B533913X

IMO, get to grips with really understanding the basics first, i.e html and css.
A sound, in-depth knowledge of these will help you massively when you start to learn scripting languages like javascript and php.
Learning piecemeal, although getting the job done as it were, will never really teach you the basic understanding of a language.
For example, you've mentioned a navigation bar/drop-down. Depending on exactly what you are trying to achieve, css should be more than capable of doing what you require (javascript dependent navigation is a big no no imo)
Have a look on cssplay for some great examples of css menus.
As I say, get right on top of html/css first then introduce behavior with javascript if required.
 
Good luck

Have a look at this:-
http://www.wickham43.com/forumposts/b5floats101012.html
It has width: 100% and three floated divs side by side that won't stack over each other when the screen resolution is reduced.
 
It has two sets of three floated divs separated by a "clear" div to clear the floats.
 
Hope that gives you some idea.

I was always told there are three was of learning. Reading/listening, watching and doing.
 
As long as the videos are good, seeing the process in action is more beneficial then reading alone. Depending on the vids you might miss important facts so i’d never replace e one with the other.
 
Doing is the most important; you cannot pass a driving test without driving a car. Get stuck in and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Uninstall Dreamweaver. I'm not joking.
 
Creating a test environment can be a great idea. For one, it gives you live experience of installing Apache, PHP and MySQL, who are about to become your best friends. It also means you can develop your pages without the pain of uploading things to a server every time you change them, and without the security risk of making unfinished code semi-public. Though you may not be producing dynamic pages yet, you'll be amazed how quickly you will be.
 
On the other hand, if you're just starting out and have access to a PHP-ready host, you may want to leave the dev server until later.
 
Oh, and if I could go back...? I'd have learned jQuery on release day, rather than last month.

here's some background reading for html and web design process
http://www.htmldog.com
http://www.opera.com/company/education/curriculum/
http://www.w3schools.com/
http://www.cssbasics.com
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/html-css-beginners-guide/
http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/html-css-techniques/design-and-code-your-first -website-in-easy-to-understand-steps/

Hi,
 
Absolute Positioned means elements such as divs that are given absolute positioning
 
Frames are a way of creating a site using a collection of html files. For example you might have a menu frame on the left vertically (menu.html) and your main page on the right (index.html) and your header up the top (header.html).
 
Personally, I'd recommend never to use frames unless you really, really had to for some reason. They are bad in so many ways.
 
If you use Dreamweaver, learn XHTML, CSS and using only 'code view' lay your site out using div tags and CSS to postion and style them.

I am still a beginner and in the learning process and honestly it may be just me but for learning I like hands-on so I find a challenge and tackle it. It may take a long time but I learn a lot of things on the way. Also try the design competitions on the forum, gets you motivated and creative. Just my .02 hope it helps you on your journey.

go with w3schools, it's a start. Ignore all the standards snobbery that you may see bantered around and work through their tutorials and examples. Then look at the source for sites, see what they are doing, see if you can relate their code to your knowledge. Start something simple for yourself as well, practice makes perfect.

I am quite new to this and I started with Dw and got quickly frustrated. I thought that coming from a print background I would just eat up a GUI based application but the inconsistencies produced by using Dw were confusion.
 
I bought a book on web design, creating visuals, wireframes and information architecture which gave me an idea of how to organise building a site. This made things far less daunting as you get to know your content and layout before delving in to code.
 
Then I played around with tutorials, controlling divs making basic layouts with no graphics to get my head around CSS and HTML using a text editor. It is quite an abstract concept at first but coding by hand really simplifies the whole HTML thing, it's really not that difficult once you get going.
 
Then I approached my first project with a different outlook, decide what your going to put in it, design it, scribble all over it (Mark up how you are going to segregate the page in to divs), then code it.
 
The learning curve is quite steep to start with but then when you come over the brow of beginner, the more intermediate stuff is 'a lot' less intimidating.
 
Buy or obtain a good text editor, there are some free ones. They will save you a lot of time and will gear you up for when you jump in to php, sql, JavaScript - or whichever flavour of framework you pick.
 
Ultimately you need to have a solid idea of what your putting in to the site.
 
Garbage in, garbage out!