe product descriptions are super confusing for me. I know for sure that Dreamweaver is a code editor, so I’ll assume that Contribute doesn’t have a code editor as that would be somewhat redundant. I think Contribute does back-end stuff. Anyways, Dreamweaver is a good code editor - but not a good WYIWYG (although that’s an oxymoron). It’s good, but not worth $700 (or whatever it is). I would just stick to a free code editor. -
An FTP (File Transport Protocol) is a program that uploads your files to the server that you host your website on. When you register your domain w/ places like GoDaddy.com or Hostgator.com, you’re buying space on one of their servers (a big computer that has the website files on it and sends it to people who want to visit your website so that you can see it. The FTP client (program) on your computer sends the files of the website that you’ve created to the server (GoDaddy, HostGator, etc.) so that people can see your website (b/c the visitors contact the server, not you at home). Filezilla, as mentioned, is a free, fast, and easy FTP client that should fit your needs. For me, Filezilla does what I need (upload stuff to the server), so I don’t see any need to pay for an FTP.
-
I would recommend Photoshop. I think it’s a great program (albeit expensive - but I’m a student, so
Haha, suckers!) but takes a while to learn (I’ve been tinkering for maybe 5 months and don’t know the entire thing 
). It’s a super powerful tool that’s absolutely packed with features that can help you out. GIMP, as noted, is similar to Photoshop - the main difference being that GIMP won’t burn a hole in your pocket. I would buy Photoshop from Adobe - genuine copy that will most likely have no problems. If you’re worried about cost, check out a subscription plan. Try it out for a month ($30 USD) or buy it for a year ($240), and then see if you like it. Of course, there’s always the trial, which will come out after the release. You can also try the [url=http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/photoshopcs6.html]Beta edition, which is absolutely free until the release.
Good luck!
~TehYoyo
I know Notepad++ gets repeatedly mentioned, but if you use something like PHP, it simply isn’t going to compare to other PHP based IDEs. I tried it, and it was uninstalled shortly after.
Eclips was good enough but I use it for Salesforce Programming.
Hi Newbie,
I am a bit of a newbie (6 month headstart and want to do this for a living, so motivated!) That said, I found that working with a good HTML / CSS tutorial was a good starting point, but I quickly signed up for an online learning site called lynda.com. Lynda.com is well reviewed and kind of expensive (either 25 or 37.50 per month) but they have great classes on all the things you might need to learn including HTML/CSS, PHP, and Javascript (if you need to go beyond HTML / CSS)
I also really like some of the suggestions about Wordpress. Wordpress is a great way to create an easy to edit website or blog. Wordpress has many “themes” available both for free and purchase that you can use to create a nice looking site fairly easily. Think of them as templates. Note though that if you need to modify a theme yourself you will not only need to know HTML and CSS, but some small amount of PHP as well.
Books are really helpful after you get going. I am a book fiend and because I am trying to learn PHP to a high level, having 2-3 good books in addition to taking an online class / tutorial is a big help. Each author provides a different perspective and after awhile you get a really great idea of how to go about things efficiently (assuming the books are good).
Don’t waste time and just jump in. It’s the best way (no fear!)
Best of luck
Jim
Espresso is a nice product. I didn’t end up using it, but it was one of my favorites. CSSEdit is awesome. I have both Mac and PC so I like my tools crossplatform. 